Restoring Millring's H1260, Part 15, It is done. Marty

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The guitar as I got it from Millring.


Dis-assembly

After removing the strings I gave the guitar a light cleaning, just to remove dust and debris.
  The end pin needs to come out so the body will sit upright while refitting the neck. I have a tool designed to pull old stubborn end pins. It is made of brass and screws down tight on the pin.


Give it a good twist and the pin comes loose.




Next I remove the tuners. The tuner shafts have bushings that are easy to remove with the tuners off but sometimes difficult with them on. The rubber band keeps the loose bushings in place while I remove the tuner mounting screws.


These are Kluson Deluxe tuners, the originals were old Waverly. The Kluson's were not installed properly so the headstock cracked.
I can remove the mounting screws and the rubber band will hold the tuners in place.


With the screws out I put the headstock over the bench and remove the rubber band. The tuners drop off and leave the bushings intact. Now I can remove the bushing with less trouble, and less chance of dropping a bushing, which I have done a few times. They are a PITA to find once they hit the floor. I won't need the bushings any more but I do like to save them for future replacement of lost ones.


While the neck is still on I want to do something about the pickguard area. Doing this now allows me to hold the guitar in my neck vise while I clean up all that left over glue.
Using a long chisel to get under the glue I work either with the grain or at a 45% angle to the grain but never against the grain.


Once I have the majority of glue removed I change my grip and use the chisel like a scraper blade to get the last bit of glue. As long as I don't get outside of the pickguard area I may even remove a little finish.


The bottom edge of the sound hole has quite a bit of wear. I cleaned this area with a pencil eraser and then sealed it with a coat of lacquer retarder. This has a hint of lacquer in it and will protect the bare wood until I get around to fixing the problem. Once dry it will be clear.

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The next job is also easier done with the neck held in the vise so I'll take care of it before removing the neck.

I don't have a original pickguard to copy so I'll have to make a template from the shadow left by the old pickguard. Using some tracing paper taped in place I will pencil in the shape as close as possible.


Sometimes doing more of a rubbing than a tracing is what works best, but between the two techniques I will get a good rough outline.


Later I will take a French Curve and clean up all the lines.



Before I go into removing the neck I want to show a tool that gets used daily in my shop, the inspection light. I made this many years ago when I got tired of using incandescent lights that get too hot and burn out easily. The 7 watt florescent light runs much cooler and lights the inside of a guitar much better. The cable between the ballast and bulb is made from a old extension cord, some brass tubing and rod and a few pieces of scrap wenge wood.


The business end of my inspection light.



Before I can remove the neck I need to get the end of the fingerboard loose.


I still have my heat lamp for doing this job but I now have a much better way. A heating blanket shaped to fit the end of the board. The foil cover keeps the blanket from getting scorch marks that would cause hot spots and burn it out.


I cover it with a sand filled Kevlar bag. This concentrates the heat to the board and also helps keep the blanket from burning out.


Set the timer and find something else to do for 8 minutes.


Once the end of the board is hot I need a way to break the glue joint between it and the top. I have lots of palette knives for this kind of work.


Using a small knife I will get the corners loose and then work it across the very end of the board.


Once I have a gap I insert a spatula to add a little upwards pressure and work the long thin palette knife up the board until the whole thing is loose.

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Finally, time to remove the neck.

A electric screwdriver with a 3/32 drill bit.


With a light inside so I can somewhat see what I'm doing I drill through the neck block. Many Luthiers pull the 15th fret and drill through the fret slot in hopes of hitting the gap at the back of the dovetail, kinda hit and miss, my way I hit it dead center every time.


When the drill bit hits that gap at the back of the dovetail it will jump forward slightly. At that point I reverse the driver and pull back slowly. Normally my hand is on the driver but that would block the view so these photos had to be without my hand in the way.


Now the only thing holding the neck in is the dovetail. The small hole in the neck block will allow me to shoot steam right into that small gap at the back of the joint. Here's the tool for doing that job, a Mr Coffee Cappuccino maker. Bought this new and I have never made any coffee with it. After a bit of rewiring to make it work the way I want it to, and the addition of a hose and needle to the steam nozzle, it's the perfect neck removal machine.


Here we go. Steam needle in place.


Fan fixed to blow air on the end of the fingerboard to keep the steam from blushing the finish.


Here's the whole set up.


At this point I don't really have the steam needle in the guitar because I need to warm the hose before injecting steam in the joint. If the hose is too cool the steam will condensate before it gets into the joint so I shoot a few bursts into the air to warm the hose. I want dry steam in there not hot water, which will run out and harm the finish. Now I'll insert the needle, give the steamer a moment to build pressure again, and give it a few good bursts of hot dry steam.


