Soundhole repair & nut shim :: 1993 Taylor 612-C [4.4 lbs]

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The soundhole edge was busted and needed to be repaired.  Open strings had quite a bit of buzzing so I removed the nut, added a mahogany shim, reglued the nut and adjusted the slots.  The worn frets are past the point of leveling so new frets will be in this guitar's future.  Often with new frets a new nut is required hence the shimmed nut will get him by until he's ready for the refret.

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Interesting nut shim :: 1997 Gibson Blues Hawk [6.5 lbs]

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A creative alternative to shimming a nut with this small piece of wood.  I see a lot of business card scraps but this is the first mini nut to come across the bench.  Unfortunately in this position the "fix" wreaks havoc on intonation as it shortens the scale length on the G string.  Ideally I like to replace the nut but removing the additional piece of wood and filling / recutting the nut slot was a more economical solution for the customer.

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This customer is a bit of a tinkerer so he swapped out the pickups.  In the neck is a Sentell P-90 and a TV Jones Soapbar P-90 Power'Tron in the bridge.

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2008 Martin D-41 Special [4.8 lbs] :: junky nut tuning woes

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2008 Martin D-41 Special [4.8 lbs] :: junky nut tuning woes

Boston guitarist Jon McAuliffe stopped by the shop recently as he was having tuning issues.  After inspecting the nut I found a few of the slots had been filled with a soft material at one point.  Luckily there was enough string clearance to file through the junky fill into solid bone without any open string rattles.  While working on the guitar I found that the leads for the pickup's sound hole mounted volume control had completely broken free.  The wires were re-soldered and hot-glued to the volume module before reinstalling it back into the guitar.

You can learn more about Jon McAuliffe at www.jonmcauliffe.com