Cole Clark "Jack Tenor" Ukulele Modification.

This little Jack Tenor Ukulele came in to me for modification.

This is quite a masculine instrument with a clumsy neck. The owner, a young woman, was used to a tenor with a much more slender neck profile. She asked me to make a modification to the neck of her new Jack Tenor to bring it closer to what she was used to.

First step? Take to it with a wood rasp!

Roughed into shape. I took measurements up and down the neck of her older Tenor Uke to get
an idea of how much timber to remove.

Sanded and prepped, ready for finishing. The timber is an Australian plantation wood, probably
Paulonia. It is very stiff and rigid but also very opened grained. I used Titebond glue as a
grain filler which worked very well.

Titebond grain fill fine sanded and ready for clear coat.

Clearcoat applied. I used Dulux Acrylic lacquer from a spray can for this tiny application.
3 coats of semi gloss to match the original finish.

A great result when it's impossible to see that anything has been done at all.

Another happy customer!

Fender F 48, Steel Resonator Guitar Repair

"A dog knocked the guitar over and this happened"

A short grain break, previously repaired with hide glue by a well known Luthier,
the problem here is that the hide glue had filled the grain making reassembly a nightmare.
The repair failed due to the guitar being hung by its peg head in a hot tin shed over summer.
The glue became soft and the heavy guitar was found hanging by its strings!

I was forced to pick out as much of the hide glue as I could from the fractured grain and then
refit the the broken components. I used my fret caul clamp and two wood screws to hold the
repair whilst it was curing. I use marine epoxy for this kind of repair.
Who wants it to fall apart again?

Another view of the fret caul clamp in action.

Once cured I removed the clamp and wood screws and sanded the repaired area smooth.

Here you can see that the screw holes have been counter bored with 5 mm holes. I have inserted
two 5 mm carbon fibre rods glued into place. These rods splint the short grain break to ensure
that it is adequately reinforced.

I had already planned to conceal the reinforcing rods with a mahogany veneer patch.
There is a line on this guitar where the neck stock is scarf jointed to the peg head just visible
below the lowest tuning machine holes on the margin of the sanding line.
My plan was to use this line as the margin of my additional veneer patch.

I fitted a 320 grit sand paper sheet around the outside of this stainless steel container
which was the ideal radius of the curved neck/peg-head junction.
It also served as the clamping caul for the glueing of the mahogany veneer patch.

This is the veneer patch trimmed and sanded ready for stain.

Stained and one coat of gloss lacquer.

After multiple coats of gloss lacquer the hardware is ready to fit.

Some minor cosmetics to address on the front face of the peg head around the nut slot.

I removed the resonator which looked like the inside of a poorly maintained vacuum cleaner!

I put some time and energy into cleaning and polishing the metal body which was covered in DNA
and corrosion spots.

It cleaned up pretty well!

The string spacing is way too close for my taste. The confinement is created by the
narrow wooden saddle on the resonator cone. It plays really loudly. I'm so accustomed to
The beautiful tone of wooden instruments that this was a bit of a shock!

I levelled, crowned and polished the frets as well as setting action and intonation.
The customer was amazed at the result, it looks as good as new and the repair cannot be seen.

Fishman Loud Box Mini. Vinyl covering problems and restoration.

Here we see my wife Julie"s Fishman Loudbox Mini.

We love the amp but the cosmetics let this great product down BIG TIME!

Where did Fishman source their vinyl? It is easily the worst quality covering I have ever encountered.

The slightest abrasion causes the vinyl surface to come away like sunburnt skin.

It was time to address this problem as it was getting more and more unsightly.

We sourced some great covering material at a local fabric outlet store. It is an animal print which my wife favours. I have to agree with her that the result is far better visually and a great improvement on quality and durability over the original finish. It took me half a day and one can of spray adhesive.

Peeling off the already badly peeling vinyl.

This is the panel under the handle.

Peeling in progress. About and hour's work all up.

Freshly peeled. I chose to leave the thin, grey, neoprene foam under layer in place.

All the vinyl removed.

Component parts.

The amp.

Handle panel was the first and easiest component to cover.
It gave me a feel for the balance of the project.

Straight out of the workshop. New covering in place and ready for re assembly.

Newly assembled.

We love the new look Fishman Loudbox Mini.

Taylor 214 CE Grand Auditorium neck rebuild.

The owner of this badly damaged guitar sought to replace the neck with a new one. The cost was prohibitive. I offered to repair it for him but in the end he chose to sell me the wreck.

The guitar was in its padded gig bag when someone stood on it by mistake.

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The neck just after glueing and clamping.

The neck after sanding. Already the repair is hard to see.I fabricated a new tube nut as the
original one had been misplaced along with the missing section of neck heel after the accident.

My newly fabricated steel tube nut.

I made a new heel from a scrap of sapele mahogany.

Another view of the neck heel concealed within is the tube nut

The ebony finger board with all the chips and divits filled with ebony dust and superglue.

Test fitting of the neck before finishing.

Another view of the neck repair.

Close up of neck repair. I was fortunate to get the neck angle the same as original as I had no
need to change the original shims for exact neck adjustment.

Here I am glueing and end cap on to the heel of the neck

A light sunburst stain to blend the two different tones of mahogany, then 2 coats of Satin Lacquer.

Final bolt on prior to the fitting of hardware.

Hardware fitted.

Another view of the finished neck repair

The completed guitar with new strings and saddle. Ideal neck relief, string height and intonation.
It looks like new again.