After a few bursts I'll wait just a minute and then give another good shot while gently rocking the body from side to side. This will get the steam in the whole joint and then the neck just slips out.


I shut everything down and quickly get about cleaning the glue off both halves of the dovetail while it is still soft. The tendon all cleaned up.


The mortise.

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Cleaning and inspecting the inside of the guitar for loose braces or linings is easier with the neck off. I did inspect inside the guitar before removing the neck but most of that was centered on the upper bout and the neck block area.

Dirt and dust will gather along the braces and linings, anywhere there is a inside right angle. To clean these areas I use a small handful of plain old dry rice.


Then I cover the soundhole with a empty string envelope taped in place.


With the neck off it is easier to give the body a good shaking at different angles and directions. The rice does a nice job of getting the dirt and dust bunnies out of those corners. When done, remove the cover and vacuum out the rice.


Some of the next series of photos will be of the inside of the guitar. Here is the set up I used to take those photos. With the inspection light inside I use a mirror in the soundhole. The angle needed to get these shots is too low to use the camera on the tripod so it has to be hand held, I rest it on the padded block.


The braces are fine, but the guitar has a more serious problem, a cracked tailblock.


My first concern is whether the crack will aline properly when clamped. I clamped it dry, no glue.


Looks good, crack closed nicely.


Here's the clamps and pads that will be used for this procedure.


Even though the crack closed nicely I'm going to use a alinement clamp just in case things want to slip once the glue comes into play. This clamp is two pieces of thick poly, a bolt, washer and wing nut. One part goes inside with the bolt through the endpin hole.


The other half goes outside with the washer and wing nut.


Now that I know how I'll clamp it I have to get glue in the crack. I can't really get to the crack from the outside so I will just have to inject glue from the inside. I won't be able to see what I'm doing so having the crack as wide as possible will help a lot. To hold the crack open while I inject glue I drive a reamer into the endpin hole, lightly, don't want to make the crack longer.


Now for getting glue in that crack. I'll use hot hide glue because when hot it's quite thin and will work through a small needle better than wood glue. I put some heat shrink tubing on the needle as a depth stop since I won't be able to see what I'm doing.


Now the tricky part. With hot hide glue I need to work fast before it starts to cool and gel. When I put the glue filled syringe inside I can't see what I'm doing but with the crack widened I can feel with the tip of the needle where it is. The depth stop keeps me from inserting the needle too far into the crack and I can actually work rather fast at getting glue through the whole thing. Here's the syringe in a dry run.


With the glue in the crack I put the whole clamping assembly in place and then clean up the excess glue with a long wet brush and a damp sponge. This will have to sit overnight.

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During dis-assembly I found that the peghead was cracked, time to fix that.


Here's a few of the tools needed for this job. I'll be using cold hide glue which will work just fine for this repair.


The wedge is made from a non-stick poly and will hold the crack open so I can work glue as deep as possible into it.


Using the tiny spring steel palette knife I pick up glue from the cup and work it into the crack. I will move the wedge once so I can get glue into the area it is blocking.


When the crack is full pulling the wedge makes glue squeeze out.


Applying a spindle clamp helps close the crack with even more squeeze out so I can clean up the excess glue. With hide glue clean up is easy, just a damp sponge.


I back the peghead with a piece of 1/2 in. thick plexiglas to keep it flat. Then clamp side to side with another cam clamp. Now I need to let this set up while I do something else.


The guitar has a lot of little ding and scratches.


Using a small brush loaded with some blush eraser (butul celusolve) I'll apply a little to each ding and scratch. I'll start with the top and work my way around the whole body.


This will darken those areas when wet but they should lighten up when dry. This method can make these imperfections a lot less noticeable. The body gets set aside to dry and I'll go back to working on the neck.

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I used the blush eraser on all the damaged areas that still had finish. Many areas are worn to the point of no finish and even some missing wood. These areas need to be color matched before clear lacquer can be used to seal them.
I have a lot of markers filled with stain/finish. These are used mainly by people doing furniture repair. A few are intended for guitar repair.


Same product, different labels.


I used a scrap of mahogany as a test palette for a few of the different brown shades.


Second from the left is a little light but that's what I want. If it is, then two coats gives better control.


Top of the headstock is very worn. This is end grain showing so it will take stain easily, and quickly, so keeping the color a little light will give better control.


I'll apply stain and then wipe it right away. This I will repeat until I think I'll have a match when dry.


I will run the marker along the edges of the entire headstock, front and back.


When done with the brown I switch to a black marker. This one will be used only on the front face of the headstock.


