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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:49 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
First name: Hesh
Last Name: Breakstone
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Country: United States
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We very nearly produced 1,000 setups last year which is by no means all we do but we made a big deal out of redefining the set-up and it's importance as the user interface to the instrument. In our location we have tons of regulars who now, after some years of me setting up their ax, bring it in for an annual set-up and conditioning and cleaning, restring, check-up and maybe a new pick-up too. Our setups are also a catch all for everything but other bigger jobs that are billed separately. So I might spend some time cleaning up someone's fretboard on this one and repairing a broken pick-up mount on the next one, they are all different but they all get a full setup before they leave. We have one price for this level and it's a very good value because our approach is making the instrument whole not itemizing charges. What a concept.

So I batch these jobs that are centered around the set-up and do them at night when I can use my Six Sigma training and bust through as many as I can as efficiently as I can. It's also very quiet and I get lots done.

So last night in the pile was the dirtiest fretboard that Felix Unger here has ever seen. The gunk is actually green in color too.... :mrgreen: :D and yes, in case you were wondering the instrument does smell or did smell but not any more....

Now our friend Chris has warned us about steel wool use and he's right and some of the the rest of you prefer your scotchbrite but we don't. Nearly every instrument that passes though our shop (around 1,400 guitars alone last year, most ever for us) gets the fretboard cleaned and the frets shined up. It's very much part of our value proposition and we prefer OOOO steel wool and have never damaged a pick-up because of the precautions that we take. We tape things off and vacuum our benches between every instrument and have never had a problem.

It also works better than scotchbrite and cleans a board faster, gets in the crack better and is WAY cheaper for the very high volume of work that we produce. But I would not recommend steel wool unless you can see all the precautions that we take that vary from guitar to guitar.

So here it is as promised, please try not to throw up... :mrgreen: I timed myself and it took me 12 minutes to completely clean this board from start to finish with the scraping being the slowest thing but still pretty fast. The gunk comes right off with the scraper/blade with the hardest part being stopping any chattering of the blade as I scrape.

I posted this on Facebook and some of my Luthier friends wanted to know how many times I washed my hands after this... :) The answer was three, really.

And Howards is there for us finishes things off nicely.

Client should be happy but there is NO WAY I'm shaking that guy's hand after what I know now..... :D


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These users thanked the author Hesh for the post (total 2): joshnothing (Tue Jan 31, 2023 3:12 pm) • Chris Pile (Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:07 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:03 am 
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Nasty.



These users thanked the author Skarsaune for the post (total 2): Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:15 am) • Robbie_McD (Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:04 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:05 am 
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[xx(] OMG....



These users thanked the author Robbie_McD for the post: Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:15 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:11 am 
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Looks bad, but back in the 80's I had one with dirt so thick on the fretboard it was higher than the frets!. Hand to God, guys - it looked the fingerboard was smeared with mud. The guy played in a dark club and never took his guitar home so he didn't know how bad it looked. Still - well done, Hesh!

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:11 am 
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Fret cheese - :shock:



These users thanked the author Michaeldc for the post: Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:20 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:16 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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Robbie_McD wrote:
[xx(] OMG....


laughing6-hehe laughing6-hehe laughing6-hehe That's how I felt when I saw it Robbie :)

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:17 am 
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Someone couldn't pay me enough to do that..

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These users thanked the author A.Hix for the post: Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:17 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:17 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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Chris Pile wrote:
Looks bad, but back in the 80's I had one with dirt so thick on the fretboard it was higher than the frets!. Hand to God, guys - it looked the fingerboard was smeared with mud. The guy played in a dark club and never took his guitar home so he didn't know how bad it looked. Still - well done, Hesh!


Oh my that must have been terrible. Need a chisel and hammer to clean that board :)

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:20 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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A.Hix wrote:
Someone couldn't pay me enough to do that..


I suppose it's like anything else you get used to it. My business partner Dave Collins put green gunk squeezing out from under frets to Mozart I think it was and made a YouTube about it, I'll try to find it. :)

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:21 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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Michaeldc wrote:
Fret cheese - :shock:


I need to show you that video too of the frets excreting green slime put to music :)

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:37 am 
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Hesh wrote:
A.Hix wrote:
Someone couldn't pay me enough to do that..


I suppose it's like anything else you get used to it. My business partner Dave Collins put green gunk squeezing out from under frets to Mozart I think it was and made a YouTube about it, I'll try to find it. :)


So now we know the origin of the pandemic! J/K

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:45 am 
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Hesh wrote:
Michaeldc wrote:
Fret cheese - :shock:


I need to show you that video too of the frets excreting green slime put to music :)


Yes please!



These users thanked the author Michaeldc for the post: Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:49 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:48 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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I found Dave's video he made. We seem to enjoy gross things at our shop.... :D

https://youtu.be/THnNsLXJlzo

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:09 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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I hope you made a sourdough off that!



These users thanked the author meddlingfool for the post (total 2): Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:17 am) • Michaeldc (Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:42 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:38 am 
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meddlingfool wrote:
I hope you made a sourdough off that!


Gross, Ed! lol

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These users thanked the author A.Hix for the post (total 2): Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:18 am) • meddlingfool (Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:12 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:01 am 
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Hesh wrote:
I found Dave's video he made. We seem to enjoy gross things at our shop.... :D

https://youtu.be/THnNsLXJlzo


For those of you who witnessed that horror here is some eye cleansing. You are welcome.

Image



These users thanked the author jfmckenna for the post (total 3): Skarsaune (Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:50 am) • Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:18 am) • Barry Daniels (Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:15 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:09 am 
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Pretty bad, Hesh! My worst looked like that with additional green highlights.

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:16 am 
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As gross as that was I appreciate the step by step, Hesh. :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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These users thanked the author bcombs510 for the post: Hesh (Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:19 am)
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:18 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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meddlingfool wrote:
I hope you made a sourdough off that!


Now that is funny sour dough starter fretboard gunk :)

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:19 am 
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bcombs510 wrote:
As gross as that was I appreciate the step by step, Hesh. :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


Thanks Brad kind of a veiled toot of sorts. ;)

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 12:41 pm 
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Quote:
I found Dave's video he made.


It seems I watched that video 5 years ago.

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 1:12 pm 
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Save it up , might make good "Hyde Glue" :o :o laughing6-hehe laughing6-hehe

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 3:05 pm 
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I've had a few nasty boards but not that bad. Yuck!

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 4:32 pm 
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I guess he must be a Grunge music artist. laughing6-hehe



These users thanked the author Clay S. for the post (total 2): Hesh (Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:49 am) • Chris Pile (Tue Jan 31, 2023 7:39 pm)
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:51 am 
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Clay S. wrote:
I guess he must be a Grunge music artist. laughing6-hehe


:D gaah There is some truth to this it seems to be fashionable to have your instrument look filthy and like it has been dragged behind a semi truck for hours on a freeway..... As a little kid who was nine with my first guitar a single scratch would give me a heart attack :)

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