Scott's Guitar Blog

Back in the Saddle Again

There is hidden potential in your guitar! One of the best things you can do to improve the tone of your acoustic guitar is to have a bone saddle made. Even high-end guitars like Martins and Taylors are shipped with synthetic materials like Tusq and Micarata that simply don't sound as good as a dense piece of bone. For those of you who don't know what the saddle is, it's the white piece of material in the bridge slot that the strings go across on their way into the pin holes.

Tusq saddles are very bright, and lack bottom end. Every Taylor owner I've installed a custom bone saddle for has loved the huge difference in tone and volume that a bone saddle has provided. Likewise, Martin's use of Micarta robs the guitar of sparkle and texture, due to its softer flexible nature and tone absorbing properties.

Even less expensive laminated wood guitars will improve vastly with a bone saddle in the slot.
It is a small investment to bring out the hidden life in your guitar by having a custom bone saddle made. Feel free to e-mail me and visit my guitar building, guitar repair and restoration business at http://www.customguitars.com
Later folks,
Scott

Beware dishonest dealers!

Hi folks, I've been seeing a very bad trend developing over the last few years, dishonest dealers who try to get more out of you after you decide which guitar to buy. At least a dozen of my customers who've purchased extended warranties at a huge national chain starting with "G" weren't told that these plans have nothing to do with, and aren't recognized by the manufacturers! In the cases of Martins, Taylors, Gibsons, and others, the guitars come with a lifetime warranty to the original owner. Why would you need an extended plan on an guitar with a lifetime warranty?! These extended warranties only cover (in theory) in house work by unauthorized techs, or shipping to the factory for you, which is usually less than the cost of the bogus extended warranty to begin with. Yes, the factory will still charge you return shipping on repairs, so you're wasting your money. I consider this criminal.

These stores will also try to get away with selling you the case for extra, when the case is supposed to come with the guitar! This can be verified by calling the customer service departments at the manufacturers. They'll be happy to tell you they don't honor these plans, and the guitars are shipped in the cases and are to be sold as such. As a warranty center for all major US manufacturers, I know what I'm talking about.

Don't be fooled by these low price tags. They try to milk you at the register for more. On top of this, many of these big chains have a 30 day return policy, no questions asked. That nice new
guitar you're buying could have easily been owned by more than one person before you, and returned. I've even had owners bring in their "new guitars" for work only to have the serial number registered to someone else! This creates a real mess and you then have to prove you bought it being told it was new to have the work covered!

Please buy from a reputable small dealer. These people tend to care more about you, as they would never stay in business behaving the way the big boys do.

Please visit my website at http://www.customguitars.com to see my custom built guitars,
and info on my guitar repair and restoration services!

-SBM

Modifying your guitar

In my guitar repair shop I'm constantly being asked to do something that I rarely ever do...Modify a guitar from it's original condition. It is not a good idea to change your guitar for several reasons. Mainly, if it is a quality instrument, it's the way it is for a reason. Vintage instruments can be devalued seriously if the slightest thing is changed. This includes pickups, finish touch-ups, refinishing, adding or replacing parts, even original solder points are important to keep when possible.

A bunch of years ago a collector brought me a 1959 Les Paul Sunburst that had at one point belonged to Jimi Hendrix. The renown Christies Auctions was interested in it, and it was my job to clean it up. It was all original, and worn and torn, which was wonderful. A simple set-up, a light cleaning, and I was done. It would have been very sad had anyone replaced any of its parts along the way! Another customer brought in his late 50's Telecaster which he had stripped down and refinished in polyurethane! I was sick at the sight of it. Despite doing a clean job, he had ruined the spirit and value of the guitar forever by making it all shiny and new looking.

I have seen so many valuable guitars that were injured by careless mods and replacement parts. It may be hard to believe, but that new guitar you own will one day be a vintage instrument. If you need to replace the tuning machines, do it with exact replacements so there will be no new screw holes in the headstock. If there are dings and scratches in the finish, leave them alone...The guitar will be worth more if left completely original. When you have no choice but to replace parts, keep all the originals in a safe place, and make sure the instrument will not need any new holes drilled, cavities re-routed, etc...That way, all the original parts will still fit, and the guitar won't be compromised!

It is also important when restoring a vintage guitar that all phases of the process respect the original spirit of the instrument.

