Post by oldlefty on Feb 28, 2020 15:33:36 GMT -5
First a HUGE thank you to Dave for hosting this site and sharing his expertise! What a trove!
I've had my FG-335 since I bought it new in 1978. I used it quite a bit at first, but over the years it got shuffled to the back of the pack (I wish I would have loosened the strings!). But I never got rid of it. Other than my dulcimer from 1970 it's my oldest instrument.
I currently have about 15 guitars (five of them acoustics- including a Martin D18GE), four basses, four dulcimers, and a banjo- all lefty! I just finished my first acoustic- the StewMac Limited Edition OM kit- and learned A TON building that! For the last 10 years or so I've upped my "lutherie skills", I built two electrics from kits and a dulcimer pretty much from scratch. Truth be told I enjoy fixing and building them more than actually playing them!
So the 335- I've done some work on it over the years. It has the typical high action and belly bulge. Before I knew much about how the things worked I messed up the truss rod by tightening it too much trying to improve the action (WRONG!). I can't remember if I broke off the tip of the rod or, ran out of adjustment, but I ended up with a spacer under the nut for some reason. Anyway I recently lubed the truss rod and nut and was able to get it working and a flat fingerboard.
Somewhere along the line I saw the Bridge Doctor in a catalog and figured that might help out the belly bulge so I put that in and it's still there. I think it might have brought the belly down some over the years. If I lay a straight edge flat across the belly below the bridge there is about 80 thousandths gap on each side by the binding.
About five years ago I found an online site describing "The Yamaha Field Neck Reset" that got into the epoxy stories and showed how to cut the neck off and make it into a bolt on. I've since lost that link, but from this site I did find a link to a more recent video showing how to do that. Until I got here I figured that's where I was headed, but from what Dave has shared here I'm a little more hopeful that I can pull off (so to speak...) a traditional neck removal reset. After building the OM I'm feeling more comfortable with working with the dovetail. And with the OM just finished, tackling the Yamaha is next on the list.
I'll add some photos of what it looks like and update as I get into it.
Dave- I've looked at most of the photos of your neck removal jig, but I haven't seen one of it by itself- without a guitar in it. Is there one somewhere you could point me to, or could you post one? I'd love to plunk down $130 for the StewMac version if I were going to be doing a lot of them, but for one or two uses.. nah. Frank Ford has pics of his on his Frets.com site, but yours looks pretty practical. Oh, and while I'm dropping names, I agree with your endorsement of Bryan Kimsey- he shares a lot of his hard-earned expertise on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum and through his youtube videos.
And just for fun, here's the OM I just finished (Red spruce top, Madagascar rosewood back and top, celluloid binding, Waverly tuners). Since I had to build it lefty I reversed the tone bars and had to make an ebony left-handed bridge from scratch and fabricate a pickguard. Hot hide glue throughout.
I've had my FG-335 since I bought it new in 1978. I used it quite a bit at first, but over the years it got shuffled to the back of the pack (I wish I would have loosened the strings!). But I never got rid of it. Other than my dulcimer from 1970 it's my oldest instrument.
I currently have about 15 guitars (five of them acoustics- including a Martin D18GE), four basses, four dulcimers, and a banjo- all lefty! I just finished my first acoustic- the StewMac Limited Edition OM kit- and learned A TON building that! For the last 10 years or so I've upped my "lutherie skills", I built two electrics from kits and a dulcimer pretty much from scratch. Truth be told I enjoy fixing and building them more than actually playing them!
So the 335- I've done some work on it over the years. It has the typical high action and belly bulge. Before I knew much about how the things worked I messed up the truss rod by tightening it too much trying to improve the action (WRONG!). I can't remember if I broke off the tip of the rod or, ran out of adjustment, but I ended up with a spacer under the nut for some reason. Anyway I recently lubed the truss rod and nut and was able to get it working and a flat fingerboard.
Somewhere along the line I saw the Bridge Doctor in a catalog and figured that might help out the belly bulge so I put that in and it's still there. I think it might have brought the belly down some over the years. If I lay a straight edge flat across the belly below the bridge there is about 80 thousandths gap on each side by the binding.
About five years ago I found an online site describing "The Yamaha Field Neck Reset" that got into the epoxy stories and showed how to cut the neck off and make it into a bolt on. I've since lost that link, but from this site I did find a link to a more recent video showing how to do that. Until I got here I figured that's where I was headed, but from what Dave has shared here I'm a little more hopeful that I can pull off (so to speak...) a traditional neck removal reset. After building the OM I'm feeling more comfortable with working with the dovetail. And with the OM just finished, tackling the Yamaha is next on the list.
I'll add some photos of what it looks like and update as I get into it.
Dave- I've looked at most of the photos of your neck removal jig, but I haven't seen one of it by itself- without a guitar in it. Is there one somewhere you could point me to, or could you post one? I'd love to plunk down $130 for the StewMac version if I were going to be doing a lot of them, but for one or two uses.. nah. Frank Ford has pics of his on his Frets.com site, but yours looks pretty practical. Oh, and while I'm dropping names, I agree with your endorsement of Bryan Kimsey- he shares a lot of his hard-earned expertise on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum and through his youtube videos.
And just for fun, here's the OM I just finished (Red spruce top, Madagascar rosewood back and top, celluloid binding, Waverly tuners). Since I had to build it lefty I reversed the tone bars and had to make an ebony left-handed bridge from scratch and fabricate a pickguard. Hot hide glue throughout.
