Fishman Matrix Infinity Pickup Install
Fishman Matrix Infinity Pickup Install
South Austin Guitar Repair
I’m often asked for recommendations for acoustic guitar pickups. There are two main types: the under-saddle piezo element, and a microphonic pickup. A microphonic pickup is as it sounds; a small, calibrated microphone mounted inside the body of the acoustic intending to amplify the resonating sound and presence within the guitar. The piezo transducer, uses crystals to amplify the vibrations resonating through the saddle and wood of the guitar.
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I prefer the piezo element. It’s precise, feeds back a little less and gives an articulate attack when the strings are played. I’ve found one pick up to stand above the rest, from our good technicians from Fishman. Their Matrix Infinity pickup has proven to be a great bang for your buck and one of the least invasive installations that can be made to your guitar.
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Unlike other acoustic pickups with graphic band equalizers that require a dedicated space of wood removed from the instrument, the Matrix Infinity has a simple rotary volume/tone that mounts discreetly to the underside of the sound hole. Aside from that, only two holes need to be drilled (if they haven’t been already). One hole underneath the saddle for the pickup wire to feed through, and another at the rear strap button for the jack.
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The battery box mounts to the inside of the guitar wherever you choose (I mount it at the neck block for easy access) and there are flexible hooks with double stick tape to bunch the wires together and mount out of visibility inside the body.
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I usually search on bay for the best pricing on these. I generally find them for about $120. They have two spacing available. Narrow and wide. Which one wold best accommodate your guitar? Generally, wide spacing will work for any modern acoustic bridge. The narrow model is more for vintage style acoustics. Up until around the 50’s-60’s, saddles tended to run on the narrow side.
It’s a quick and easy install and of the 20+ people I’ve installed these pickups, not a single one has come back with a complaint. I’m not being paid by Fishman to report this, I’m simply advocating a solution to a question frequently asked.
Epiphone Hummingbird Bridge Re-Glue, Fret Level, Bone Nut and Saddle
Epiphone Hummingbird Bridge Re-Glue, Fret Level, Bone Nut and Saddle
South Austin Guitar Repair
This Epiphone went for a total overhaul. Cracked bridge, fret leveling, bone nut and a few cracks glued.
The guitar is used in Big Orange Studios, here in Austin. It’s a beautiful dreadnaught with 30+ year old wood and have ben used on many recordings. The tone and resonance of the guitar was decent, but the current plastic nut and saddle were not doing the guitar justice. A great upgrade for a guitar any age, is a bone nut and saddle.
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So the first thing needed, was to remove the old bridge. It would have been possible to glue the old bridge back together, but the owner was not interested. He felt it better to replace it entirely. Using a metal putty knife, I heat up the blade against a clothes iron. I wedge the blade in a gap between the broken bridge and the body of the guitar to heat up the existing glue. On old guitars such as this Epiphone, it’s important to be conscious where the entire blade rests. When you’re initially trying to get the blade under the bridge, some part of it will wedge under, and the other is sticking out of the side. If the hot blade comes in contact with the lacquer, it will melt through and it will not be pretty. Sometimes, it inevitably happens. It can be touched up to match the old finish to some extent, but it’s better to take your time and do things in small increments and not create more work for yourself later!
After about 20-30 minutes of carefully melting the old glue, the bridge pops off. Sometimes it’s clean, this one decided to take a bit of the top along with it! Not to worry. All of the material is within the boundary of the replacement bridge and once sanded, won’t hinder the flush appearance to the newly glued bridge.
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Next up, I need to clean up the area for the new bridge to glue. However, the old bridge holes don’t line up with the new bridge. Additionally, the placement of the saddle is farther back on the new bridge. I need to dowel the existing holes and re-drill them about a quarter to three-eighths of an inch farther back so the guitar can intonate as best as possible. Then, I take masking tape and mask off the area which the new bridge will glue. Then, using mostly a small sanding block and the occasional chisel scrap, I even the surface and remove any old finish that would otherwise get in the way of the new bridge.
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Additionally, this bridge was taller than the old one. If I were to glue it as-is onto the guitar, the strings would sit much higher off the fingerboard. I sanded the bottom side as far as I possibly could. Even that wasn’t enough. So I took some material off the top side of the new bridge with a circular sander. I lightly sand the top to level out the big scratches and finish it with a few coats of lacquer.
