Hi everyone,

trusting that you are all fine and dealing well with the current weirdness.

My shop is back open regular hours: 1.00pm - 5.00pm Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. You are welcome to drop by at any of those times. I will be observing advised space and distance protocols.

I will continue to post stuff on this journal page that should be of interest.

Over the last month or so I have seen four American Fender Strats that have had wrecked truss-rod nuts. In the previous 30 years or more I have seen this a few times, but 4 in a month is a bit of a pandemic (please excuse the term).

Here's the thing: USA-made Fenders use a truss-rod nut that is adjustable with a 1/8" allen key (American Fenders are made to "imperial" measurements). Many Asian-made guitars use metric allen keys to adjust various components. Most Asian truss-rods are either 4mm or 5mm, but some early Chinese Squiers use the same 3/16" truss rod as Mexican Fenders do.


Floyd Rose lock-nuts and bridges use a 3mm key, and these are plentiful. Imperial tools are a little harder to find in dear old Metric Australia.


Using a 3mm key in a 1/8" truss rod will wreck the truss rod nut. 1/8" is approximately 3.2mm, and will "almost" fit . But the tiny difference means that using a 3mm key in a 1/8"" nut will round-over the edges of the nut and render it un-useable.

Have these guitars with wrecked truss-rod nuts been "adjusted" by folk in isolation/lockdown  who just wanted their guitars to play better and didn't know the difference between the imperial and metric measurements? Good question.


In the 1970s, when Australia converted to metric, it became illegal for a short while to make or sell items or tools graduated in Imperial measurements! After a brief review, Mr.Fraser's government realised that Australia's entire manufacturing industry was based on imperial measurements, and they repealed that law!

For many years afterwards (and in some cases still) the metric-measured things that you bought were still manufactured in Imperial measurements and sold as "metric". The 6mm dowel that you bought from Mitre 10 was actually 1/4" dowel. There was no point in completely re-tooling every manufacturing industry, so they all basically fudged the numbers a bit! Even now if you buy a sheet of  Melamine chipboard from Bunnings, it will be sold as 1200 x 600mm but is actually 4 foot x 2 foot!


So.

Some metric measurements are very close to the imperial ones, but NONE are close enough that the wrong toll will work.

If you fit a 3mm key in a 1/8" USA Fender truss-rod nut it will feel almost "right". But if you try to tighten the truss-rod (which is under tension) you will round over the truss-rod nut and wreck it. This immediately ruins the shape of the nut and prevents any further adjustments. I'm pretty sure that this has been the cause of these recent Fender truss-rod problems that I have been tasked with.

I'm guessing that the recent spate of 1/8" versus 3mm problems have arised because more people have been trying to do DIY fixes at home.

Golden Rule is that if you're not absolutely 100% sure what you're doing, then don't do it!

Very soon I will post a journal entry explaining and simplifying the imperial measurement system. When clearly explained and understood, it is much simpler and more accurate than the metric system!

Hi Everyone,

from this week on I will have my shop open regular hours - 1.00pm - 5.00pm Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. So effectively back to "normal".

In accordance with the ongoing medical situation I ask everyone to follow advised protocols, and as my shop is a small space, in accordance with the 4sqm rule, my shop is open to no more than two customers at a time. Please don't be offended if I ask you to wait in the corridor for a minute or two.

Strange days indeed. But regardless of this, I am back to normal trading.

Everything (ok, almost everything) is how it was before COVID19. Some parts supplies have been interrupted, especially those from the US, but this should shake down over the next few weeks.

Biggest problem is that most small parcel freight always came via passenger flights (ie: the 300 people in the passenger section subsidized the parcels downstairs) and this clearly isn't happening at the moment, so small freight has to wait until it can be added to BIG freight shipments. This is going to both slow down, and increase cost, of small parcel freight.

I have trade deals with the Australian distributors, as well as several of the US ones, and should be able to keep most supply lines open.. The plummeting dollar, as well as the restricted supply, might make some things a little more expensive - but an extra five dollars on the cost of a CRL switch shouldn't be too much to bear.

I will keep you all informed as best as I can.

AK

Hi everyone,

strange days continue...!

April, which went by under the heavy restrictions, was quiet as far as in-coming work was concerned. I caught up on a lot of the backlog of repairs, but mainly just the regular weekly and fortnightly stuff.

When the virus hit, it seemed  as if we'd all be locked away for a few months.  A hassle for almost everyone, but an opportunity for me to get a lot of the long-term repairs and restorations done!

Strangely, it didn't work out like that. Aargh!

As soon as dear Gladys announced that restrictions would be lifted in May, it was like a switch was thrown.  A LOT or work came in! Chaos! I am more-or-less back on the usual schedule for the week-by-week stuff such as set-ups, wiring etc.; but still rather swamped by the long-term bigger jobs.

I have the shop open on Tuesdays and Thursdays 1.00-pm - 5.00pm at the moment, but will re-instate Fridays soon as well. I/m keeping Fridays for the moment as an extra workshop day to catch up on the backlog!

