Daily Guitar Repair Blog

ReBuild a Vintage Fender Potentiometer

admin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:55:07 +0000

Problem…….Perfectly nice vintage guitar, no mods have been done and the volume control will not work, even after repeated cleaning. 2nd problem, the carbon resistance element that the wiper tracks on has worn through. Good News! The carbon element is wide enough so you can bend the wiper to track a deferent line on the element so it will sound and work like new. Other good news, to do all of this the only solder connection you have to break to open the pot and repair it is the one lug that is soldered back to the case. It is also possible to reach into the pot through the gap and bend the wiper that way but that is even more risky and tricky.

What You Are Seeing….

Before we start, maybe not perfect but looking good.. We want to change to smallest amount.
By lifting the lug that goes to ground the pot can be opened up leaving all the wires attached.
These are the wiper contacts, good time to clean them. NOW…Very slow and careful, bend them to the side a little to match up to a clean spot on the resistor.

The Black circular piece you see in the resistor. There is a worn area where the wiper has tracked for 50ish years. I bent the wiper to find a clean area.All the crimps are crimped and back to working orderGoing back in, worked like a charm! Only 1 solder connection changed by me. The ground lug

We had our ears molded for custom ear filters

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:20:59 +0000

We invited anyone within ears reach to come have their ears custom molded for ear filters. A few people showed up and Lisa from Musician’s Hearing Service came by to save our ears. No pain and done. Here are a few peeps…

Victim # 1......

Rob all filled up, That's Lisa prepping for ear # 2..

OK,. You do not really drink the pink stuff and it really does not come out your ear...

: The Doctor’s Tool Kit!!.

Custom Earplug Casting, THIS SATURDAY !!!!! 2/4/12

This Saturday 2/4/12 Lisa Tannenbaum from Musician’s Hearing Service will be at the shop making custom earplugs for a few of us. If anyone wants to get in on the action, the cost is about $185 and you can pick the amount of hearing reduction you want. These are the best filters available. Lisa has protected the hearing of the who’s who of the music business for years. A well known audio engineer I was talking with said he was able to listen to live shows again and enjoy the music by being able to hear the entire sonic spectrum. The old foam plugs leave you with only low rumble and mush, he said the filters allow all the music to come through. I am looking forward to the new plugs!!!

If you are interested just come down to the shop at 2pm.

Or Call or email to let us know you are coming. 415-621-3904

Click here for Lisa’s info and what she does Musician’s Hearing Service

Our good pals from Stewart-McDonald visit us after the Healdsburg GuItar Festival

admin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:35:27 +0000

I am not sure how us Guitar Repair shops got along before Stewart-MacDonald. They are the one stop shop for pro’s and hobbies to pick up anything and everything having to do with stringed instrument building, maintenance, customization, and education. Check them out here… Stewart MacDonald

Before them, when I needed something that we take for-granted now like nut files, to cut the individual size slots for the strings in the nut. I would have to go to the best hardware store in town and they would help me order files from Switzerland to do the job.

Click Here for a great slide show Erick took of the shop while out here. He also has a bunch of great tech tips on the Stewart MacDonald site.

From Left to Right, holding some Stew-Mac tool samplings from the bench……… Erick Coleman, super repair guy, Customer Support and Product development and testing for Stew-Mac. Me, GB. And Jay Hostetler, Vice President, Product Development and everything guy for Stew-Mac.

Erick and GaryOur new pal, Very in demand New York City Guitar Repair dude and super nice guy Evan Gluck. Here we are doing that pointing thing!

Rob’s Change-Up–Converting from Gibson P-90′s to Lollar Mini Humbucking’s

admin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:38:02 +0000

I asked Rob to describe what he heard as the difference between the old P-90′s and the new Lollar Mini Humbuckers……………..”More upper mids and output. Neck p/u is tight and focused, not as woofy. Sits great in the band mix. No 60cycle hum (hooray)”.

“More Thin Lizzy a little less Cream”

The mounting screws for the P-90′s go into threaded inserts pressed into the body. On rare occasion they do pull out if you are not careful how you mount the p-90′s

Lollar really thought this out. They are nice enough to include all the parts needed to mount the new Mini-Humbuckers in the ring. The pickups are hard mounted to the new ring with a screw, spacer and nut. The nut is secured to the screw so it can still turn and the pickup is solid in the ring. The pickup and ring assembly then screw into the new universal mounting plate as one piece.

Notice the spacer, the length of the spacer determines how much of the pickup cover extends out the top of the ring. A nut gets glued into place on the end of the screw.

(the screw actually sticks out much more than in the photo. that’s what screws into the guitar)

The new universal mounting plate is in place. Depending on what screw holes you use to mount it to the body it will hold a P-90 or mini-hum.


Rob is all giddy with excitement ready to take it on the road with his band ATOMIC WAFFLEHAUS!!!

Piezo under the nut, Getting your Frank Zappa on….

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:23:17 +0000

A while back Trevor, before moving back to the East Coast, got a request to see what would happen if a piezo pickup was put under the nut. We read up on Frank Zappa putting something like a Barcus Berry on the peghead of his guitar. Fred Frith (cool article here) has a magnetic pickup over the strings in front of the nut. We asked Pick Up The World to make a piezo to fit. The sound was amazingly responsive and picked up the string mainly behind the fretting hand and acoustics off the neck. Trev ran a channel down the neck just under the fingerboard to run the cable down to the control cavity.