The Hub

Hi, I just saw the Trussrod repair/ new fretboard post by Dan Erlewine and Rodrigo Gomes. I really liked it, especially the idea of carving the fretboard with the table saw! I could not comment on the article. I am sure there was a reason for replacing the whole fingerboard in their case. I wanted to document an alternative method that I tried two weeks ago with sucess. I did not invent it though, i have seen it somewhere in the interne…

Who's going to Fretboard Summit this year? I'd love to meet you! I'll be wearing my trusty Looth Group hat for easy identification. I have DMV local looth stickers to hand out as well! Cheers, Kalimar

I've built a number of classical guitars with an adjustable neck and they seem to gather quite a bit of interest, so i'm currently in the process of looking to refine the design and build. It's quite a simple construction where the neck is held together by string tension and hangs on a pivot. I developed a 3d printed "socket" which acts as the interface between the body and the guitar and allows for some fine tuning of the alignment of t…

This is an LP copy from Memphis guitars. It looks like it has had the headstock repaired at some point. Also, there is what looks like some separation of the fretboard near the nut. I don't know if its left over from the repair or if its something new and just trying to go this way. I'm asking the group to look at the pics to help me figure out if any corrective steps are needed. Also from a finish repair standpoint, how to deal with i…

Let me start with this; I'm trying to find the root cause of difficult fret wire installation of two different SM fret wires. I've spent a lot of time gathering dimensions and experimenting with techniques wich could cause the problem. I enlisted the help of a colleague who arrived at a similar poor performance. His solution was to glue the fret ends/ beat the frets in. My "rather" is to find the root cause so I don't have to go thr…

I am working on a neck reset on a Washburn Parlor - SN 283552. I have read that the 28 in the SN indicates that is was built in 1928, but the owner thinks based on her research that it was built before 1920. I am assuming a dovetail joint and that I can get into the neck joint for steaming by drilling into the 13th fret slot, but if anyone knows differently please let me know. The fingerboard extension has already separated slightly…

Good morning everyone, it is been a while since I wanted to replace my glue (standard Titebond) with epoxy. The best I can find in EU, and specifically in Italy, is the West System 105 with 206 hardeners. Is it any good for fretboard and top gluing or neck gluing? For all the other small task, like top jointing etc I'll still use Titebond or polyurethane glue. Thanks!

Anyone know what glue type is appropriate for a Martin DXME fretboard extension to secure it to the plastic laminate top (or whatever it is)? I have one on the bench that has broken loose, and I’m not sure what to use. I tried contacting Martin, but they won’t help since I’m not an authorized Martin repair shop. 🫤 Thanks!

Hi all, I am a newer guitar tech and after dozens of repairs this particular Simon & Patrick Luthier Cedar top SP6 acoustic dreadnought from the 90-ies with a bolt-on maple neck has been an incredible challenge. It came with a maxed out and stuck truss rod with a considerable up bow in the neck, extremely low saddle with barely any string break angle, so it needed a neck reset. Later on I figured out that it also has a pretty dras…

I have a "fender", which I believe is a knock off, in my shop. I didn't immediately catch that it was a fake, but as I worked on it it's become fairly undeniable, in my opinion. For the neck — the fretboard is made from two pieces of rosewood, the headstock decal doesn't look right, the truss rod is metric, the tuners don't look like a MIA Fender, and there's no walnut plug on the truss access. The model name being wrong is suspicio…

Hi everyone, Every once in a while, I come across a bass that simply refuses to stop buzzing. Right now, I’m working on a bass (I won't name the brand, but it’s in the €2,500 range) that has a slight fretboard hump near the neck pocket. I figured that was the culprit, so I performed a fret level under string tension. The frets are now perfectly level... yet, it continues to buzz across the entire fretboard, even with fairly high a…

Greetings and thanks in advance for your help. I live in one of the most inhospitable places in the world for wood storage (Mojave Desert CA) and later this year will be moving to another more inhospitable place (Sonoran Desert, Buckeye AZ). The realative humidity is currently 16% and that will drop when summer comes. I'm attempting to collect and store wood for future builds and today I spent some time wrapping all of it in seran…