The color always dries to a gloss finish because besides stain there is a bit of lacquer in there too. This can make the stain stand out. I color the opposite side of that crack and any marks on the face of the headstock.


And then keeping the marker at a 45 degree angle around the entire face. The black will redefine the outline of the headstock. Some of the brown may need clear over them but the black works best alone. Once I buff out the finish everything should even out nicely.


I'll do the same thing with the body wherever there is color missing.

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Headstock crack is repaired but there are 18 screw holes to deal with. Many of the holes have become oversize for the tuner screws so I'm going to repair all of them.
I use both hot and cold hide glues for various jobs but for this one I shall use brown wood glue. A few of the tools I'll use.


First step is to drill all the holes to 3/32" to fit that dowel size. One of the holes was larger than that so I drilled it to 7/64 for the larger dowel. This is easy to do, just let the drill do the work and you can feel when it hits the bottom of the hole, don't want to drill all the way through the headstock.


Dip the dowel in the cup of glue and insert it into the hole.Sometimes I have to give it a little tap to get it seated.


The glue will cause the wood to swell within a few seconds making the dowel tight and pushing out any excess glue. I could just break the dowel off here but I have a better way.


This old pair of fret nippers are too chipped up to cut fretwire anymore but work just fine for trimming the dowel close to flush with the surrounding area.


Then a wipe with a damp sponge.


Two done, sixteen more to go.


Once all the holes are filled I'll let it dry for a hour or so and then get out a very sharp paring chisel. The long length of a paring chisel allows me to keep it flush with the surface of the headstock.


I wet the dowels again, this makes the excess soft. Then laying the chisel flush with the headstock I snick off any dowel sticking above that surface.


I'll repeat this several times from different directions until all the dowels are cut flush.


Almost done.


Using one of my finish markers I put a little stain on the end of each fill. There are still some gaps were wood had chipped out between holes. I will use a little filler and some more stain to cover those.

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Resetting the neck.

My neck pitch jig.

The two white reference blocks are for getting the top edge of the heel level with the table. These will be removed once all the adjustments are done.




Here I'm checking the angle with a small square. The angle is too low or shallow so the table needs to be dropped a bit and the neck seated against the reference blocks again.




It takes a few tries to get it just right but once I have the table set to the right angle it can be locked in place and the reference blocks removed.




I've made a offset base for my Dremel Mototool. This base is heavy and allows the cutter to be free of any surrounding support. It is adjusted to just barely clear the surface of the table. You can see some scars on the table where I didn't get it adjusted quite right in the past.




This first cut is the most difficult and also must be the most accurate. Too little and you'll have to set the jig all up again. Too much and you have a big problem with a neck pitched too far back.




I'm taking about 1/32" off the heel at the heel cap and less as I work toward the fingerboard. While I still have to work slowly to avoid chipping the Mototool does the job a lot quicker and cleaner that a saw and chisels.




Even with the offset base the tool can't reach everywhere but it will get the entire outside edge and that is what I want.




Here you can see the fresh cut wood is a lighter color. This outer edge of the heel I refer to as the "cheek". When I'm done this cheek will only be about 1/8" wide around the whole heel.




Now the neck comes out of the resetting jig and into my Fox vise. The self adjusting cork padded jaws will hold the neck quite firmly without marring the finish.




The jig is a big help but there is still quite a lot of material to remove before the neck will fit the body at the new angle.
To get the neck to fit closely to the body profile I'm going to remove a lot of the wood in the center of the heel, but without removing any of the cheek area.




The chisels for this work. A 2mm and 8mm pair of German made Two Cherries and my 6mm Sorby long parring chisel.




This type of cut is across the end grain so wetting the wood makes it a whole lot easier. Using different width chisels I'll carve relief into the heel while leaving cheek areas untouched. I want those cheek areas thin but not so thin they would chip easily. When done I get................




.....this. Now I don't have to match the whole width of the heel to the profile of the body, just the cheek areas. The cheek area just below the fingerboard is still dark wood and I will have to hand cut that part to bring it in line with the rest of the cheek.




With the neck back in the body you can see it is not a good fit to the body profile. There is a gap at both ends of the heel because the body profile is a slight convex. So I must make the neck profile a slight concave.




This is the way to get that concave profile. I don't know who came up with this idea but it is the best and easiest way of profiling a heel and the reason I cut all that relief into the heel. Cloth backed 180 grit sandpaper strips are repeatedly placed in and pulled out while the neck is held in place. The grit side faces the heel and removes the high spots a little at a time. I work a little on each side and across the end cap area, constantly checking fit and alinement.




