Tweaking Nuts :: 2010 Alan Carruth 11 String Harp Guitar

August 25, 2015

This harp guitar belongs to Ken Bonfield and he brought it by the shop when we shot some video demos on the latest builds. Ken is always experimenting with string gauges to find the best tone, tension and feel for his various alternate tunings. He recently upped the gauge on a few of the subs (low-register bass harp strings) so the nuts were sized to improve the tone and tuning of the bigger strings. This thing is a monster and Ken just so happens to have another Alan Carruth harp guitar coming soon. I'm definitely looking forward to checking it out.

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Neck repair & setup :: Mitchell MD-100 [4.5 lbs]

August 23, 2015

Neck repair & setup :: Mitchell MD-100 [4.5 lbs]

A loose fingerboard was addressed before going through with setup. There was a significant forward bow in the neck that luckily was corrected by tightening the truss rod.

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2005 Epiphone Les Paul Classic [8.6 lbs] :: setup

August 22, 2015

2005 Epiphone Les Paul Classic [8.6 lbs] :: setup

Like many Les Pauls, this has a slight fingerboard rise over the body that some refer to as a "ski jump" or "body hump". This effect was lessened on this setup by straightening the neck via the truss rod and then raising the bridge to account for the truss rod adjustment. The neck now plays well without fretting out up high. This truss rod adjustment trick doesn't always work out though as some players require more relief in their neck (to prevent lower fret buzzes) or the "ski jump" is just too extreme. In that later case, often the only solution is to remove the frets and plane the body hump out and install new frets.

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Loose fingerboard :: Mitchell MD-100

August 22, 2015

Loose fingerboard :: Mitchell MD-100

Here's a clamping setup to address a partially separated fingerboard. Below I'm cleaning out what little is left of the old glue in prep for the re-glue.