Gallery of recent jobs

Just a few pics and comments on guitars that have recently passed through the workshop.

Palm Bay - Full setup, fret dress, scallop frets 15-24, install pearl inlay dots
A rather expensive handmade super strat, ebony fingerboard with nice chunky frets
Top end, British made Super Strat with an exceptionally thick ebony fingerboard.
A fine British made superstrat, Dimarzio Pickups, 24 frets, Floyd Rose trem, locking nut, perfect tuning, Eddie van Halen conversion Nice inlays by Andy the luthier who built these guitars. I only know his first name - if you know more please mail me.


The guitar is well used but just needed an accurate and light fret dress to attain a superb action. Frets 15-24 were also scalloped and the dot inlays replaced at the same time. The originals inlays were rather dark and indistinct. These little MOP beauties are stunning.

    ultra low action with no choking or buzzing, a dream to play, the frets are perfectly crowned and polished

New mother of pearl inlays installed because the scalloping was too deep for the originals. The MOP dot markers are slightly larger than the originals too as this makes it easier to see them on stage under flashing stage lighting

A better view of the scalloping, this is an acquired taste of course. Frets 15-24 are not really affected by tuning problems due to fingering pressure so it's easy to adjust. It certainly makes sweeping bends and sweet vibratos easier.

neck scallop, frets 15-24 are beautifully scalloped by hand allowing fast bends and an amazing crystal clean tone  

Hoyer Les Paul copy from late 1960's. (Based on the label inside the control box)

Hoyer were one of the foremost guitar makers in Europe at the time. The guitars were beautifully built from excellent woods with typical German engineering of the hardware too.

A vintage guitar with loads of problems. Cracked neck and broken headstock, the most worn frets I've seen in a long time. The neck had developed a hump like a camel above the neck joint too.

Solution:

  • repair the neck/headstock break
  • remove the frets,
  • level/re-profile the fingerboard under full string tension as that was when the hump showed up.
  • Re-fret with nice jumbo frets
  • Restore the neck finish in keeping with the vintage status of the guitar and finish of the rest of the guitar.
  • Full service and setup.
The end result was a sweet playing guitar with a very big voice. These guitars look like a Les Paul but have a tonal character of their own.
 
Looks quite pretty now although the vintage guitar vibe has been maintained. Damage is disguised slightly but not sprayed into invisibility From the rear you can see the original Schaller machineheads. The neck break is reasonably well hidden without full re-finishing. Matches the "vintage finish" of the rest of the guitar.
 
Hard to believe what a state this was in - I wish I'd taken a few "before" pictures! Although the camel hump was actually just a fraction of a millimeter so would not have shown up anyway.
Pickups and bridge look very nice, the bridge pickup is actually a fine Kent Armstrong replacement and the neck pickup is the original bridge pickup. Not a true Les Paul sound though - more like a powerful vintage Gibson SG somehow. The Kent Armstrong works better than the Dimarzio and Seymour Duncans I also tried
Beautiful carved top and an extraordinary bit of German Engineering for a bridge. It was black with age but dipped in cleaning fluid it proved to actually untarnished, the chrome finish being completely perfect under the grime, sweat and beer.