Checking the angle is done by fitting the neck firmly back into the body. I will use temporary paper shims in the dovetail to tighten things up since the dovetail is loose due to the new neck angle. Then I'll lay a straight edge on the fingerboard and see how it alines with the bridge, not the saddle. Originally the straight edge would have lined up quite a bit below the top of the bridge. Now it is well over the bridge, in fact too much if this were a X braced guitar, but since it is ladder braced I'm hoping it's enough.





The other alinement that must be constantly checked is the string alinement. Two strings will suffice, placed in the first and sixth string nut slots and taped in place on the bridge.




Once I'm happy with the fit and alinement there is still two more things to fit before I can glue the neck back in.



Like the heel, the end of the fingerboard doesn't fit quite right. It needs some relief too.




The neck is clamped to the bench top and a scraper used to level the bottom area.




I'll do the same for the body. The tape makes sure I stay in the area covered by the fingerboard.




I glued some small thin shims of wood veneer in the bottom of the dovetail to tighten things up and then put yellow glue in the dovetail and top area.




Brown glue on the heel acts as adhesive and filler.




The block goes inside under the fingerboard and supports the top during clamping.




C clamp, Cam clamp and concave caul to hold the neck in.




A long Cam clamp is added just to make sure that heel stays put until set.

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Before I can refret, I must defret the fingerboard. Here are the tools I use for removal. A old soldering iron with a special tip and a pair of reground nippers. The top of the guitar is protected by a thin clear plastic guard.




Supporting the instrument during the refret is very important to doing a good job. I have shot bags and heavy neck support blocks but in the past I have found these to be much less effective than solidly attaching the whole guitar to the bench. There is a padded hardwood support under both the neck and tail blocks. The adjustable support for the middle of the neck can be moved as needed.




My neck vise will open wide to accept the headstock and padded cauls. This allows the headstock to be held firmly but gently.




The body is held by a bungee cord. My bench top is a piece of slatboard and the slots allow me to "dog" or attach things to that top.




This block can be moved along its slot and tightened down with the wing nut. The side facing the guitar is cork padded. When not in use it is tightened down at the back of the bench and acts as a alternate holder for one of my bench lamps.




The other end of the bungee simply hooks under the iron frame of the bench. My bench frame is solid angle iron and quite heavy.




Another look at that top guard. This one is new and unmarked, for now.




While resetting the neck I needed the nut in place so I could check alignment. But now it's time to remove the nut.
The tool for this job is just a block of maple with a radius bottom to fit snugly on the fingerboard. I just place it against the nut and give it a light tap with a small hammer.



The nut comes off cleanly.




Time to pull frets.
Using the concave tip of the soldering iron I will heat the fret starting at one end. When the fret gets hot I'll move the iron aside slightly and grab the fret with the fret pullers. I don't pull the fret as much as I lift it. By squeezing the puller it gets under the fret and lifts it just a bit.




Moving slowly I'll work my way along the fret lifting a little at a time.




The pullers also push the wood under them back down, helping to prevent chipping of the fingerboard.




Another one out. But this old fingerboard is very dry and brittle and I'm getting quite a bit of chipping.




Another reason for moving slowly is so I can catch chips as they happen. Large chips can be glued back down. I hold the chip in place while applying a bit of superglue.




After applying glue I wick up any excess with the edge of a paper towel and then shoot it with some accelerator. This is time consuming but necessary to doing a good job. I'm not going to get every chip, sometimes it will go flying and no way to retrieve it. In the case of missing chips I'll fill the gap with a bit of rosewood dust and hit it with glue.




All out.




The neck is quite straight so I don't need to sand it until straight but I would like to remove all the cross grain sanding marks that Harmony left in it. Harmony fretted the fingerboard before installing it on the neck. They also sanded the board sideways and this left all those marks. I'll use a 10" radius sanding block. Starting with 150 grit.




I'll follow up with 220 and 320 grit papers but I have a few things to pay attention to before I get to those finer grits . As I sand I'm bound to get some more chips flying so those will have to be dealt with as they happen.



Here you can see those cross grain marks and the last fret marker. I got that marker a little too hot when loosening the end of the fingerboard. It is now discolored and pitted, it will need to be replaced. But I don't have a exact sized dot to put there, mine are either too big or too small. So I'm going replace 3 fret markers to create a pattern.




To get the dot out cleanly I'll drill a small hole in it. You can see those cross grain marks, the glued chips and some open ones in this shot.




After drilling I just use a sharp point to pop out the dot.




The other two dots out and drilled for the new ones. Drilling must be done with the drill moving in reverse, in forward it would tear out grain horribly. In reverse it make a nice clean hole.




New dot, new hole.




A drop of glue, in this case brown Titebond.




Push in the dot.




And wipe the excess off with a damp sponge.




New inlay pattern. Now I will finish sanding the board to 320 grit.