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Finally, it’s ready to be glued. I use an razor and score lines onto the bottom of the bridge and the top of the guitar where it will glue. When clamping the new bridge, the pressure of the clamps will force the glue to seep into the small crevasses and result a stronger bond.
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After 24 hours, the clamps come off and I can begin the fret leveling. I cover this step by step in a few other blog posts, so you can view them there if the pictures don’t tell enough of a story for you.
Lastly, I carve a bone nut and saddle, matching the profiles of the originals. Then, string the guitar up and it’s all ready to get back and lay down some tracks on wax.
Taylor Guitar Restoration – South Austin Guitar Repair
Taylor Guitar Repair
South Austin Guitar Repair
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This poor Taylor had a run-in with a misstep of the wrong foot! The customer had borrowed this guitar from a friend and mistakenly used it for a slipper, or boot, or… I dunno. But it done got broke!
The customer was nervous this guitar might not be fixable in its condition. The breaks were complex and many. When it all comes down, (most) guitars are wood. Everything can be fixed one way or another.
Clamping wood from the outside is no issue, but when a crack is 8″ or longer and going through a surface, is difficult to keep level when re-gluing. I needed to create pressure from the inside-out for the guitar’s top to clamp evenly on the exterior.
For this repair, I went Macguyver and made a new set of clamps from a turnbuckle, threaded furniture foot and… a another, non-threaded furniture foot! The threaded furniture foot provided the necessary torque to apply pressure outward when unscrewed, inside the guitar body. Any additional clamp on the outside can apply pressure inward. The cracks are then equalized between the two sides so not to set unevenly.
Some of the cracks where odd, broken and uneven with the grain where they rest. Overlapping from where they should rest. In some of those occurrences, it’s easier to break the piece off and re-glue than to attempt to force it back.
After all the pieces were glued in place, the back, the guitar back needed to be evened out. Fortunately, Taylor uses light lacquer on their guitars, so it only took a few hours of sanding to get through the finish and level the wood. Once that was even, A few coats of clear lacquer was applied and the back was good as new.
A REAL Guitar Ressurection – 1960’s Stella Acoustic Repair
1960’s Stella Acoustic Repair
South Austin Guitar Repair
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Here is an old guitar that underwent a total makeover. Once again, the was the unfortunate result of parents allowing their young children to “play” their guitars. I honestly don’t know how these kids are able to deconstruct this guitar the way they did, but this is absolutely the most broken guitar I have ever come across…
The top and back were almost completely separated from from the sides, only being held together by the neck, which was broken at the dovetail joint, loose from the top and fingerboard splitting apart from the rest of the neck. The inside of the guitar had melted crayons scattered about. There were no tuners or string nut and bridge saddle. The kerfing on the sides has been split in various locations… basically, this guitar was as they call in the auto-industry, “totaled.”
But one can’t put a price on sentimental value and it was decided to bring this guitar back to life. I think for this occasion, I’ll let the pictures do the talking 😉
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Dean Acoustic Guitar – Partial Re-Fret
Dean Acoustic Guitar – Partial Re-Fret
South Austin Guitar Repair
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Wow, it’s almost been a month since I’ve had time to blog about Austin guitar repairs. Despite the summer rush for repairs being over, the rush itself seems to continue on. I guess it’s a good problem to have?
So, down to the nitty gritty.
After many years of love and play time, the owner of this guitar made an honest attempt to re-fret the first four frets on his own. Unfortunately for his efforts, murphy’s law is especially true when doing any kind of work on your frets. So after his replaced frets completely fret themselves out, he brought it in to my shop for a fix.
The main issue, was the frets were not a good replacement size (too short in crown height) and I couldn’t simply mill them down to match the others. In this case, it was faster and easier to replace them entirely.
First the frets needed to be pulled. The customer didn’t use any glue, so they were only being held in by the teng of the fret. Once they were out, I cleaned out the inside of the fret slots for any debris.
Next, I use a gauge to determine what radius the fingerboard has been manufactured. This guitar was 10″. To translate, imagine a 10″ diameter circle; the top of that circle is the shape of this guitar’s fingerboard, which the frets are placed.
