Daily Guitar Repair Blog

   Around 1995 ish (plus or minus a few years) …. I got a call from a woman who said she was Duane Allman’s widow (or x Girlfriend) I can not remember……  She wanted to bring in Duane’s 2 guitars to set-up in the authentic style that Duane played them.  Not sure where the guitars had been but I was thrilled to check them out.   I did a little research and found that his tech strung up the guitar with the string going back and around over the tailpiece to relieve some of the angle over the bridge.  He also did not like to cut the strings at the tuners, the strings were coiled individually and left to dangle.       I came in on a Sunday to meet her so we could do it on the spot while the store was closed.  She showed up in a vintage T-Bird and looked like Jackie O in a scarf and sunglasses.  It was perfect, very as it should be.  We hung out and chatted while I restrung the guitars and cleaned them up for showing.   After she left I took a bunch of deep breaths and was thankful it all went well.  Then I played every Allman Brothers record I could find.  It was a great slice of history and brought back a ton of memories!

OK,  I won’t show this photo to just anyone…

It was a fun 2 years.  I learned a-lot and got to do work for MC5 ( Fred “Sonic”Smith and Patty came in)  Bob Seger,  Blackfoot,  Ted Nugent ( I rewired  and set up all the Birdlands), Suzi Qutro and tons more.  Ann Arbor had a great local music scene

     I was not sure at first if the Plek would fit such a large acoustic bass.  But no problem, I am pleasantly impressed yet again.  The frets were loose in the fingerboard so they had to be glued in place first before the Plek did the fret leveling.  The Plek really earns it’s keep on a 5 string bass by being able to control the exact amount of relief (of neck bend) under each string allows us to set up the guitar with lower action and less buzz especially that low B.

This is a very unique bridge.  Each string is fed via a separate coupler unit on the back of the guitar to individually adjustable saddles that give you intonation and height adjustment, (saddle/string plate).   What we noticed is that the mechanical separation gives great note articulation,  you also feel the the tone of the wood coming through more than usual.     Once installed setup and adjustments are a piece of cake!  You can here from the invented Roland Hannes and get more info on the bridge by clicking HERE.