Some tools for the next little bit. Cleaning and prepping the fret slots.




After sanding I need to clean all the debris out of the fret slots. This hook tool does a pretty good job of getting the loose stuff.




The tough parts need a more aggressive tool. I also use this tool to deepen the slot where need be. The ebony block against the binding keeps me from knocking the binding loose if I hit it.




This little gauge tells me when the slot is deep enough.




Lastly, the fret slot edges need to be relieved a bit, this helps the frets seat better. I'll use this file to cut a small amount off the edges of the fret slots.

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The fingerboard is now prepped and almost ready for frets. The preparation is the hard part, if done properly the frets should go easily, if the slots are the right size. I use feeler gauges to determine the slot width. The .018 gauge slides right to the bottom of the slot while the other 2 only make it part way. I'll use fretwire with a .018 tang.




Nippers, cutters, dead blow hammer, fret press, and two lengths of fret wire with a .018 tang and .080 X .040 bead.




I can't put straight fret wire in a curved fingerboard, so a quick run through the fret bender put a curve in the wire.




One piece bent. The radius is tighter than the fingerboard's. I'll get to why later.




I mentioned earlier that my bench was heavy and securing the guitar firmly to the bench aids in fretting. Adding the mass of the bench keeps the guitar from bouncing when a fret is driven in. The Taylor Fret Buck adds mass also, 14lbs of it. That adjustable tongue goes inside and supports the end of the fingerboard. This is very important for driving those frets in firmly without cracking the top.




For those frets over the body I will measure with a caliper.




And use the calipers as a guide for cutting the wire to length.




The fingerboard has binding, that not only made prepping the board difficult but I'll have to remove part of the tang so the fret can fit over the bindings. These nippers cut the tang off nicely.




Now those ends will fit over the bindings.




Fret ready to install. I know the fret tangs will be a good fit so no need for any water in the slot. Sometimes I may use some hide glue in the slot too, but that is for filling overly deep slots not for holding frets in.




Place the fret over the fret slot and tap the ends down with the dead blow hammer. If I did pre-curve the fret it would want to pop back out but with a curve it stays put while I get another tool.




The press has the same radius curve as the fingerboard and is notched to fit over the fret. Place it on the fret and give it a firm tap with the hammer. The fret gets seated with one blow.




This is why all that prep. Get that right and fret goes in easily.



Now repeat, 19 more times.




Once the top frets are installed I need to support the neck for the rest of the frets. If the neck flexes or moves the fret will not go in properly. I use a movable neck support.




I'll move it every few frets.




All in.

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Frets are in but a lot of work still needs to be done. First the fret ends need to be trimmed flush to the fingerboard.




The same tool I used to cut frets to length. Since there is no tang to cut I can cut the ends at a slight bevel.




I call these "Old Maids", they are the cut off pieces from the fret ends and the reason I won't allow anyone in my shop with bare feet. These are very sharp and if you step on one they have a tendency to be very painful going in, and coming out.




These ends need to be beveled and smoothed before they are comfortable to play on. A guitar with sharp fret ends is no fun to play.




I made this beveling tool many years before any commercial ones were available.




Lay it on the fingerboard and it files the fret ends to a consistent angle.




Now the ends are beveled but still fairly sharp. I'll use this diamond fret file to smooth out and contour those edges.




I'll use it to "round over" those sharp edges.




Final step is a sanding with a very fine soft sanding block.




Next the frets need to be leveled. This step is the reason for doing all the previous work as well as possible. The better the fingerboard prep, the better the frets get seated. The better the frets are seated the less you have to do at this point.
3 leveling files, large medium cut and two smaller fine cut.




Before I start filing I blacken the frets with a big marker. This makes it easy to spot the high and low areas and keeps me from working a area too much.




I'll use the large file first, working from the nut to the top end of the board. I'll switch to the larger of the small files to work the frets over the body. This photo was taken out of sequence, I missed it at the time and took this one afterward.




The black ink does a really good job of showing high/low spots and keeping the filing even.




If the prep was done correctly I only need to file a small amount from the frets to get them level. No black showing on the fret tops and I did very little filing.




Now the frets are level but too flat and too rough to be played on. So the next thing I need to do is get them rounded and polished. I want to do this first polishing step before starting to round the frets. All the filing scratches in the frets are perpendicular to the fret length. Polishing is really just creating a series of finer and finer scratches. This is a saxophone tone hole file, it is super sharp and super fine.




With this file I'll turn those coarse perpendicular scratches into very fine parallel scratches. Always keeping the file on at least two frets I'll file until I can't see any perpendicular scratches. I'll start at frets 1 and 2 and file until fret 1 is clean, then switch to frets 2 and 3 and file until 2 is clean, then 3 and 4 until 3 is clean and so on up the fingerboard.




