Tag: guitar repairs

Co-Worker

I have a co-worker with me at my desk right now.

In other news, my stomach is in revolt at the moment. Fun. It’s a gastric bypass side effect kind of thing and it will pass, but I just gagged up some icky stuff and had a full blown case of “the foamies” (look it up). Having said that, there is no complaint here. I ate my lunch too fast and my new redesigned digestive system slapped me on the wrist for it. Post operation side effects like this are 100% worth it, I promise you. Trust me, it’s not an issue at all.

In other other news, I checked the bookfayce page of the Luthier I brought my guitar to last Saturday and earlier today he posted a bunch of pictures showing the progress he’s made. There are pictures of my beloved Gibson ES-335 Pro without any frets, pictures of it with some new frets, and a picture of the neck with a full boat’s worth of lovely, shiny new frets. It still needs a new nut and a new bridge, and he didn’t mention anything about cleaning out the electronics (which is a major bitch of a job to do on an ES-335 as you have to squeeze everything in and out through the F-hole), but the new frets are in! I don’t know if I will share any of the photos he posted. I think I did when he worked on my Les Paul Custom, but not until a few days had past. We’ll see.

Try to picture this guitar with shiny new frets:

In other other other news, I am listening to Steve Hackett’s new album, which was released today. It is called The Circus and the Nightwhale. I am listening while I work and therefore not able to give it my full attention. My initial gut reaction though is this: Steve Hackett’s guitar playing gets exponentially better with each passing day. His songwriting improves in a similar manner. His singing… yeah, he’s better than he used to be but sometimes I still wish he’d hire a full time singer for his recording line up. I’m enjoying the new album. Check it out.

Okay, that’s it for this post. Lunch break is over. My stomach is settling down. Get back to work, Red Head!

It Begins…

Well… I sent a message to the guitar shop that put new frets on my 1978 Les Paul. I said I have a 1979 ES-335 that probably needs new frets as well but also might need new wiring and maybe kinda might need to have the neck joint re-glued.

Yesterday I was excited about this. Now I’m terrified again. Uh oh.

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Note on the photo, I already replaced the missing knob. In fact, I replaced all four knobs. That’s about the extent of what I am willing to do myself as far as mods or repairs to any of my guitars.

Unrelated musical note… The RPM Challenge starts in eight hours and 14 minutes. My goal is to write and record either 10 new songs or 35 minutes of music entirely during the month of February. Actually, I am going to shoot for 20 songs or 70 minutes because double albums are fun (looking at you, The White Album and you, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway) so why not go for it?

It’s almost time to start. Will I start at midnight tonight? Don’t be silly, I will start tomorrow morning. I am way too old and feeble to stay up until after midnight on a school night. What do you think I am, young?

335

I think this week the time will arrive. My second 1970’s guitar, my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro, may be ready for it’s trip to the shop. I am going to give them a call and see if they can help me bring this baby back to life. 

I put my ’78 Les Paul Custom into the shop a few months ago to get the frets replaced. I was scared to have the work done, but I should not have been. The results were fantastic. I am so pleased. Now I need to have the 335 looked at. The frets are in better shape than they were on the Les Paul, but they are still pretty bad. I expect it’s time to have them replaced. 

This time there is a second issue at play though. The electronics are in rough shape. The last time I used this guitar at a Lizardfish show the signal cut out and wouldn’t come back. That had happened off stage a few times in the past but once it happened in front of people? Yeah, that’s bad. If you can’t rely on the electronics, what good is the instrument? It may be time to replace the wiring harness. If they can salvage what’s there, meaning clean it up and maybe re-solder some of it, then that is fine. If they can’t save it, then I’ll need it replaced, and hopefully I can get a good 50’s style wiring schematic installed. I don’t want to change the pickups on this guitar. 335 Pros come stock with Gibson Dirty Fingers pickups which are the meanest, nastiest, dirtiest Gibson pickups ever. They are punk rock machines. The wiring and the pots though… we’ll see.

I am planning on calling the shop either tomorrow or Tuesday to see if we can schedule a slot for me to bring it in and see what they can do for me. I am still nervous about this, but given my last experience I am more excited than scared.

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Me playing with Break Even back in 2003 or 2004 or so
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My Guitar is Home!

I went to the guitar shop at lunch. I made excellent time despite a road closure somewhere in Andover, MA.

I played my newly refretted guitar with its new bridge and its new nut and my first impression is that it still feels pretty good. The frets are a lot higher than I’m used to on this guitar, but not too different than a couple of other guitars. The action is a little higher than it used to be, I think, but it’s still super low the way I like it. It felt good. First impression, again, is that I am really happy.

I took my guitar home!

What do you think, beautiful, eh?

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Dig that new bridge!
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Dig that new nut!
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Dig those new frets!
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Dig those new frets again!

He did mention that a couple of the inlays on the neck popped out while he was removing the old frets. That happens. He fixed them. That’s good. I didn’t see anything and I couldn’t feel any difference during my quick inspection. All in all… happy. Can’t wait to get the band back together so I can play this babie at practice and wind up the volume and let it loose. Anyone know anyone who lives near Haverhill, MA who can sing and wants to join a dad-rock cover band?

It is Quiet… a Little Too Quiet

No news on the Les Paul repairs front today. I’ve checked on the shop’s Facebook but the only posts are him working on a sweet Martin acoustic guitar. Based on the photos he posted yesterday, the new frets are in. I didn’t see a new nut yet, and he told me he had to order a new bridge as he didn’t have any gold ones in stock. Hardware on Les Paul Customs should be gold.

I was told I should expect to get it back next week. You know what I should do before then? Practice. I want to be able to play decently well when I pick it up on the off chance he’ll let me plug in and see how it feels before I leave. I don’t want to sound like a rusted over hack if that’s how it plays out. I want to sound like my usual normal hack.