All the best, please feel free to e-mail me with questions, and please
visit the site at http://www.customguitars.com

feel free to leave comments as well! All the best, Scott

Humidifying your guitar

One of the most important things you can do to protect your fine guitar is to understand the principles of humidity control. All quality guitars are built at an average of 45% relative humidity (rh). This includes Martin, Taylor, Gibson and many others. It can be very dry in parts of the USA (and other parts of the world) especially during heating season, which is typically late October/early November through late April. The rh in your home can drop to in the 20% rh range. This can be devastating to your instruments.

Guitars will start to dry out at under 40% rh and can start to crack, neck angles will pull up, bridges can lift off tops, and tops can start to sink. The damage from this can be upwards of $500 if necks need to be reset, and higher if more damage occurs. With less expensive laminated wood guitars you don't need to worry as much, but the dry air can still affect the neck and action...the same goes with solid body electrics where you'll notice low action, buzzing, and sharp fret ends sticking out.

Some people feel a false sense of security because they've gone years with no trouble, but it can suddenly occur with little warning. It can also happen slowly over the years until one day it just
gets to a point where you notice things aren't right.

There are soundhole humidifiers like "Damp-It" and D'Addario's "Planet Waves Humidifier"which are inexpensive, and can save your guitar's life in the dry season when used correctly. The photo in this article is a Planet Waves Humidifier and "in the case" humidity meter (hygrometer). I suggest keeping them moist and in the soundhole, in the case whenever the guitar is not being played during this season. You may need to re-moisten these devices every 3-7 days depending on your home's climate. You should used distilled water to avoid mineral deposits from clogging the elements.

Some companies are denying warranty claims these days as this falls under "neglect", so please be prudent! Feel free to e-mail me for advice on this! I have seen many dried out Taylors, Martins, Guilds, and Gibsons this year so far. Don't let yours be another in the long line in my repair shop!

Feel free to visit my website's repair page at http://www.customguitars.com/guitarrepair.htm

All the best, Scott
S.B. MacDonald Custom Instruments

Resetting a Martin Guitar Neck

Hi folks,
Many people are not aware why their guitars may become harder to play as time progresses. One of the typical reasons is that the stresses over time cause the body to move and the neck angle to pull up. This is often fixed temporarily by lowering the saddle height, but this is not the cure, as it decreases tone and string break angle behind the saddle.

Resetting the neck is a major repair job which few repair people perform.
It is the one job that manufacturers only trust to the top people in the field. The reset photos above are from a warranty job I performed for C.F. Martin as I am a warranty and service center for them. These photos show the heating blanket and the steaming process. I will be posting detailed articles soon on my website of jobs like this, and others.

The process requires the 15th fret to be pulled, and a small hole drilled through the fret slot into the air gap in the dovetail joint. The fingerboard extension is then warmed with a heating blanket and gently loosened from the the top with a thin spatula or palette knife. Steam is injected into the hole to soften the glue inside the joint. The neck is removed, the heel is slightly carved back at an angle, the the neck is re-glued into the body at the new correct angle. This improves action, tone, volume and intonation. NEVER let anyone shave the bridge lower to fix your problems, as this is a crude, value destroying technique only to be used on inexpensive instruments!

Please feel free to visit S.B. MacDonald Custom Instruments at http://www.customguitars.com
to see more on custom built guitars, guitar repair, and guitar restoration.

All the best, Scott

Welcome to my guitar related blog!

Welcome to my new blog regarding custom made guitars, guitar repair, guitar restoration, and other topics yet to come. I will post articles on maintaining instruments, talk about repairs, relate interesting information, and show photos of interesting guitars. I'll post photos of guitar repairs and guitar restoration as well. I'm also planning on discussing manufacturers, players, events, and am open to ideas from you readers.

Please feel free to e-mail me at scott@customguitars.com to ask questions that I will be happy to discuss on this blog. Also visit my company S.B. MacDonald Custom Instruments at http://www.customguitars.com to see my work in custom designed and built guitars, to tour the shop, see the gallery, hear sound samples, read mag and newspaper stories about my shop and more.

The guitar featured here is my Resonator Electric model. Check it out in detail at http://www.customguitars.com/resolec.htm

Thanks for visiting! -SBM