Now that I have the scratches going parallel to the frets I can start rounding them. This is another diamond file used to round over the top of the frets. To make sure I round them evenly and with apex at top center I'll blacken the frets again.




When leveling I used the black to show me how much I was removing from the top of the frets, now it will show me how much I remove from the sides of the fret as I round them. I want to see a very narrow black line left on top that is even in width and dead center.




The diamond fret file has two grits, 150 & 300, I'll finish up with the 300. Not perfect but not bad. The next step will cure those little inconsistent bits.




This sander is made from hard rubber and has a concave surface just like the fret files. I'll use it with some 600 grit sandpaper.




Up to this point all the tools I have used were used in such a way as not to scratch the fingerboard. But now I need to protect it during the last few steps. So I'll use this handy little steel guard to protect the wood while I work on the fret.





First a good sanding with the 600 grit paper.




Then 0000 steel wool.




Shiny.





The final step, a ride on the buffer. This will give a final high polish to frets and fingerboard.



Been having trouble with the auto focus on my camera and it does not have a manual focus. The auto focus doesn't always want to focus on the subject when doing close up shots. The black paper has helped a great deal in getting it to focus on the foreground.

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Because I plan on making more of these bridges in the future I took the time to make a template. The template is made from 1/4" thick plexiglas. I want the new bridge to be a pin bridge so there are six location holes in the template.



The middle blank shows the outline of the bridge to be rough sawn, staying just outside the black line. The template gets attached to the blank with double sided tape as in the top blank. Notice the polished edge on the template, that is important in the next step.




With that polished edge riding against the bearing the cutter will clean away all the excess wood to the exact shape of the template.




Next I'll drill for the pin hole locations.




I use my belt/disk sander to scallop the ends of the bridge. But first I'll use the band saw to remove a bit of the excess material.




Removing this much from the ends will save a lot of time at the sander. The black line marks the end of the scallop.




I should have taken a photo of the whole jig. It is just a height adjustable table that is attached under the end of my sander. The belt is moving toward the blank and you need to keep a firm hand on it so it won't push the blank away.




I shove the blank under the belt and that will cut the scalloped end.




One end done, back under the sander to do the other.




Both ends done to the line.




Next I drill those located holes to just under bridge pin size.



And countersink them.




To the oscillating spindle sander to smooth the edges.




And the top.




I want to put a slight round over along the back side of the bridge. I use this round over bit as a scraper blade to rough out the round. Then I'll fine sand the whole bridge.



All sanded. When sanding I work the edges a little to give the bridge a little bit of a worn look. If i left those edges nice and sharp it would look like a new bridge on a old guitar.




After final buffing and oiling. The wood will darken with age.

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Before I can get that new bridge on I need to remove the old one. For this I will use a assortment of palette knives and a small heating blanket.





First a little moisture to help spread the heat.




Hold the blanket in place.




And cover with a sand filled Kevlar bag. Bag made for me by my good buddy Donn.




The heat blanket is connected to a timer, I'll give it 10 minutes at first.




When the timer goes off I carefully remove the hot blanket and set it aside to cool. Then I'll start working the smallest knife under the edge of the bridge. If I get too much resistance I'll put the heat blanket back on for anther 5 min.




If the knife slips under the bridge fairly easily I'll get two knives going.




I get the small knives under a short way and then switch to a bigger knife.




The bigger knives allow me to get more pressure behind the knife and push it under the bridge. Grain run out direction is important here and this top is hard to read for grain so I'll have to work slowly and feel my way. It turned out the grain was running opposite of what I thought so I switched and started working from the opposite direction.
One knife is thicker than the other. I'll use the thick knife to create lift pressure and the thin one to slide into the glue bond. On the bass side I work the thin knife in towards the neck, slide the thick one over a bit to keep the pressure going and then slide the thin one in again towards the neck until I get to the center of the bridge. At that point I'll apply the heat blanket to the treble side of the bridge and work from the treble end to the center but pushing the knives toward the tailblock because on this side of the top the grain run out is in the opposite direction.




Because I had to fish for grain direction the bass side is a little rougher looking than the treble. But all in all the bridge came of fairly clean. I have a loose patch and a fuzzy patch to deal with on the bass side but nothing serious. There is also some heat blush(white haze) on he finish but that is easily dealt with.




If the blush won't buff off by hand using a fine polish then I'll paint it with a bit of Blush Eraser, let that dry and then buff.
Then I need to get all the old glue off and clean up the fuzzy areas. First I wet the bridge area with a little warm water.