Using my handy fret bender, I fed the fret wire through and cut sections to place on the neck. Because this fingerboard had binding on its sides, I also needed to undercut the ten on the ends so it could sit flush on the fingerboard.
After applying a bit of glue to the bottom of the frets, I hammered them into their slots using a brass-tipped hammer. Once they were in, I clamped them down with a radius block that matched the fingerboard’s profile.
After a night of the glue curing, I removed the clamp and beveled the edges of the frets for any sharp corners. Using that same radius block and a bit of 150 and 220 sand paper, I leveled any imperfections in the new frets and it’s older neighboring ones. Then, using some wet/dry sandpaper, I gave them each a “once over” to smooth them further.
Next, I polished each one with a bit of rubbing compound to buff out any additional scratches. After removing the masking tape from the fingerboard, I apply a few dabs of lemon oil to coat and enrich the rosewood fingerboard
Once that’s dried, I string out the guitar and it’s back in action! Fret work, to say the least, is a series of steps. But when performed correctly, bring a tired, worn guitar, back to life.
Guild 12-String Acoustic Bridge Re-glue
Guild 12-String Acoustic Bridge Re-glue
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Well, it’s been a busy, busy month. And not coincidentally, a hot, Texas month. The kind that makes old glue weakened and acoustic bridges start to pull apart from the surface of a guitar. I’ve had about 5 guitars brought to me in the last 30 days with this very problem. If you’ve been perusing this guitar repair blog, you may have seen an older entry, of a Framus Nylon String guitar, whose bridge popped off entirely. This guitar, didn’t quite have that luxury, and required some extra TLC to get the job done.
After removing the strings, I heat up a metal putty knife by holding it against an iron. I carefully slide the hot putty knife into an open area of the pulled bridge. Once I hit a section of the bridge that is still glued down, I give it a little push to force itself in, and wait a few seconds for the heated glue to settle and I pull the knife back out, and heat it again on the iron. I do this until one end of the bridge has been lifted enough to wedge another plastic putty knife under. This helps any glue that’s been heated not find its way back down to the guitar top.
Once the bridge has popped off, the old glue from the underside of the bridge needs to be removed entirely so we’re working with bare wood. After a little sanding on the bridge’s underside, the next thing to do is clean the surface of the guitar. I totally dropped the ball and forgot to take a picture of this step. But to paint a picture for you, I place the bridge back on the guitar top, mask off the area around the bridge with blue painter’s tape and use a combination of a sanding block and flat chisel (for scraping) to get any bits of old glue or lacquer.
Now, we’re ready to glue this bridge down! Because the bridge has a tendency to shift when clamps are applied, I manufactured a device to keep the bridge from shifting while gluing. I use a strip of wood with two threaded rods epoxied to accommodate the two farthest and most opposite holes which the guitar’s bridge pins secure. After the glue is applied and the clamping begins, there’s a mad rush with a series of wet and dry rags to wipe away any excess of glue that is pushed out from the under side. After a few minutes of tightening clamps and wiping excess glue, the guitar can sit over night and allow the glue to cure.
The next day, clamps are removed, the strings are strung and this guitar is back in action!
Ukulele – Saddle Route, Bone Nut and Saddle Carve and Setup
Ukulele – Saddle Route, Bone Nut and Saddle Carve and Setup
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Two guys walk into my shop with a little Ukulele. One built this little masterpiece in his high school woodshed class and the other was inheriting it. While the wood working was precise and well thought out, the project remained unfinished for nearly 10 years! It was decided to finish what was started and get this little demon, screamin’.
When building an instrument from scratch, there are always issues of hindsight. It’s literally imposible, even when standing on the shoulders of giants, to foresee and perfect every detail when building a prototype. For starters, there was no slot cut for this Ukulele’s saddle.
With a starter route from my drill press and a few cuts from my my handy Dremel, the slot was deepened and ready for action.
Next, a thin piece of moose bone was cut and carved for the saddle and another for the nut. In a short while, they were carefully placed on the body and headstock and it was finally time to string this baby up!
One last “gotcha” occurred when stringing up the A string. The same size hole was drilled in the bridge for the knotted strings to rest against. This poor string was pulled through 3 separate times when tuning up and was quadruple-knotted before it finally stayed put.
Even though home made instruments come with a few follies, they’re simply the most inspiring and valued to their creators for exactly that reason.