What should be the first thing I play on my newly refretted guitar? “Smoke on the Water”? No… Some Jeff Beck maybe? I think I used to know how to play parts of “Freeway Jam”, that could be fun. No… I’ll probably just noodle over the minor blues scale in E like a typical wannabe. That suits me.

Not much else going on today so far. I’m working in the office. My group is in a big conference room. We’re going to have a group meeting shortly. It’s freakin’ freezing in here. I wore a fall jacket and a fleece when I left the house this morning. I put the fleece back on around the start of lunch and I am currently gazing longingly at the fall jacket wondering if it’s time to put that back on as well. Brrr, babie. Brrr.

Okay, back to work, Robert. Get yourself all prepped for the group meeting.

Just Heard from the Shop

I just had a chat with the guitar shop. My Les Paul Custom is getting new frets. It’s getting a new bridge too. It’s also getting a new nut, but I guess that is a given when you get new frets.

It will probably be done some time next week and then we can start asking the real questions. That being, how does it feel and how does it sound? Does it feel like an entirely new guitar? Does it sound like an entirely new guitar? The most important question will be this one… do I still love it?

I have been afraid of this for years, and downright terrified ever since I finally pulled the trigger and started the process. Right now? Now I am still terrified, but I also have a new feeling… an unexpected feeling… excitement. I kinda can’t wait to play this guitar with new, clean frets. Oh boy, I am excited. Excellent!

Sleepy

Despite the possible influence of a mild migraine headache overnight last night, I thought I got a decent night’s sleep. Apparently I was wrong. I have felt seriously exhausted all day today, and it’s especially bad (as it often is) after I finished lunch. I just feel really tired and I wish I didn’t.

I didn’t use my CPAP machine last night. For some reason I thought it would be a mistake to wire myself up while dealing with a migraine. I didn’t want any extra noise or distractions. I just wanted to pass out and stay that way until the alarm went off. I think it worked, but now I expect if I had put the machine on I would feel better tonight. Hindsight, and all that crap.

Change of subject, all of the guitar playing I’ve done over the last few days is really making me want to get the work I need done to my two 1970’s Gibsons. I have two shops I want to bring them to and get an estimate from. One is in Rockport, MA, which is an hour away from here. The upside of that shop is that it’s open on Saturdays. The other shop is in Malden… or Medford… same difference. They are not open on weekends though, but they are open until 7:00pm on weekdays. I should be able to get there before they close. I am thinking of making an appointment for 6:30 or so next Monday. I have no clue how much they will charge for frets and wiring. I just hope it’s low enough that I can pay for work on both guitars without needing to sell anything else. If I do need to raise a little more money I will probably sell my Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 amp, but I don’t think I will be able to get very much for it.

I might sell the 18/30 anyway, even if the money I raised is enough to pay for the three things I need. Maybe I could raise a little more fundage and pay for new pickups for the Les Paul Custom. I don’t know. That’s a pie in the sky kinda thing.

I am really tired and I still have 2.5 hours to go in my work day. Blah. I hope to get some better sleep tomorrow. I might mix a song before bed though. I have three songs ready to go. Huzzah, right? Rock and Roll.

Frets

Last night I started googling “luthiers near me” to see if I could find a shop that will replace the frets on two of my guitars. I’ve been sending out emails asking for info on whether or not the shops handle jobs like that, and if so about how much can I expect to spend.

Most have not responded. The few that have said that they don’t do fret replacements. You know, I really do not want to ship these guitars back to Gibson, but I will if I have to. Jen used to work for a company that had an office in Tennessee. If she still did I could maybe weasel a trip down there somehow. That would be preferable to shipping, right?

I expected the most difficult part of this process would be coming up with the money. I believe I did that yesterday. Now I find that finding someplace to do it is the hard part? I really don’t want to go to Guitar Center again.

Ugh, stress.

Happy St Patrick’s Day

Happy everyone in and around Boston, Massachusetts pretends they are Irish day! Even those of us who actually are of Irish descent. It dawned on me yesterday that with all the weight loss over the last year, and all of the needing to buy new clothes, I don’t actually own any green clothing. After I had that realization it also occurred to me that I didn’t own any green clothing last year either.

We are not doing anything special to celebrate my national heritage this year. I floated the idea last week, but after having Harry home for spring break it seemed underwhelming and I didn’t pursue it. I’d like to drive to New York instead, but I haven’t floated that idea at all so it ain’t happening. Unless Jen reads this and jumps at the idea. Heh heh heh.

No stomach issues today. Yesterday I was dealing with stomach aches off and on all day. The day before I had a minor stomach issue at lunch and then a huge issue at dinner. Today, nothing yet. I had a protein bar and a little bit of chicken for breakfast. No problems. I am hopeful that I can keep this trend running for the day.

I’ve been trying to get into Mastodon (@RobJ_1971). I wrote there this morning that if I had my way my agenda for today would include playing guitar and watching The X-Files and nothing else. Obviously that ain’t happening either (thanks, adulthood). Tomorrow though… Sunday though… who knows. I might finally stop thinking about it and start trying to sell my Stratocaster and using the proceeds to make repairs on my ES-335 (frets and wiring harness) and Les Paul Custom (frets, wiring harness, and pickups). Maybe. Frankly, the idea terrifies me. Mostly because I don’t know what a 2000 American Series Stratocaster’s fair price should be. The used guitar market is constantly in flux and I don’t want to let it go too cheap. I also don’t want to try to gouge people either. I’m thinking $1,200, but is that fair? I don’t really know.

Okay. Get to work, Robert. Happy St Patrick’s Day, everyone. Happy Friday. Don’t drink and drive tonight. Be careful out there. Wash your hands and be safe.