To scrape the glue away I use a sharp chisel as a scraper blade. On the bass side I'll scrape towards the neck and on the treble side towards the tailblock.




I got about as much glue off as I'm going to get without starting to scrape away wood too.
This photo shows the importance of knowing the grain run out direction. You can see one bit of lifted wood near the center of the bass side. I will work glue under that bit when it is time to glue the new bridge on.




I taped the old nut back in place and then taped two strings in the E string slots.




Since I can see the outline of the old bridge it is not difficult to position the new bridge into that outline. Then I line up those two strings over the E string holes. By moving the bridge and strings I can line up the E strings to be centered on the neck.




Once I'm sure of the alinement I'll clamp the bridge in place with a scrap block of wood inside under the bridge.




Now I can drill the E string locations into the top, not deep, just enough to make a positive mark..




Remove the bridge and check those marks with the alignment strings.



I clamp a piece of scrap wood inside that covers the bridge area. This will keep me from splintering the bridge plate when I drill those E string holes all the way through the top.




Now I have two locating holes marking exactly where I want the bridge to be.




I use two nylon pins inserted into the E string holes as locators. I put a third one in the photo so you can see the actual size.




Here is the bridge clamping caul and the support plate. The caul goes over the bridge and the plate goes inside. Those two small padded blocks go at either end of the bridge directly under the hex bolts in the caul.




Before I glue the bridge on I'll do a little touch up around the bridge area. You've already seen me do this earlier with blush eraser and vintage amber lacquer.


Getting the clamp in place is a bit of a juggling act but with those pins in the bridge it is less so.
  I lay the support block inside the guitar. Put glue on the bridge bottom. Those two pins locate into the two holes in the top and keep the bridge from slipping out of place while I get the rest of the pieces in place. Now I reach inside and hold the block in place while slipping the clamp in. With the clamp holding the block up against the underside of the top I slip my hand out and put the caul over the bridge. Then I'll tighten the clamp just enough to hold everything in place. Now I put the two small blocks on the bridge ends and hand tighten those hex bolts just enough to hold them in place. After a check to make sure everything is exactly where it should be I'll tighten the clamp.




To clean up excess glue I'll use a damp sponge. then I'll give the hex bolts a bit more pressure using a hex wrench. Just to make sure those ends are down.



Then I follow up with a damp brush to get all those little bits of glue squeeze out.




24 hours later the glue is set and I need to get those nylon pins out.




Here is the tool for that, a screw starter.




Just screw it in.




And pull.




I clamp that scrap piece of wood back under the bridge and drill out the other four holes.




All the major work is done.

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The new bridge needs a saddle slot.




Post It tape gives me a nice white surface to mark on. First I'll mark the E string locations and the scale length.




The dark lines mark the compensated saddle position and slot length.




The slotting jig lightly clamped in place.




The gray plex piece is a centering jig. The pins allow me to align the jig right on the saddle slot line.




The pins line up just at the forward edge of the line.




Once the jig is lined up I tighten the clamps firmly. One more adjustment to make before I cut the slot.




That mahogany bar is a end stop. Line the cutter up with the mark for the end of the slot and push the bar against it. Then tighten the thumb screws. This is done at both ends of the jig.




Now I just have to lower the cutter and start making passes. The end bars stop the cutter at the right spot at either end. I'll cut about 3/64 deep each pass until the slot is about 3/16 deep.



Nice clean slot.





In Part 1 I took a tracing of the missing pickguard. Here it is glued to a piece of 1/4" thick plex.




I need a more defined line to cut on so I'll use a French curve to define that traced outline. Some of the lines I traced are more of a rubbing and will be double lines, one much lighter than the other. I'll use a ink pen to darken and determine the true out line.




Now I have a smooth outline to start cutting.




First a rough cut on the band saw, not too close because Plexiglas is difficult to cut cleanly and easy to make a fatal mistake while doing so.




Then the outside curves are cleaned up on the disc sander.




The oscillating spindle sander is used for the inside curves and to remove the disc sanding marks from the outside curve edges.




Next into a padded vise to hold the template firmly while I file those edges smoother.




The file will take out the rough sanding marks but that will still not be smooth enough so I follow up with a scraper blade.




Then a fine sanding.




Finally a buffing to polish the edge.




Ready to use.




Got a nice piece of thin tortoise material.




I use a little double stick tape to adhere the material to the template.



The tape will hold the material firmly while I shape the pickguard.




A quick run through the band saw to remove the excess.




Then to the router table. The bearing on the cutter rides against the polished template and cuts away the material below .




All cut out but not ready to remove from the template yet.




I want the pickguard to have a beveled edge so I will do this by hand using a small scraper blade. Then it will go back to the buffer to put a bit of a polish to that edge.




