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Post by earleg on Sept 28, 2019 16:03:09 GMT -5
Good review of this especially since this isn't done very often for most folks so they tend to be unsure of which direction to adjust and how far to turn the adjuster.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2019 17:15:35 GMT -5
Cool heads up earleg, Of course I have been working on my own guitars for forty years, and I always do my own set ups and neck work up to (but not including fret replacement). I am not afraid to do fret filing I have the fret files, nut saws, fret plane, and a Stewart MacDonald straight edge for checking the fret heights. The last time I took one of my guitars to a luthier was back in the mid 1980's. I bought an Ibanez RG321 for just under $300 online with hard shell case and when I received it, it was unplayable, so I took out my fret plane, and started filing the tops of the frets level. I did that lightly three of four times before I was satisfied with the work I did. I have been playing that guitar every few days for over 10 years or more. The reason I tried to do the work myself was because you can always send the instrument back within a few days because if it is faulty. So if I couldn't fix it, back it would have gone. But my little bit of craftsmanship skill worked out for me in that instance.
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Post by earleg on Sept 29, 2019 15:26:09 GMT -5
I do my own setups and so on also but don't mess with the frets.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2019 16:21:44 GMT -5
I do my own setups and so on also but don't mess with the frets. I used to go to this luthier Philip Petillo en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Petillo at several of his different locations in middle New Jersey. I got to be real friendly with him over time (Probably did biz with him for 20 years on 10 to 15 guitars or so), and I lived several hours south of his shop. So sometimes he would do the work while I waited. So I watched him very closely and saw how he did the fret leveling and peaking etc.
One day I heard about Stewart MacDonalds Guitar Shop Supply www.stewmac.com/ so I bought some supplies like a fret plane, fret files, nut files, and a StewMac straight edge, & bodies and necks, and all the parts needed to build my own, and started fooling with building the guitars myself, starting out on cheapo instruments until I got my confidence up. I also bought a book by Dan Erlewine www.danerlewine.com/ on how to build your own guitars. Been doing my own guitars ever since the mid 80's, including building a half dozen or so parts-casters from parts from Stew Mac, and also WD Music www.wdmusic.com/. I also bought several truck loads of woods from Martin Guitars in Nazareth Pa., so I could start making my own parts for my parts-casters. At that time I moved out west and sold all those woods to a luthier in the north bay area of California near Novato or San Rafael ( or somewhere up that-away anyways).
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Post by whitefang on Sept 30, 2019 10:17:23 GMT -5
Well, never owning a herd of axes with which to worry about, and as one whose home repair projects leave the place looking not quite as good as Pee wee's playhouse, I prefer to leave all the touchy guitar repair/adjustment proceedings to a pro tech. THAT way, if something gets "fudged" up, it's outa HIS pocket! I know my limitations and respect them. I've no need to assuage any ego. Not at THOSE prices anyway. My hat's off to those who DO manage though. Whitefang
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2019 15:51:30 GMT -5
Well, never owning a herd of axes with which to worry about, and as one whose home repair projects leave the place looking not quite as good as Pee wee's playhouse, I prefer to leave all the touchy guitar repair/adjustment proceedings to a pro tech. THAT way, if something gets "fudged" up, it's outa HIS pocket! I know my limitations and respect them. I've no need to assuage any ego. Not at THOSE prices anyway. My hat's off to those who DO manage though. Whitefang Once I learned my masonry craftsmanship, I knew from that experience how to apply craftsmanship to any pursuit that I thought I could tackle, (after learning the basics of that particular task I should add). I watched some videos, I studied Petillo's technique when I went to him for my guitar setups, I asked questions, & once I was sure I could attempt it, I went ahead and made some parts-casters from guitar shop supply store bought parts. It is all pretty simple, if you have the balls to try it. I will say this; I never messed with an expensive instrument since the Petillo days, I always bought cheapo guitars after those days and fooled with them for fret filing, electronic repairs, neck adjustments, string changes etc.
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