"Mirage" Korean built copy of a Gibson 335.

The owner of this Mirage Gibson 335 copy asked me to address multiple issues on this

rather badly treated but otherwise good quality semi hollow body guitar.

This is abetter than average Gibson copy. The materials and build quality are exceptional.

The truss rod cover was missing.

The entire guitar had not had a clean for years, it was covered in a thick layer of dust
and DNA.

Though it is not clear in this image the guitar had fallen off its strap and fallen squarely on its
tuneomatic saddle pushing the curvature inwards ruining the string height on the fret board.
I was able to press the saddle back into its original arc of curvature to match that of the finger board.

All the frets were worn unevenly so I gave them a level, crown and polish.
The truss rod still worked so I re set the neck relief. I scraped, cleaned and oiled the finger board
revealing the beauty of the abalone and ivoroid dragon inlay.

I removed all the Bigsby hardware and all the electronics. There was no signal
from the Bridge pick up and the two tone pots were freely rotating with their
respective wiring disconnected. The selector switch was dodgy as well.

I found a suitable wiring diagram on the net and set about retiring this guitar.
Someone had been inside this guitar and had incorrectly wired it to the extent
that only the font pick up actually worked.

This image shows a corner ding with binding and surface delamitation.
It also reveals a crack from the point of impact to the bottom of the F hole
through the surface of the sound board.

I made a template out of cardboard and fitted the switch, pots and output jack
in their relative locations. The wiring was completely desoldered and resoldered
according to the wiring diagram.

All re assembled with a signal from both pick ups. Volume and tone are working perfectly.
The three way selector switch came apart easily, adjusted, lubed and reassembled.
I repaired the damage to the lower bout using super glue to repair the delaminatation and
glued the crack in the sound board. I touched up the damage with black lacquer

I fabricated a new truss rod cover from a piece of black plastic.
I relocated the forward strap button from its original position on the
neck heel  to a point around the lower side of the neck heel.
The guitar will never again fall from its strap and onto the floor.

The finished guitar awaiting new strings.

The owner is extremely pleased with this guitar now

that is back in playable condition.

Hofner Archtop F-hole Acoustic 1961 repair.

I've gone some way toward repairing a 1961 Hofner Archtop F-hole acoustic guitar.

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This guitar belongs to a friend who's brother owned it from new in the early 1960s.

He died prematurely of leukaemia in 1962.

The guitar remains original and largely unplayed. As expected the neck was bowed forward and the heel of the neck joint had separated.

I released the truss rod nut which was seized. Once lubricated I refitted the nut and attempted to adjust the curve out of the neck. Adjusting to he truss rod does not have an effect on the neck curvature which leads me to believe that this was never intended by the manufacturer.

I have glued the neck heel joint and repaired this major fault which has improved the string hight issue.

Generall the guitar is in surprisingly good condition in every other respect. Saddle height adjustment has been corrected, a new set of strings fitted, intonation set up and the old Hofner is OK to play.