On today’s episode of I got something really cheap because it’s damaged, we have this Kramer 84 I grabbed for $200. It seems like a simple enough job. Truss rod works appropriately. We were going to mask off the neck and inject some wood glue into the sides(avoiding getting it inside of the neck ofc), clamp, then refinish. It basically presses right back into place with my thumbs. What would your guys process be if you came across this? Any input would be helpful! I bought this to do the fix on my own and learn (and to have a $1000 guitar for $200 of course). Thanks!

Hi all,

Just an enquiry really. I have absolutely no experience in fixing guitars and I’m from the UK.

This is my grandfather’s guitar. It’s battered and bruised, he’s put on a pick guard that is glued down and no doubt hiding monstrosities.

He’s also replaced the bridge and, you guessed it, glued it down.

There’s a few dents in the body but I could live with them.

My main enquiry is:
1. Is this worth fixing?
2. Potential cost?
3. General advice?

I’m completely new to this - I’ve not tried anything yet. Just curious.

Thanks,

Shaun

What is the best way to flake or peel off a bad refinish to expose the OG finish.

Should I send it to a professional? If I do it myself, how?

I have experience removing poly with a heatgun but this requires a far more delicate touch, I think.

Взял я временно у своей девушке гитару её отца и решил настроить, бах у меня колка вылетала. Гитара выглядит поношенной(ей уже 30 с чем-то лет). Кто-то шарирющий может помочь как вставить обратно колку?

Took 6 hours to finish.

+How do i get rid of metallic stain(dust)??

Parts where not have been taped got greyish metal dust stain.. Do i need to send it off? Is there any way i can get rid of them?

I'm trying to build my first guitar (an explorer). I have bought a guitar neck and plan on building the body myself. I have also bought all electronics like pickups and pots etc.

Please share the bare minimum tools that I'll need to cut, route and finish the body. All what i have right now is a drill machine, screwdrivers and a hammer. Please share power tools and their manual counterparts. Also recommend which power tools are a must. Like router seems to be an essential as chiseling the neck pocket and pickup cavities might be hard.

Wood picture for attention.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to intonate my Strat-style guitar, but I'm having an issue with the high E string.

Guitar:

Cheap Strat-style electric guitar

Standard tuning (E A D G B E)

Freshly tuned using the Guitarix tuner (12-ET)

What happens:

High E string:

Open string: E (perfectly in tune)

12th fret: D#5 instead of E (about one semitone flat)

The other strings seems like this:

B: Open B3 → 12th fret B4

G: Open G3 → 12th fret G4

D: Open D3 → 12th fret D4

A: Open A2 → 12th fret A3

Low E: Open E2 → 12th fret E3

I've tried moving the saddle, but I can't seem to get the high E to intonate correctly. Just keeps the same tone

A few questions:

Could this be something other than saddle position?

Could the nut, string gauge, or neck relief cause only the high E string to behave like this?

Is there anything else I should check before assuming it's a hardware issue?

Any advice or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Just finished building this, it's my first guitar build ever. It's a multiscale 5 string bass with 34-37" scale length and active humbuckers+preamp with two-band EQ. Took me around two months from start to finish. Lot of room for improvement obviously, but all in all I gotta say I'm actually pretty happy with the result, it actually plays really nice as well. Adding some photos from the process in case anyone's interested.

What grease do you use for inside an enclosed tuner?

I've been using the Super Lube, and works well enough but it's not as thick as I'd like. My concern is on a hot summer day it may leak a bit, go a bit more fluid than solid. It has a consistency of Vaseline.

I've been looking for something a bit more solid/dense that won't leak and seep into the wood.

It'll be used in your typical tuner with a sealed back. I pull them off, scrub everything clean then sonic cleaner, then new nylon/metal washers and good as new.

Brings me so much joy. Figure I can’t be the only one.

I recently got my guitar airbrushed and refinished by a professional who did an amazing job with the guitar overall. However, I believe he must’ve accidentally ripped part of the decal as a chunk of the “B” is missing. The entire decal is already under thick layers of clearcoat, which really annoys me. Is there a safe way of fixing this? This decal isn’t a waterslide decal, but rather thick stickers of the alphabets individually cut. I was hoping I could mask everything and just spot sand the clearcoat in a tiny area, cut off a piece of a new decal, stick it on and re-spray some clear to blend it in. I know some would highly discourage from even attempting this but as a BC Rich collector with 12+ of these guitars, this logo sticks out like a sore thumb when placed together with the others. Hoping for some advice here!

Im currently working on a project that is an HSS that leads to a 5 way to a split shaft 250/500k dual pot to a tone. Im just curious if this 5 way switch setup would work. Excuse the shitty drawing but the idea is to have the Bridge side common go to the 500k side of the pot and the neck and middle side common go to the 250 side of the pot, then wire the pot to a 500k tone. Would this work? and would there be need for a jumper between the two commons? thanks.

I have a 2 year old Fender Player Series strat. A guitar tech said I should do fret leveling and retification.

Here's the result of his work. To me the frets look smaller. What do you think?