Now I can remove it from the template and after a good cleaning stick it to a piece of 3M adhesive sheet.




I scratched a few new pickguards before I figured out this technique. To remove the excess 3M sheet I use a razor knife but I don't move the knife. I will stick the knife into the bench top at the edge of the pickguard and draw the pickguard against it, move the work not the tool.




Ready to install.




Put the guard in place is pretty easy. Just locate it on the top and tape it in place. Then lift the top edge letting the tape act as a hinge. Peel back the backing from the 3M sheet part way and fold it back under. Now carefully lay the top of the guard back in place, the adhesive will hold it there. Remove the tape, lift the bottom edge and peel off the rest of the backing. Stick the bottom edge down and it's done.




The protective plastic is still on but I'll remove that when all the work is done.

[Deleted]

I'm replacing the tuners so I need to drill the peghead face for the new bushings. I'll use a slightly undersized drill and like drilling for inlay dots this is done with the drill in reverse.





The bushing won't fit all the way into these holes, only part was so I need a tool to press fit them.




My handy dandy Kennedy bushing press. Put the bit with the bolt through the hole from the back, put the bushing over the bolt, place tthe other half of the press over the bushing.




Put the wing nut on and tighten it down until the bushing is seated.




New Relic Nickle finish tuners.




With the tuners in place I use a 3/32" bit that just fits the holes in the tuner plate to mark each hole location. Then I'll remove the tunes and drill those marke with a 1/16" bit to the proper depth.




Put the tuners back on and run the screws in.




They cover up all those old screw holes that I plugged.




Since this is a new bridge the pins don't fit yet.




The reamer works two ways. Clockwise it cuts the hole larger and deeper but counter clockwise it will burnish.




So the trick is to cut until the pin almost fits and then burnish until it is seated properly.




Repeat five times more.




Two saddle blanks. The top one is cut to length and has it's ends rounded. The bottom one shows what I started with.




The saddle is the right length but still fits the slot a little too tightly. I'll use my Terry Kennedy saddle/nut thinning tool. Place the saddle on the sandpaper and position the recess over the saddle. Here I have it turned over so you can see how it fits.




With the tool in the correct position all you have to do is move it back and forth on the sandpaper. Perfect tool for fine adjustment of the saddle fit.




Still just a hair tight, it will fit perfectly when I polish it.




I designed this tool. Always hated trying to get the radius gauge lined up and held in place so I could mark the saddle radius on with a pencil. It has a ledge for the saddle to sit on and a strong thin magnet glued in place under the gauge. I have two gauges and the magnet is so strong it holds the gauge I'm using on top and the one I'm not using on the back.




I've made small marks on the saddle for bass and treble side saddle height.




Slide the gauge down until it lines up on the marks , then trace the radius.




A lot easier than holding the saddle and gauge in one hand while trying to keep things lined up.




Next to the band saw to cut away the excess.



Then to the sander to fine tune the radius.




With the saddle back in the slot I mark the spaces between the strings.




Then the intonation stop points for the different strings.




With the saddle held in this small vise I'll file in the intonation points using those two small files.




Once I'm happy with the filing it will get a fine sanding.




And then a good buffing for final polish.




The saddle is still too tall but I will adjust its height during final set up.




Before I can fit the nut I need to get the nut ledge squared up. First a sharp chisel to scrape away any bits of old glue left on the end of the fingerboard.




Then a file to square the ledge to the end of the fingerboard.




I've rough cut the nut length slightly wide. But the bottom is sanded square to the ledge.




A pencil cut in half length wise is a great tool for marking the nut height and fingerboard radius on the nut.




Like the saddle the nut need the excess trimmed away.




First the band saw , then the sander. Now it needs final shaping.




Back to the vise to file the ends until the are flush with the neck. Then the ends get sanding and a polish.




The pencil line marks the area I don't want to touch while rounding over the back side of the nut.




Like the ends, file, sand, polish.




The nut is now fitted, I'll use a tiny drop of glue to hold it in place. To lay out the string slots I mark the E string locations first, 3mm in from each edge.




This spacing gauge has each slot spaced .004 farther from its neighbor moving left to right. I move the gauge along until I get a match with the two E string marks.




Then put the gauge over the nut with the E string marks showing through, then use a pencil to mark the other four strings.




What you end up with is a more evenly spaced nut. Each "land" between strings is .004 wider as you move toward the bass side. This spacing compensates for the different widths of the strings.




I will start all the string slots with a .013 wide file.




Then follow up with the proper gauge file for each slot. I've rubbed some pencil lead in the slots to make them easier to see.




At this point the guitar is ready to string and adjust. An hour later it's done.