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floating bridge

Floating bridge & broken strap button :: 1960's Harmony H22

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Floating bridge & broken strap button :: 1960's Harmony H22

A recent NYC acquisition of a full-hollow Harmony bass for a Boston area player in the shop for a couple issues.  The plastic tail strap button broke off which makes playing while standing on stage a little difficult (duh).  I removed the broken piece of the acoustic-style endpin, plugged the hole and installed a set of Fender strap buttons.  Another issue was that the floating bridge was skating all over the top so we decided to lock it down with double-sided tape.  The tape should keep the intonation in check and will release with a little naptha if necessary.  Cool bass for sure.

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Loose Neck Joint & Bridge Fit :: 1960's Aria Barney Kessel [5.7 lbs]

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Loose Neck Joint & Bridge Fit :: 1960's Aria Barney Kessel [5.7 lbs]

Loose Neck Joint & Bridge Fit :: 1960's Aria Barney Kessel [5.7 lbs]

The bridge foot needed to be refit along with a loose neck block re-glued to the top.  The neck pickup was also freaking out, causing feedback and out-of-phase output issues.  I found that the metal cover was split and there was a small section that was vibrating and inducing signal into the pickup.  To fix this I ended up lightly hot gluing the broken cover to keep it in place.  A bone new nut finished off the setup.

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Fret end dress :: 2011 G&L SC-2 [7.1 lbs]

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Fret end dress :: 2011 G&L SC-2 [7.1 lbs]

Fret end dress :: 2011 G&L SC-2 [7.1 lbs]

When a guitar is exposed to low humidity, often the fingerboard will move (shrink) and the frets become proud of the neck (since they are metal and do not contract with humidity).  Unbound fingerboards like this can become especially uncomfortable on the left hand so the frets were ground back flush with the neck and polished out.  I'm a big fan of the dynamic range of these G&L "Magnetic Field Design" pickups.  The "Belair Green" finish looks pretty sharp too.

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Bridge from Hell :: 1994 Fender Strat Plus Deluxe [7.8 lbs]

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Bridge from Hell :: 1994 Fender Strat Plus Deluxe [7.8 lbs]

Bridge from Hell :: 1994 Fender Strat Plus Deluxe [7.8 lbs]

Here is an interesting Strat that was in last week for a setup.  It has a set of the Lace Sensor blue, silver and red pickups along with a LSR roller nut, locking tuners and Fender's Deluxe Floyd Rose-style locking bridge.  The fret ends on the maple fingeboard needed to be dressed as they were extremely sharp.  I also removed a couple shims from the roller nut to lower the action over the first fret.

Oh boy, the bridge though.  This design is a pain in the ass to set up.  The string ball ends need to be clipped off and then locked into the saddles - no problems there.  But in order to adjust the intonation, you need to make your adjustments through the rear cavity in the back.  There are two adjustments for each saddle, one to lock it down and one to act as a stop for the intonation.  I found that making these adjustments was much easier with the bridge removed from the body, so I would string it up to check the intonation and then have to remove the bridge to make my adjustments.  Then reinstall and string up to check.  Further complicating things were the too-short intonation stop screws on the low E and A.  They were so short that I had to fabricate shims to keep the saddles from creeping forward under string tension.  These shims had to be precisely fitted as they dictate the intonation for those strings.

I've worked on quite a few Strats and Fender threw me an unexpected curve ball on this one.

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