Srb-guitars

02/07/2020

Day 2 of the Martin 000 15M refret and it's finished.
All frets seated perfectly. Polished. Strings on and playing great.
Yes, I could have just levelled the old frets and taken out the wear, but this is not that much more expensive and means that next time I can do the same job again instead of a total refret. Also the frets are new so there's no issues with low frets causing playing problems.
Plays better than new.

01/07/2020

For sale. Guild Starfire 4 circa 1977. Made in the USA. Good played condition. Totally original and unaltered. In its original hard case. €1500. Mail me for more info.

01/07/2020

Let's talk about frets. On the bench today is this very nice Martin 000 15M and it's getting 10 new frets.
I could have just given it a fret dress and level, but the frets above the 10th are untouched. Levelling these would really just be storing up problems for the future.
There comes a point when you have to refret and I'd rather do a partial refret than have to do them all. It's not easy to do the frets above the joint and there's always the chance of cracking the top. Which is not good.
Martin uses Jescar frets so that's what I'm using. Same fretwire.
Of course the choice of fretwire is totally up to the customer. I keep it in stock, but if I don't have the exact wire I can order it. Or we can use something close if you can't wait. The choice is yours.
More photos later and maybe an explanation of how I refret a guitar.

30/06/2020

New guitar day (again) in the workshop. This is a straight out of the box Squier Stratocaster. This one is in the HSS format.

I thought I'd do a little review of it.

Out of the box it needed a few things doing to it. A couple of lifting frets and some sharp fret ends. Poorly cut string nut. Soft plastic. Not good. It needed a setup, but that's normal. All in all not too bad and nothing that I don't see on guitars costing way more than this one.

So after an hour on the bench it plays really well. Sounds are not hugely inspiring. Those pickups are not great. The neck single coil is probably the best one. That's normal for cheap pickups. The pickup can see more of the vibration of the string in that position. I'd change that bridge humbucker fairly quickly.

Having said that, the wood is great. Well put together. Feels like a strat. Finish is perfect, but that gloss black will need cleaning every time you touch it.

A great value for money guitar. Great for modding. These are getting better.

29/06/2020

New guitar day here at srb-guitars. On the bench is a straight out of the box Martin DX2 acoustic. It needs a setup. Most new guitars do.
This one has a playing action of 3.5mm at the 12th fret and close to 1mm at the 1st. This cannot be within factory specs. Unplayable.
Oh well... luckily there was plenty of bridge saddle to play with. It was a simple matter to get it down to 2mm and 0.25mm which is much more like it.
The customer was happy, which means I'm happy too. 😁
Nice bit of wood on the back.

18/06/2020

This is an American Strat Deluxe. The problem is a weird overtone only on the high E string. It sounds like you're playing two notes at once about a quarter tone apart. Not nice.
What could it be? Let's go through the check list.
Pickups too close to the strings? No.
Bridge saddle? No.
Truss rod loose? No.
Micro tilt screw on the neck heel vibrating? No.
Trem springs vibrating? No.
Tuners? No.
Frets? Could be, but let's just change the string first before starting any fret work.
Change high E string. Yes!
Sometimes the simplest solution is the correct one.

10/06/2020

The Hofner Galaxie that's been around the workshop for a while finally has strings.

Those pickups are pretty good, and the volume jump from the boost switch is amazing.

Playability is better than I expected too. Not bad for a 56 year old (The guitar that is)

It's missing a vibrato arm. I'm informed by the vintage parts guys that there is next to no chance of finding one. So I'll be making one over the next day or two. If I can find a nut with the correct thread. I may have one in a drawer somewhere.

Stay tuned for that.

08/06/2020

Here's an interesting one for you vintage tonehounds out there.
This is a 1964 Hofner Galaxie that's been in the workshop for far too long while a replacement bridge was tracked down.
So I'm investigating the innards today. So many hand made parts on this guitar. Neck plate only fits one way. All the screws are random sizes. Yes those pickups are held in with scotch tape 😁
Guitars from the 50's and 60's can be pretty quirky. Primitive is a word that springs to mind. I'm used to working on them and there are ways of doing things. Power tools are definitely forbidden!
Here's some photos of the clean out. The electronics work now. It'll be interesting to hear it. There's no ground on the bridge, so it's gonna hum a bit. 😁
I'll let you know.

08/06/2020

String change day for the BattleAxe. I fancy a change. It's currently got 9-42 and I have 7's , 8's, 10's or 11's. It's worth experimenting if you can. Sometimes I find that the guitar dictates the strings. For example my old Telecaster really doesn't like 9's but put 11's on it and it's great. Conversely my Les Paul doesn't feel right with anything other than 9's. What do you think? Or do you just use the same strings on everything? Feel free to comment, like, follow this page etc.... blah bah. Have a great play.

07/06/2020

Awesome! 😁

a friend sent me these tracks so i could jam with the original DEEP PURPLE rhythm section, Ian Paice and Roger Glover. i now remember why i hate singing and ...

29/05/2020

Still working at 9.30 pm. Friday 29th May. 🤐 On the bench is this very nice Epiphone Masterbilt acoustic. Eagle eyed followers of this page will have seen this guitar before. It's in to verify the setup.
This is not a complicated job. Every guitar that I setup comes with a report detailing the measurements of the setup. Before and after. So it's a simple job to check the instrument for movement, wear etc.
This guitar is fine. It's slightly lower at the string nut, and the neck has moved ever so slightly.
It's ok, but we will keep an eye on it in the future to make sure it stays perfectly playable.
So I've changed the strings. Polished the frets. Oiled the fingerboard and cleaned the guitar.
Total cost to the client €10.
srb-guitars is open as normal. Rendezvous only. That's normal.😁 Rock on.

15/05/2020

On the bench today this 6 string banjo had a few problems. First problem was a 6mm action at the 12th fret. The neck actually had a forward angle. Inside there's a tension bar to adjust this, but it wasn't doing anything. Turns out that the hole that the bar fits into at the heel had been drilled at the wrong angle. So I plugged it. Redrilled it at the correct angle and refitted the neck. Action is now a comfortable 2.25mm.
Of course it's now fretting out above the 12th fret, so that's another job to do. Happy days 😁