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Thought I would share some pics of a 42 "Banner" G*bson that I did some set-up on yesterday. The budget was not there for a neck reset.... and this one might not survive it anyway....

As such the goal was to lower the action with what we have available and the budget of a set-up. Not surprisingly this cool old guitar has had lots of work done in the distant past by likely multiple repair people who were not keen to clean up after themselves.....

What's that old expression "it looks like glue but it's snot......" Anyway I put on my full body condom and got to it....

I'm recalling about ten years ago when Lance and I had an informal competition of sorts to see who was most anal about how neat the insides of our boxes were..... Lance you should sit down before looking at these pics....

Parental warning if you have any youthful Luthiers out there....

Oh yeah we got the action to 4 and 6 (64th") and the client was happy as a clam. BTW no truss rod on these either.

The guitar sounds quite good with 12's on her and I just had to play the greatest song ever written to try her out, Smoke On The Water....

Thanks for looking!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hope the wood's holding the glue together OK.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Wow, Hesh, that is really nasty inside. Not sure I would even want to know what all of that was, cause it ain't all glue

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Hey Steve, that pea green/yellow stuff kind of glows in the dark too.....

Maybe we found the WMD......

Colin right you are my friend and I'll bet that there is at least a few ounces of excess glue or something... in this thing....

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hesh, it may not be glue--I'm guessing wax. And the wood is BRW. I'll let you connect the dots.

It looks like a scene from the movie 'Saw' in there.

Freeze! now put the PVA down slowly and step away from the bench Keep your hands where I can see them and nobody has to get hurt.

Beauty Hesh!

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Ken

Pour N Shake lutherie...

Looks kind of like lemon pie filling. Did you find any traces of meringue, Hesh?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

John buddy do you remember that commercial when we were kids for Shake-n-bake where the little girl says "and I helped...."

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hey Alex! Some of that stuff glows in the dark.... pretty scary....

I'm told that someone "stepped through it" back in the day and that Elderly pieced it all back together.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Is that Gorilla Glue in there?

Wylie E Coyote Acme School of Lutherie Guitar repair instructions:
Supplies:
1 16 ounce bottle of glue
1 sheet of paper towel
1 guitar
Tape

Instructions:
Pour glue into guitar
Insert tape.
Use paper towel to clean glue drops off your hands.
Shake to Evenly coat the inside
Let stand till dry

Repeat as needed.

There is a brand of case these days called Road Runner

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hesh- that looks like what I pictured in my mind years ago when I was foolish enough to put my hand on the underside of a table at an old diner I ate at. BTW how did you manage to get the action that low, with the guitar in need of a neck reset? Sand down the bridge a lower the saddle? And what did the saddle protrusion end up being?


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"It is easier to fool a man, than it is to convince him that he has been fooled"
Mark Twain

I know this is a confession of my age, but I saw Deep Purple play that song live when they were on tour to promote that album. Yikes.


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"It is easier to fool a man, than it is to convince him that he has been fooled"
Mark Twain

Hey David!!!

Great question on the action. Of course when it needs a neck reset it's very limited in what we can get out of it terms of low action.

Here's a list of what I did to get it acceptable.... for now:

1) Cut nut slots very well and low.....
2) Discuss with client if they can stand 12's or even 11's in so much as lighter gauge strings will bow the neck less (no truss rod in this one..) and lower action a tad.
3) The bridge already had string ramps carved in it from back in the day which permitted me to have only the crown of the saddle peeking out the saddle slot.

In combination these things got us there, for now. But this won't always be the case.

Shaving the bridge is frowned upon these days although it was a widely done practice back in the day. I wouldn't do it to this one even though the bridge, and it looks original, had string ramps carved in it.

But you know at some point we need to use common sense. This is NOT a rare instrument, it's certainly NOT a fine example of the model either and it's condition completely sucks. It likely would not survive the wrestling on the floor with it that might be needed to get the neck off to reset it anyway.

Generally speaking though bridge shaving is rarely an option these days unless it's to keep a cheap import playing or Martin or someone else ships a new instrument with a unusually high bridge that is not necessary.

Hope you are doing great too!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

As has been said, many times, you never know what you might find in a guitar. A friend of mine who's a pro musician - bagpipes and trumpet - came over for dinner last month, and brought an old acoustic that his father in law had bought, and thought might have some value.
I was giving it the once over, and went to put an inspection mirror through the sound hole when it met some resistance. I reached inside, and pulled out an envelope with $900 in it!
My friend had put the money in there months before, until he could get to the bank, and forgot about it.
He was pretty happy he brought it, as he was going to chuck it in the garbage at his condo.
The guitar and case were worth a combined $4

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker