For the bass player aficionados amongst you we have here two quite special basses, the first a 6 string Peavey Cirrus fretless bass, the other a custom luthier made Jerzy Drozd 5 string fretted bass. Hence a total of 11 strings...had to get a Spinal Tap reference in there somewhere :)

Both basses are owned by local jazz/ funk musician Mark Foxhall who needed super low action on these instruments to facilitate his fast playing style. This required getting the neck as straight as possible with little neck relief and lowering the action at the bridge as far as possible ... whilst minimising any string buzzing.

The issue with the Peavey fretless was that the whilst the strings were already very low (virtually laying on the fretboard), they were buzzing all over the place as the neck was actually in "backbow". Immediately I started work there was a problem - the truss rod had poor access and the truss rod nut could not be adjusted as it was very stiff and the hex hole had been rounded off meaning that the usual allen key could not get enough grip to turn the nut and adjust the truss rod.

Next up, the Jerzy Drozd bass presented a different problem. The truss rod worked fine on this bass, however even when the neck was adjusted as straight as it would go, the action at the bridge was still too high, even with the bridge saddles lowered as far as possible in the bridge pieces. The bridge saddles were removed, and the bottoms filed down so that they could sit lower on the bridge. This improved the action somewhat, but now at this lower action buzzing was occurring at various places across the neck. 

On closer inspection it was apparent that the neck itself was not actually straight. It presented a sort of "S" shape along the length of the neck, with a dip at the nut end and a hump over the body. Also a number of frets were too high in relation to neighbouring frets. 

One way to deal with this would be to take the frets out, level and refinish the fretboard, and re-fret the neck to provide a straight and level playing surface. However the frets still had plenty of height and life left in them so I recommended a fret dress to level the frets and see whether this would also take up the variance in the neck itself sufficiently to get rid of the buzzing. Using the precision Fret Jig the neck was adjusted as straight as possible prior to levelling, crowning and polishing the frets.

This worked, and with a few additional tweaks at the saddle/bridge, an acceptable low action with no (or minimal) string buzz was achieved........ Where very low action is required there is always going to be a trade off between how low you can go and some string buzz, which is also dependent on the players playing style, attack, and the type and gauge of strings used.

The next time round the bass will need a re- fret, which will be the opportunity to level the neck itself prior to re-fretting. What a lovely looking bass though! A highly figured body with a birds-eye maple fretboard and a fabulous sounding active pickup system.... nice.

Here are some of the nice instruments that have recently wended their way through the workshop for various repairs, pickup replacement, and servicing work. They include a trio of Gibsons - a black BB King Lucille ES355, a Les Paul Standard with a beautiful honey sunburst, and a cherry SG Standard - plus a Taylor 110E Electro-Acoustic  and a Takamine Electro-Classical. 

Fender Stratocaster

Ibanez Pat Metheny signature Model 

I recently had a rather attractive blonde Hofner New President arch top through the workshop which had worn frets and needed a fret dress. 

The first thing, before I can level the frets, is to remove the old nut. In this case the ends of the original nut were covered in a thick layer of lacquer. To avoid chipping when removing the nut, this area of lacquer had to be carefully removed beforehand. Once the nut was removed it was evident that there was quite a layer of glue used in the original factory installation, which would need to be removed before a new nut is fitted.

​Sometimes it is possible to reuse the old nut after a fret dress but in this case a new nut would have to be made as the old one no longer fitted properly due to the lacquer removed from the ends.

The fret dress is done in three stages - levelling the frets, crowning the tops, and sanding and polishing. The top of the guitar is protected and strapped firmly in the neck jig and the neck adjusted as straight as it will go by adjusting the truss rod. The pickup is covered and taped off to prevent metal dust from the levelling getting into the pickup windings.

The fretboard is taped off to protect the fretboard and the fret tops marked to show where the levelling bar is hitting the frets during the levelling process. 

As the tops of the frets have now been levelled (flattened essentially) they have to be re-profiled to reinstate rounded fret tops.This is done with a luthier's file designed for the job. The frets are then sanded and polished. Completed fret dress below....

Turning to make the new nut, a bone blank slightly thicker than the slot is picked and sanded to the correct thickness, then sanded and shaped to fit the width of the nut slot, for a snug fit. The height of the nut is sanded to a workable height and the correct string spacing is located and the string slots filed just enough so that the guitar can be restrung and the strings are held in place.  

The nut slots are then filed to the correct depth. Excess material is removed from the top of the nut so that the strings are exposed in the slots. If a nut slot is too deep a string can catch up in the slot and cause tuning problems. The nut is removed for filing, sanding and shaping several times during this process. The shaped and completed nut is polished and installed below..

The guitar is set up, making adjustments to the truss rod and bridge to get a fairly low action across the fretboard. Now playing very sweetly. Some pictures of this very fine blonde beauty! 

A not uncommon mishap that can befall an acoustic guitar is where the bridge becomes loose, or even  snaps completely away from the body.  When tuned to pitch terrific string tension pulls on the guitar top and bridge and so it is essential that there is a strong glue joint between these components.

There are a number of reasons that a bridge can come loose on an acoustic guitar - an improper or poor glue joint, low humidity or heat, loose braces or other structural issues inside the guitar putting undue strain on the bridge, or a combination of these.

Typically a bridge will come loose along the back edge, forming a gap between the guitar top and the bottom of the bridge. This may be difficult to see and not obvious so a good way of testing to see whether there is any gap under the bridge is to try and slide the flap of a guitar string packet underneath. This will  determine the extent to which the bridge is loose.

If the bridge is loose it is usually preferable to have it carefully removed ( I use heat blankets specially designed for this job) and have it re-glued properly, rather that running the risk of the bridge suddenly giving way under string tension and damaging the top in the process.

In the example below, the bridge snapped clean away from the top, taking chunks of the spruce top fibres away with it. Here's how I fixed it.

The old glue and fibres left on the bottom of the bridge are carefully scraped off so that a clean gluing surface remains. You can clearly see a ledge all around the perimeter of the bridge where no glue was applied during manufacture (quite common on lower end, and less expensive, acoustics). This lessens the overall gluing surface and makes the joint weaker than if the whole bridge was glued down.

A big lump of spruce stuck to the bottom of the bridge was removed and used to patch the top in its original position between the G and B string holes.  Luckily the damage caused when the bridge came away wasn't too severe in this case, it could have been worse. 

Here the spruce patch is glued and clamped, and the result.

The footprint of where the bridge sat on the top shows a ledge of lacquer around the perimeter. The lacquer is carefully removed to provide for full contact with the bridge, and a flat and even surface when the bridge is glued back down. All the old glue is removed from the top and any remaining gaps in the spruce filled or patched and then sanded flat to create a level gluing surface.  

The bridge is located in the correct position and held in place, ready to be glued and clamped. When the bridge is clamped, a caul has to be custom made to go inside the guitar and over the top braces to protect the delicate top from the strong clamping pressure, by spreading the load. Any glue squeeze out from clamping is cleaned up before the glue drys.

The guitar is left clamped overnight for the glue to dry. Any remnants of dried glue in the bridge pin holes are then cleaned out. The guitar is ideally left for another day or two before stringing up to pitch. 

The bridge transfers the vibrations of the string through the top so good coupling between these elements has the added benefit of improving the tone of the guitar. Job done!