Keep well everyone, my next post will have a bunch of interesting facts and figures, stories and anecdotal stuff for you to dwell upon!

Hi my friends,

my shop is open Tuesday and Thursday 1.00pm - 5.00pm.

There is a real possibility that I will be going back to "normal" shop hours soon.

I've been thinking about doing a weekly or fortnightly journal entry regardless of all of this, so here is the latest!


PAPER SHORTAGE

We all saw (and laughed at) the inexplicable panic over toilet paper during the onset of this coronavirus thing.

Yesterday, when I went to Woolworths to buy a few groceries, their toilet-paper aisle was fully stocked (brimming over in fact). Phew!

I went into Bunnings today, to buy (among other stuff) the rolls of sandpaper that I use almost constantly in my job. But no - there is a worldwide SANDPAPER shortage (!) as folks staying at home decide to renovate and re-paint.

Ha!

Is there anything that is not weird about these current events?!

Andrew

Hi Everyone,

for the time being, my shop will be open Tuesday and Thursday, 1.00pm - 5.00pm

If those times don't suit, then please call or email and we'll work something out.

Meanwhile, I'm going to share some repair stories and guitar knowledge with you. I've always intended to do this (with perhaps a weekly post) but never quite got around to it. Hopefully this new situation that we're all in will spur me on to doing it! So here's the first installment, and it's a pretty dramatic one...

BROKEN HEADSTOCK ON A GIBSON OR GIBSON-STYLE GUITAR

Some of you will know that this is pretty common, but it's still pretty horrifying when it happens to your Gibson. The good news is that in at least 90% of cases the guitar is repairable, and will play, sound, and tune just like it did before the break. I use jigs and clamps to align the two halves of the break, apply a VERY strong wood-glue and a lot of clamping pressure, and it almost always works out fine.

Breaks that can't be fixed by aligning and gluing like this can often still be fixed, but may require a serious amount of work.

I've done at least one headstock repair, and perhaps quite on average more than that, every week since I started this gig forty years ago. That adds up to thousands of headstock repairs! None of them are quite the same - the way the wood splinters at the break point is different for each one - but they almost always go back together.

Not all of them are Gibsons, of course, but 99% of them have a Gibson-style angled headstock.

BUT!

Here is the point of this particular blog: This week I repaired a 2017 Gibson SG with a broken headstock. The guitar had "Grover" locking tuners.

Here's the thing: a guitar strung with 10-46 light-gauge strings has about 120 lbs of tension applied by the strings. OK. If this guitar was to fall, that tension would be a factor in how much force would be applied to that narrow bit of wood up by the headstock. But so would the weight of the tuning keys (machine heads).

I weighed the separated headstock. It weighed 87 grams. I then weighed the "Grover" locking tuners and they weighed 266 grams! That is, more than three times the weight of the headstock.

My recommendation is, that if you have a Gibson (or a Gibson-style) guitar that has these tuners, that you replace them with a vintage-style tuner set (such as Gotoh SD90). Your guitar has been drilled to 3/8" (10mm) and you will also need step-down collars. It's a lot cheaper than having a broken headstock fixed.

The SG photos are shown below.

Hi everyone,

it would seem to be that my shop is eligible to be open to the public (ie: you guys!).

I have been working via appointment for the last two weeks, and this has been ok. But I suspect that there have been more than a few folk who have arrived at the shop, seen the sign advising 'phone or email contact, and just gone home.

So.

From next week my shop will be open Tuesday and Thursday  1.00pm - 5.00pm,, and you are welcome to drop by at any of those times. In accordance with the current rules regarding social-distancing, I will probably have to see you one-at-a-time, but if we all act sensible, and in accordance with advised protocols, this shouldn't be too hard.

Over the next few months I will be using this Journal page to post all kinds of interesting guitar-repair stuff that I'm sure you'll be interested in.

Keep in touch!

Andrew

Hi Everyone,

for the time being my little shop will be closed other than by appointment. I have to do this for a couple of reasons - firstly, I had bronchitis last year and can't risk another infection, and secondly, I think that this current health situation warrants us all being exceptionally careful and cautious.

I have lots of jobs booked in and I will continue to work through them.

At this point, I am looking at finishing the repairs as normal, calling you and requesting internet payment, and then either delivering the guitars to your door or meeting you in the carpark at the back of my shop. I still have EFTPOS but will only use it via Paywave for the time being. For more distant clients, the freight companies should still be operating.

All of you who know my place will understand that it doesn't quite meet the governments four-square-metre requirement! And the crazy draconian government fine would send me to the wall. But in certain cases I will be able to see you at the shop.

If you have new repairs that you'd like me to do, then please call and we'll work it out. There are several options available.

Strange days, my friends, but I will continue to be here to keep you playing! Please email me with ANY questions.

I will also ALWAYS be available online if you have any technical questions, or are thinking about tackling some repairs on your own. My advice is free!

Keep well, be sensible etc.

Andrew