The Bassist and Guitarist thread

[MontyVeda]

That's lucky. I've heard about that method but never used it. Fortunately I'm not too bothered about tiny dents.

...

It works for big scratches too. I first came across this trick of the trade with four humungous scratches from the wheels of a piano on a wood floor; we'd sanded the boards over three days, put the piano back where it belonged, I gasped, the owners gasped, the tradesman didn't gasp. He got a mug of water and a paint brush and filled the scratches with water. Next day they were pretty much gone

 

[Cycleops]

Fender in California has laid off around 300 of its employees.
Maybe sales are going so well? Or is it to with automation.

https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/fender-reportedly-lays-off-hundreds-california-employees/

 

[DCBassman]

Fender in California has laid off around 300 of its employees.
Maybe sales are going so well? Or is it to with automation.

https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/fender-reportedly-lays-off-hundreds-california-employees/

Carp. Not good...

 

[winjim]

Spent a pleasant evening cleaning and polishing the frets and they've gone from this



to this



They're feeling much smoother under the fingers now, that's a job that definitely needed doing. Also put a straight edge along them and couldn't see any obviously badly levelled frets so I'm feeling optimistic.

 

[DRM]

Spent a pleasant evening cleaning and polishing the frets and they've gone from this

View attachment 656261

to this

View attachment 656262

They're feeling much smoother under the fingers now, that's a job that definitely needed doing. Also put a straight edge along them and couldn't see any obviously badly levelled frets so I'm feeling optimistic.

I’ve been doing the same, no pictures, but like you found them level, but just a bit sharp, I’ve also sanded it and treated with boiled linseed oil, and cut the headstock as well.

 

[winjim]

Breaking for lunch so here's what we've got so far.



A few things to note. Firstly I decided I couldn't live with the finish on the body so I've sanded it down and given it an oil and a wax. It's not gonna be the most durable but whatever, it looks alright for now. I shimmed the neck joint with a bit of old cereal packet so that's nice and snug now. The bridge posts are sitting about a millimetre proud of the body, ideally I think the post holes need drilling slightly deeper but I don't have the time or the inclination. Likewise, don't look at the pots too closely, they don't sit nicely against the body but that's no surprise.





I have drilled out the channel for the pickup connecters and deepened the routing for where the pickups sit so that should all fit now.

 

[winjim]

It lives...

 

[ColinJ]

It lives...

View attachment 656624

But not for long if you store it like that when you aren't playing it!

 

[DCBassman]

Yup, instant Bender Snapocaster!
Id advise a nice Hercules stand, but it'd be worth more than the guitar!

 

[winjim]

I literally built it to get kicked around by children.

My Brandoni lives in a case behind the sofa and my acoustic in a gig bag on top of the wardrobe so I have to make a special effort if I want to play them. This one I can leave out and grab any time or let the kids loose on it and it doesn't matter.

 

[MontyVeda]

It lives...

View attachment 656624

Looking nice. I like how the binding stops at the cutaways.

 

[winjim]

Looking nice. I like how the binding stops at the cutaways.

The binding actually sets it off quite nicely and stood up surprisingly well to the aggressive sanding which was needed to take the sealant off. It plays really nicely too which was a pleasant surprise. It's light so it's not going to win any prizes for sustain but that means it's good to throw around and give to a kid. The tuners are terrible but the action and intonation are good. Switches pots all do their job with no noise and I managed to get a nice bright tone out of it which I quite liked but it took a bit of fiddling with the gain on the amp. I expect I'll need to adjust the pickups although I haven't had adjustable pole pieces before so that'll be interesting.

 

[DCBassman]

Sounds like it's worked out well! Were I to build another parts Precision, a blocks-and-binding Jazz neck would be my aim.

 

[Cycleops]

Fender in California has laid off around 300 of its employees.
Maybe sales are going so well? Or is it to with automation.

https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/fender-reportedly-lays-off-hundreds-california-employees/

Further to this Fender have been hit by a class-action law suit by an British group alleging that Fender buyers payed over the odds for guitars between 2013-2019. This follows an earlier action when Fender had to pay millions due to price fixing. So if the action is successful, which is highly likely due to the previous action, you could be due compensation if you bought one of their guitars during this period. Dig out those receipts.
Whether the redundancies are related to this or a downturn in sales I dont know.
Hers a video with some more details.


View: https://youtu.be/5MxlqUZM9Co

 

[winjim]

I've been meaning to do a fuller post on how I've been getting on with the Harley Benton but I just want to post a warning. DO NOT TRY TO ADJUST THE PICKUP POLE PIECES ON THESE KIT GUITARS. I thought I'd have a go, successfully adjusted the pickup height but when it came to the pole pieces the threads wouldn't properly engage so even the lightest pressure pushes them further into the body of the pickup. I ended up having to take the entire pickup out and then push them through from the back. You can see how the screw thread doesn't engage and they end up just pushing out. DO NOT TRY TO ADJUST THEM.