That's the back...and a hairy one at that.

Well, you just never know what you’re going to see in our store or the repair shop, and this month brought us an Armadillo Charango. The Charango is an Andean instrument with 10 strings – 2 sets of 5, with 4 sets in unison and one set an octave higher. Traditionally the back was made from an armadillo though most no longer are. The one in our shop was a getting a crack repaired (the top, not the armadillo shell).  Here’s what a charanago sounds like in the hands of an expert…or a ninja.

Mike R who fixed this charango questioned if Ovation got an idea for their rounded backs from this perhaps?

Mass St. Music co-owner Jim Baggett explains the next steps in the restoration of the 1939 Martin D-18 that is our latest ‘On the Bench‘ project. It should be finished and ready for sale in June or July 2012. From Jim:

The '39 Martin D-18 before we began work on it.

We recently acquired a 1939 Martin D-18 (serial #73525). Always one of our favorite guitars. This is one of the dirtiest guitars I have seen in a while but, though worn through in the expected normal areas, the original finish remains intact.  The bridge is not original and the neck has been previously reset and is in need of a fresh reset and refret. Since the bridge would not be reused and there was no way of knowing the type of glue that was used, we elected to plane the bridge down very thin before removing it. This can be done with a small hand plane or a router and jig. I had just reset and sharpened my planes, and was not all that interested in spraying the shop with ebony dust, so I decided to do it the old fashioned way.

Jim (very carefully!) shaves the bridge down on the Martin before removing it.

The bridge shaving in process...

The bridge shaved down as low as Jim would go before heating and removal.

Once I had the bridge down to about .080″, very little heat was required to free it up. It came off slowly, but not a splinter of Spruce came with it. The surface should clean up nicely, and even though the bridge that was removed was a tiny bit oversized (as is common), I don’t think it will be much of a challenge to make a new bridge that is the correct size and profile. The fact that the original bridge plate is clean and nice should make for a great tone sandwich.

After heating, Jim gently brought the bridge up with no damage to the soundboard.

Success!

The next step was to remove the neck. The previous neck set was a bit sloppy and had excess glue, requiring patience, but it has paid off as the beautiful heel of the 30s Martins remains uncracked. The original finish, though chipped and scratched, has a great look that goes with the rest of the guitar.

A little patience helped Jim remove the neck, which had excess glue from a previous reset.

Off and ready for a reset...

The neck pocket

The guitar and neck are now ready for our Repair Shop Manager and luthier Mike Horan to get busy on. Making a prewar style bridge is harder than one might imagine, but having lots of original prewars at the shop and having made dozens, Mike has it down. We also have a secret stash of beautiful, naturally dark Ebony set aside for these special and deserving instruments.

The lower bass bout is just one of the areas on this '39 Martin that definitely needs a little TLC cleaning!

The lower treble bout is another area that will get some TLC clean up!

I wanted to share some pics of the guitar in the dirty phase and will try to remember to update with more photos as the cleaning goes along. We have learned that patience pays off in this process. There is just no easy, quick way to get through 70 years of sweat and dirt, but I have always found the end result of a worn, honest finish to be worth all the effort. – Jim Baggett

Mike and Josh in the Repair Shop clamping an acoustic

We’re extending a special discount to our repairs customers – if your repair is over $40, you can take 10% off accessories at Mass St. Music the same day as your repair is paid for. This includes strings, apparel, coffee mugs, cables, stands and more. Just present your repair receipt when you’re checking out. The fine print: the discount covers only additional items and is not applicable to the repair or any materials used in the repair, nor can it be used in conjunction with any other discounts. Also purchases must be made the same day. We’re happy to also extend this offer to our  Tom Wagner Underground Sounds Amp Repair and Flint Hills Music Band Instrument Repair customers who pick up and drop off at Mass St. Music!

How cool is this!?

It’s finished! And we can tell you it sounds even better than we expected. This was our repair shop mad scientist Matt Harmon‘s pick for March – he took  an already very cool sounding Gretsch Junior Jet I ((NOTE – WAS on sale at $239 when this article was written, but sorry folks, it’s at MAP at $325 now) and swapped out the Gretsch mini hum with a Fralin Dogear P-90. It wasn’t just a swap-out actually, as it required some routing, tweaking, and pickguard reconfiguring, but the result is an absolutely killer Junior Jet I, hot-rodded with a Fralin and sonically fantastic.  It looks pretty dang cool too, eh? This was so cool it sold, plus our own boss, John Flynn has signed up for one too, which Matt is working on now. We have just a few more of these sale Gretsch guitars left – if you want to know more or know you need one too, give us call at 1-800-747-9980 while we still have ‘em. I’m having Matt do the same to my Junior Jet II.

Oh yes.

check the sweet pickguard work - Matt did an amazing job on this!

