Chubbuck Guitars / Kevin Chubbuck, making & repairing guitars in an old building just north of Boston, Massachusetts.
Viewing entries in
bench
2001 Taylor 310 :: bridge re-glue
Early pre-dawn bridge re-glue on a Taylor 310 dreadnought. I'm loving the moldable plastic pellets (InstaMorph) I picked up weeks ago for making custom clamping cauls. The cauls are shown above on the outer wings, backed with plywood for rigidity and to keep the clamps from slipping.
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.
Cooking off a lifting bridge :: 2001 Taylor 310
Using a combination of an infrared heat lamp, a foil-wrapped cardboard shield and a palette knife to correct a failing bridge glue joint.
Loose frets :: 1960's Teisco May Queen
Just about every fret end on this neck is "sprung" and needs to be glued and clamped back down. Not ideal, but it will hopefully make it more playable and save the player some cash on a total refret (which it could use as the frets are fairly low).
Counterfeit Martin D45S [4.8 lbs] :: sharp fret ends & setup
This customer has a good sense of humor. He stops by and says "I have Martin D-45 for you! Should be worth quite a bit of money!" I was immediately suspicious as pulled it out of a stained Washburn gig bag. We both had a good laugh and he described a few issues to address, like the high action and sharp fret ends. Upon inspection I found a slew of other issues (as to be expected on such a cheap copy) with a lifting bridge, loose braces, uneven frets and an über-sloppy saddle fit (see video below). We decided to keep costs down and just make it more comfortable to play and only addressed the fret ends and action.
The serial number dates it to 1944 ... a rare year indeed for Martin cutaways since they weren't available until the 1980's. Also check out this oddly-worded label ... yikes.
![Fret end dress :: 2011 G&L SC-2 [7.1 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1430976479911-8FEQFZ3NAGSOTV19E8GU/image-asset.jpeg)
![Counterfeit Martin D45S [4.8 lbs] :: sharp fret ends & setup](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1430976631250-PSWVI2HNIVYM8O0KJFTW/image-asset.jpeg)