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Originally Posted by 1981 LPC
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01-23-2022 05:31 AM
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You almost make me regret I took my mom's old Troubadour archtop to France instead of leaving it in the Netherlands and getting it to you somehow. It's got a single transverse brace under the bridge that's come 1/3 loose so it'd make a nice follow-up project
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Thanks for the complement but I couldn't justify the amount of billable hours.
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Oh, it wouldn't have been for me, I'd have given you the guitar!
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Oh I see. That's a nice thought!
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Hi, I gotta say that your restoration is very inspiring to me. I like the minimal tool approach, and it shows that one doesn't need to buy expensive StewMac gadgets to do good work on a guitar.
I say this having just done a similar thing with an old German archtop. I removed the back to fix where the sides had bulged and separated, reradiused the neck, put in new frets, dressed them, and I also did it with just hand tools. Used hide glue for everything, too! I did buy some special tools (cheap on Amazon) for the frets: fret puller, fret crowning file, radiused sanding block. But other than that it was all done with standard hand tools. It now plays and sounds good.
But I don't think I'd have the cojones to do what you did with the neck and replacing the fretboard. And your work looks so much cleaner than mine. So you have my admiration, sir!
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Originally Posted by supersoul
You can do a lot with simple tools. At the same time I do think that using specialty tools will get you the same (or better) result more quickly, and with less chance of doing damage. I used a hand file with the handle cut off to bevel the frets, free hand. I must've taken 4 times as long as using a fret beveling tool (block of wood with the same file set into a 35 degree slot). So if I get bitten by the bug I think I'll buy more specialty tools.
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Originally Posted by Hammertone
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The fretwork, bridge and nut are finished. It plays very nice. The neck is almost dead flat and the action is low. Intonation is really good. It sounds pretty good, it has a fuller sound than it did before. Perhaps I'm not used to the sound of comping chords on an archtop - it's FAR too loud for the living room. What sort of picks do jazzers generally use for this?
As things stand I like it better for finger picking. Surprisingly the old tuners work just fine, as evidenced by its tuning stability. I strung it up with a set of Thomastik flat wound 11's. Never tried flat wounds before. The feel is great, the mellower tone is nice. I think I'll try 12's for the next set of strings.
I fitted the ebony bridge by using 120 grit sandpaper stuck to low-tack tape to shape the feet of the bridge base. It came with radiused feet that were 80% correct so that was not much work. I also took 3mm of the bottom of the bridge and 'sunk' the thumbwheels into to corners because the bridge and base were 6mm too high in total. Not too sure about those white plastic saddles though.... they function but I'd rather have brass of bone saddles.
The neck was huge and had a U-profile my thumb could not deal with. I sanded a few mm off the shoulders. It now has a C-profile and is comfortable but still chunky. It's a shame to have lost the old checkered nitro but I will choose playability over originality any day. Well, to a degree of course. I will respray the neck in the summer with a nitro rattle can.
Last edited by 1981 LPC; 01-30-2022 at 01:12 PM.
How many guitars and amps have you owned?
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