I was passing through the repair shop when I spied Josh doing a little work on this incredible ten string Prat bass that belongs to our good friend Mark R.  I’ll have to ask Mark to demonstrate how one might go about playing this beast (hardy har… ‘very carefully!’.  Really nice wood and fan fretboard. Take a look…

saddle view

Shop addition Mike Runyon - deja vu

The Mass Street Music Repair Shop is happy to welcome back Mike Runyon! Mike worked with us  for several years way back around the turn of the millenium. His knowledgeable repair skills and excellent customer service will be a great addition to the shop. Look for more info on Mike to be added to our staff page in coming days. Welcome back Mike!

Mike Horan, Josh and Matt make some room for Mike Runyon in the shop

Whether you just purchased your first acoustic guitar or are playing your favorite from long ago, you’ll want to be sure you’ve got your acoustic humidified for the fall and winter. Why? Once the heat goes on in your home and the air becomes more dry, your guitar will need a little TLC so it doesn’t lose natural moisture in the wood.  If you don’t, your bridge could pull up on its own, and your top, sides or back could even develop a crack. The shop sees this sort of thing too often in the wintertime, so take a moment and make sure you’ve got a humidifier for your guitar. They are inexpensive, easy to use, and one of the best things you can do for your guitar.

Kyser Acoustic Humidifier...priceless protection

We’ve tried several brands and offer a few different ones here in the store, but truth be told, we like the Kyser Humidifier best – it’s affordable and so simple to use. How do you use it? First, make sure you have the right one – if you have a regular acoustic 6 or 12 string, you’ll need the Kyser Acoustic Humidifier. If you have a classical guitar, or a similar guitar with a smaller soundhole, you’ll need the Kyser Classical Humidifier.

Straight out of the package, it looks a bit like a hockey puck. Remove the hard plastic ring and toss it – it just holds the shape in the package.  (Uh, sorry to be so p.c., but please give it a quick cut so the darned baby seals won’t wear it like a necklace in 5 years – thanks). Now, pull the sponge out of the hockey puck, wet it thoroughly, then squeeze it til it no longer drips. Put it back in the humidifier ‘puck’, wipe that dry. Then just slide the whole thing under the strings into the soundhole with the holes facing down into the guitar. For the humidifier to work, you need to have your acoustic in its case when you’re not playing it.  Check the humidifier weekly til you figure out a routine, but rewet the sponge whenever it becomes dry and hard. It will really depend on the heat and air in your home or studio. Come Spring, just stash it away til next fall. Next to a case or insurance, a humidifier is the very best thing you can do for your acoustic guitar.

Remember a while back Andy McKee brought  his beautiful Greenfield into Mass St Music for a top crack repair? Well, Josh in our repair shop did an outstanding job fixing it. See for yourself in the shots below. Here’s the before:

Top crack - before

And here are a couple shots after Josh worked his magic:

And after...

and after

Exceptional repairman Josh

Exceptional guitarist Andy! (click photo for youtube clip of Andy)

Andy’s working on a new album due out in January…we were lucky enough to hear him doing his thing up in the acoustic room for a bit today – absolutely beautiful music!

All right guys and gals, who here has turned their amps up to 11 with massive amounts of gain to mimic good old Eddie V and then run up to their amp while holding that pinch harmonic? Probably more of you than would admit to it. Trying to achieve that sound is easy, if you want to go deaf… Most of us (excluding people with their own theater) have limits on how loud they can play. That’s why Fernandez patented a pickup system that will achieve feedback and sustain at any volume level with the flick of a switch.

Our customer came in with his trusty Ibanez RG and the Sustainer Kit. Easy as 123…drop it in and infinite sustain… well, not exactly. Here is what I had to do to make this customer’s dreams of guitar domination a reality.

After plotting out the extra volume knob and where the circuit board went I needed to make a router template and start removing wood. I then made a starting place for my router bit with the drill press, and it was time for wood to fly. So if you can, imagine the sound of noisy router turned on for 30 minutes with wood dust flying through the air. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Well it was for me..

Once I achieved final depth with the router it was time to make a second template for the same route. This time it was for the shelf for the circuit board cover to lay on.

With my routes completed, I drilled three extra holes and installed all the electronics. Made a new back plate for the circuit board and the back was finished.

After a Setup this guitar was something fierce. I had our resident guitar hero Eric Mardis shred on it down stairs for a while, and needless to say, heads turned wondering what the heck was going on.

For those that noticed that this guitar originally came with a Hum-Single-Hum pickup config, I’ll soon make a second post on how I made a single pickup converson ring.

-Matt H.

Here is an old Harmony tenor guitar that has been on and off of my bench lately. It is a pretty involved project consisting of a neck reset, refret, and some spot touch-up to the top. The neck angle has relaxed over time to the point that the instrument was unplayable. At some point in the life of this guitar the first five frets were replaced poorly…and there is no time like the present to correct the mistakes of repairs past. The customer is also wanting to have some spot touch-up done to the pick wear in order to seal the top again. We will periodically update this post with pictures of the repair in progress.                                        -Josh

The dovetail joint completely covered in old glue.