Post by CTGull on Dec 28, 2020 20:05:04 GMT -5
He took the train from Brooklyn NY to Milford CT. Even thought it was near freezing outside, I had the inside of my wife's minivan nice and warm. He mentioned there's an odd overtone when the guitar is strummed, like it's slightly out of tune, he thought maybe a brace is loose. I put a lighten mirror inside, and sure enough the rear treble side X brace has about a 2" separation.
It's in pretty good shape for over 51 years old. A horizontal score in the top and some playing wear. The original open strip tunes were replaced with weird looking closed tuners. He wants those replaced, and go back to open tuners.
The original tuner bushings weren't removed properly and knocked out some chunks front and back.
The narrow 1.38" string spacing Yamaha nut has been replaced with a orange 1.49" string spacing nut, maybe a little too wide.
The frets are low but not much wear.
The bridge pins aren't original, they are white with a black dots, vs. all black. And it gets more interesting. The low E pins comes out with some difficulty. The other 5 are set too low in the bridge and I can't get the puller under them. So I slack all the strings are try to push them out from the inside. The first 2 were tough, the next brutal, the last 2 almost beat me! I thought for sure I was going to bend or break them! The holes have been reamed for todays common 3 degree pins, vs. the old Yamaha 6 degree. And they put a heavy chamfer on the holes, letting the pin heads sit real low.
The bridge pins holes are neatly ramped. The saddle has been compensated, not required for vintage FG's, the angle of the saddle to the front of the bridge is different vs. modern guitars, they attempted to use that as the compensation and it works pretty good.
The bridge has been sanded from the original .31" height to .25". That doesn't leave a lot of saddle slot depth, .10" on the bass side.
Then I look inside and find more surprises!! I find the loose X brace, and a slight separation of the small brace behind it. AND!! Someone added a 1/8" thick bridge plate patch!! Probably because of the common chewed up bridge plate. That also helps because the bridge has been sanded to .25" thick. The combination of the chewed up bridge plate and low bridge probably had the string balls up into the bridge plate and the string windings laying on the saddle. I wish they hadn't reamed the pin holes so deeply to 3 degrees and put in 3 degree pins. I normally add a 1/16" bridge plate patch and ream them to 5 degrees and don't have the badly sticking pin problem. I'll wax the holes to make them slippery and allow the pins to be popped out easier. But because the pins sit so deep in the bridge they will still need to be pushed out from the inside. Or I just don't push them in hard.
The surprise bridge plate patch.
And the separated brace.
And the brace behind it has a slight separation.
Also looking inside, I find a double stamped date code on the side near the end block. AND, I find another date code on the end block, 2 days earlier. Lots of surprises inside this guitar!
I removed the D tuner with great difficulty. It may have been glued in, and the tuner body is very oxidized.
Chunks of the headstock were knocked out and reglued. The washer made a deep indent.
The holes in the headstock were opened to about .390" (10mm), vs. the standard .344" 8.7mm) OD tuner bushings. I found Gotoh TK-0901-001 vintage adapter bushings that have a .390" OD, they hopefully will fit perfect without having to open or tighten the holes (they should be a slight tap in fit so they don't fall out and get lost). I also bought a set of Grover nickel V97-18 open back tuners. To cover the damage the washers (.630" (16mm) OD) made I bought a couple of different of different size & material washers with 23/32" ( .72") and 47/64" (.73") OD's, one set is zinc plated, the other stainless steel, we'll see how they look.
It's in pretty good shape for over 51 years old. A horizontal score in the top and some playing wear. The original open strip tunes were replaced with weird looking closed tuners. He wants those replaced, and go back to open tuners.
The original tuner bushings weren't removed properly and knocked out some chunks front and back.
The narrow 1.38" string spacing Yamaha nut has been replaced with a orange 1.49" string spacing nut, maybe a little too wide.
The frets are low but not much wear.
The bridge pins aren't original, they are white with a black dots, vs. all black. And it gets more interesting. The low E pins comes out with some difficulty. The other 5 are set too low in the bridge and I can't get the puller under them. So I slack all the strings are try to push them out from the inside. The first 2 were tough, the next brutal, the last 2 almost beat me! I thought for sure I was going to bend or break them! The holes have been reamed for todays common 3 degree pins, vs. the old Yamaha 6 degree. And they put a heavy chamfer on the holes, letting the pin heads sit real low.
The bridge pins holes are neatly ramped. The saddle has been compensated, not required for vintage FG's, the angle of the saddle to the front of the bridge is different vs. modern guitars, they attempted to use that as the compensation and it works pretty good.
The bridge has been sanded from the original .31" height to .25". That doesn't leave a lot of saddle slot depth, .10" on the bass side.
Then I look inside and find more surprises!! I find the loose X brace, and a slight separation of the small brace behind it. AND!! Someone added a 1/8" thick bridge plate patch!! Probably because of the common chewed up bridge plate. That also helps because the bridge has been sanded to .25" thick. The combination of the chewed up bridge plate and low bridge probably had the string balls up into the bridge plate and the string windings laying on the saddle. I wish they hadn't reamed the pin holes so deeply to 3 degrees and put in 3 degree pins. I normally add a 1/16" bridge plate patch and ream them to 5 degrees and don't have the badly sticking pin problem. I'll wax the holes to make them slippery and allow the pins to be popped out easier. But because the pins sit so deep in the bridge they will still need to be pushed out from the inside. Or I just don't push them in hard.
The surprise bridge plate patch.
And the separated brace.
And the brace behind it has a slight separation.
Also looking inside, I find a double stamped date code on the side near the end block. AND, I find another date code on the end block, 2 days earlier. Lots of surprises inside this guitar!
I removed the D tuner with great difficulty. It may have been glued in, and the tuner body is very oxidized.
Chunks of the headstock were knocked out and reglued. The washer made a deep indent.
The holes in the headstock were opened to about .390" (10mm), vs. the standard .344" 8.7mm) OD tuner bushings. I found Gotoh TK-0901-001 vintage adapter bushings that have a .390" OD, they hopefully will fit perfect without having to open or tighten the holes (they should be a slight tap in fit so they don't fall out and get lost). I also bought a set of Grover nickel V97-18 open back tuners. To cover the damage the washers (.630" (16mm) OD) made I bought a couple of different of different size & material washers with 23/32" ( .72") and 47/64" (.73") OD's, one set is zinc plated, the other stainless steel, we'll see how they look.
