Hi there my friends,

trust that you're all fine and well during these very, very odd days.

I'm incredibly busy with work. Thanks to all of you for that, but it's going to require some patience (on both your part and mine) to get through the work. I won't compromise quality for speed, so things may take a little longer than usual to get done. I'll try to keep you all posted.

Fact is: I've never been busier. I've never had more work booked in, and never had more people trusting me with their instruments. And this is the start of my 40th year doing this gig...!

Strange days indeed.

So.

With respect to those of you who already have an instrument booked in with me for repair, so that I can get your job done I won't be taking any new work in for at least a couple of weeks, probably until at least mid-September. Which is actually just two weeks away...

If you haven't called me yet, and you'd like me to work on your instrument, then I'll be more than happy to do so - but it will be a few weeks at least before I can do so.

Thank you all for your support (and your patience) and please keep well during these crazy times.

Andrew

 Hi Everyone,

trusting that you're all well and dealing with this strange new world in the best way that you can.

This month sees me start my 16th year with my shop in Lismore, and my 40th year as a professional guitar-repairer. 40 years! People have received less for murder!

But it has been good. Almost every day for 40 years I have made someone's guitar play better. And usually several people's. Often several people's...

When I left school I had no idea what I wanted to do, apart from becoming a rock-star (of course). My first job was as an accounts clerk at a Building Society in Sydney. My parents, and the management of the Building-Society, all wanted me to become an accountant. Given my subsequent hopeless understanding of money that would surely have been a positive move, but then my future guitar clients wouldn't have  benefited from my modest pricing!

OK. The technical bit.

In the last two or three months I have seen four or five American Fender Stratocasters with their truss-rod nuts wrecked. I have seen this many times over the years, but four in a month is too many.

Here is the reason: many USA truss-rod nuts (including the late-'60s bullet version, and the post '85 new Fender Company version) all use a 1/8" allen key. 1/8" is approximately 3.2mm.

A 3mm allen key is more common than a 1/8", and is used on guitars fitted with a Floyd Rose-type system, including the millions of Asian-made versions. More of these guitars have been made than American Fenders, and the common 3mm key ALMOST fits the USA 1/8" nut.

HERE IS THE THING: a 3mm allen key will ALMOST fit a 1/8" nut. But not quite. If you try to use a 3m key in a 1/8" nut you will WRECK THE NUT!

Given the recent spate, I'm hoping that there isn't someone locally who has taken it upon themselves to "fix" some local Fenders without knowing which key to use.

The metric system was invented about 100 years ago by the French, in an attempt to simplify measurements, but all it actually did was reduce the accuracy of small measurements!

The engineering world still uses imperial measurements for larger numbers, and decimal imperial (ie: based on one-thousands of an inch) for small measurements. The French system's seemingly "tiny" millimetre is actually 0.040" (forty thousandths of an inch). That means that there are forty accurate imperial measurements within the range of the giant metric millimetre!

When working with guitars, which are devices that have to be set to very fine tolerances, millimetres are simply way too big !

Andrew

21.7.20


Hi everyone,

I just crossed a milestone. This week makes it 15 years since I opened my shop in Lismore!


Thanks to every one of you who have trusted your guitars to me. Best wishes to you all.

For 25 years before I moved here I worked out of other people's shops in Sydney - Guitar City, Guitar Factory, Guitar World. Learning, and doing the repairs for established shops like that was a serious responsibility.

When I moved to Lismore I wanted to have a repair-shop that would serve the guitar players of the north coast, and also be independent in such a way that I could have a positive relationship with the music stores of the region. I had plenty of experience with the poisonous relationship between Sydney guitar shops, even if they had no brands or stock lines in common!

This worked out well almost immediately! I continue to have great relationships with the shops in our region - Planet Music Lismore, Byron Music, Valiant Music Brunswick Heads, Russell's Music Lismore. I was also in communication with the Mullumbimby guys when the crazy covid disruption occurred. We are blessed to have great music stores in our region - I trust that you will continue to support them all.


Moving here was a leap-of-faith. I know I'm good at what I do - after 40 years I would have no excuse otherwise - but almost every single one of you, for whom I have been privileged to work for, has trusted that leap of faith.

The majority of what I do depends upon "word-of-mouth". I had a typical thing happen today. Two customers thought that they had recognized each other, but couldn't figure out from where. They back-tracked through gigs, college, school and McDonalds and it turned out that they had previously met HERE (!) at my shop.

So. My guitar-repair shop continues. Obeying government space and distance protocols, hand-cleaners at the ready.

Been a weird anniversary, but otherwise than being VERY busy, no serious change to standard AK procedures!

Keep well my crazy friends,
and play your dear guitars until they simply have to be fixed!


Andrew

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