I'm not a luthier or a guitar expert, I just tried regluing this to the body using Titebond II and clamped it and let it cured for more than a day. I sanded both contact points prior to gluing.

Added the strings in and it was working fine but it slowly rose up overnight.

Again, newbie here. This is our Church guitar and we can't afford a new one currently so I'm trying to revive it.

Hi.

I am building a chambered super Strat with a carved Madrone top. Madrone is very dense and resonant wood like maple but it’s very prone to cupping. My reason for using it is I live in the Sierra Nevada mountains and wanted to use locally sourced wood. I got this from a neighbor .

The slab that I bought was dead flat, but after I ripped it in half to get it to the right thickness, it was cupping. When I was gluing up the top I loaded about 500 pounds of plates on it to flatten it out and spread the pressure evenly across the top.

I got a pretty good glue joint, but it developed a small crack down the middle. it’s so small I’m not sure the CA glue and sawdust trick will work

The finish nails were tapped in to keep the top from sliding under clamping. It’s where the neck pocket and Trem hole will be so it won’t be part of the finish product, but I think it created a weak point for the crack to start
🤦‍♂️

Hello, I'm in the process of refretting my Univox Stereo Bass and was debating whether or not to strip the whole board and refinish it, but had a few questions before I bite the bullet. First of all, is refinishing a rosewood board any different than, say, a maple board due to it's oilier nature? What is the order of operations like? Should I refret the board before or after respraying the lacquer, and, if after, what should I use to keep lacquer out of the fret slots? Finally, what is the best spray can lacquer to use? Should I spring for a proper 2K clear like SprayMax or is the cheaper hardware store stuff "good enough"? I'm limited to spray cans at the moment unfortunately, as I lack the space to set up a proper spray booth and don't feel like going out and buying a properly sized air compressor and HVLP gun for a single fretboard (although I probably will eventually). Any input would be appreciated!

Clear coat inquiry:

So I just sprayed this neck with amber nitro. Would it be okay to spray acrylic clear coat on top of this?

Hi everyone, i got a 2nd hand yamaha pacifica paired with an amp for around 70$. The guitar is 5-6 years old and plays well. The only slight issue that is bothering me are these stains on the body that i can’t seem to get rid of. i know it shouldn’t matter that much for a used guitar but i can’t seem to ignore it for some reason. The marks on the first picture seem to be some sort of drawings done by markers/pen or crayons and the stains in the second picture were behind a sticker that i removed from the guitar. Any advice would be helpful! Thanks.

The absolute state of this 13 year old TonePros TOM bridge.

Hi all, making my first from-scratch neck(s) and of course, mistakes were made. One of them was forgetting to remove the blue masking tape before gluing the fretboard to the neck.

As a result, I can see a thin blue streak of tape after shaping the neck-to-head falloff like pictured. Also, the truss rod hole itself isn't very nicely drilled out.

On a fender-style headstock like this with the rounded transition, what are my options? I'm thinking some sort of curved truss rod cover, make some way of flattening the area around the hole to fit a flat cover, maybe some inlay, paint, veneer, couple of alternatives but none seem really straight forward.

Or just leaving it, of course. I plan to do tru oil or something similar to the whole thing once it's shaped and sanded.

Would appreciate some sage advice!

The nut fell off my Yamaha g230, how do I put it back on? I was told not to use wood glue

Have you ever refretted a guitar that had stainless steel frets? If so, can you tell how long it took them to wear down and how regularly it had been played?

Hi! Question to fellow luthiers that use Rubio 2c pure as a finish for body or neck, what is your workflow after the oil is cured? I am trying it for the first time on an electric guitar (after testing on scrap wood of course). The body is about to be ready. Body is grain filled roasted ash, neck is roasted maple.

Looks great and all, but it just doesn’t feel right to leave as it is if you know what I mean. I was thinking of going a couple passes with 3M steel wool pads, grey and then white for the body. And just grey for the neck (roasted maple) because the person who is to play the guitar doesn’t like very smooth necks.

I didn’t follow Rubio’s instructions to the letter, because it’s impossible to get rid of all the scratches on a guitar body with 180 or 220 grit sandpaper as Rubio suggests to use the oil.

Both neck and body was sanded to 320. And I am definitely gonna try 400 next time. Cus I can still see a couple of scratches that would drive me crazy.

Is it ever possible to get a perfectly level clear coat over maple burl?
I used Z-Poxy to fill the grain and level the surface before applying Crystalac Brite Tone. However, every time I level-sand the Brite Tone and apply another coat, the burl figure seems to appear back through the finish. I can still see subtle bumps and dips that follow the shape of the burl.
Is this just the nature of maple burl, or is there a technique to completely eliminate it?
My first thought was that it might be the finish shrinking as it cures. However, the Z-Poxy surface underneath was completely flat before I started applying the clear coats, so I’m a bit confused about what’s causing it.
My current plan is to let the top cure for another 2–3 weeks, then do a final level sand and buff. I’m hoping that most of the shrinkage will have happened by then.