Post by CTGull on Mar 20, 2021 12:57:27 GMT -5
His story: He bought it last year from a music shop in Waycross GA, a few weeks before he moved to Boston MA. The owner of the music shop got it from his father-in-law, who was an old bluegrass picker from Virginia.
He bought a 12 string FG-512 before this FG-140. Then he found a vintage Yamaha FG Facebook group, then started looking out for vintage FG’s. When he heard this one he knew it would be the last guitar he would buy. He knew the vintage FG’s sounded good, but he didn’t know they sounded THIS good!
My story: We met at McDonald’s in Sturbridge. It was cold outside so we brought my wife’s minivan and had it nice and warm inside. The guitar has many dings all over and six slots cut in the front of the bridge to allow the strings to sit lower, but someone put a higher compensated saddle in it. The nut it not original and is shimmed. The strings are visibly off center at the far end of the fretboard. The first 5 frets are heavily divoted, with the rest low, tapering from .028” to .032”. Tuned to “D” the action is 3/16” low E & 9/64” high E.
Small dings, nothing all that bad, all over the top.
The "groovy" bridge!
The divoted frets.
Marks on the back of the neck , probably from some odd capo.
The back is pretty clean, unlike my work table.
The nut and shims.
When I removed the strings I found the wood bridge pins are a mess. I gave him the option of original vintage black Yamaha pins, or new bone pins. He chose the black pins. The original strip tuner are very gritty and loose. I've ordered Grover V97-18 open back tuners.
Along with the divoted frets, the fretboard has up to .015" deep divots. He had talked about just replacing the first 5 frets, but it doesn't make sense to sand half the height off the new frets to level them to the old frets. So he agreed to a complete refret. Then I asked about sanding the fretboard to level it and remove the deep divots. He said to leave the fretboard as is, with all the nearly 50 years of wear. I thought that was a great idea, a clean & level fretboard might not look good with the groovy bridge.
The saddle slot had been roughly opened up to fit a 1/8" compensated saddle, it's tapered on the sides and not flat on the bottom. It will need to be cleaned up with the router.
The inside is very dusty and I found a possible loose brace.
I had to use a UV light to read the serial number.
He bought a 12 string FG-512 before this FG-140. Then he found a vintage Yamaha FG Facebook group, then started looking out for vintage FG’s. When he heard this one he knew it would be the last guitar he would buy. He knew the vintage FG’s sounded good, but he didn’t know they sounded THIS good!
My story: We met at McDonald’s in Sturbridge. It was cold outside so we brought my wife’s minivan and had it nice and warm inside. The guitar has many dings all over and six slots cut in the front of the bridge to allow the strings to sit lower, but someone put a higher compensated saddle in it. The nut it not original and is shimmed. The strings are visibly off center at the far end of the fretboard. The first 5 frets are heavily divoted, with the rest low, tapering from .028” to .032”. Tuned to “D” the action is 3/16” low E & 9/64” high E.
Small dings, nothing all that bad, all over the top.
The "groovy" bridge!
The divoted frets.
Marks on the back of the neck , probably from some odd capo.
The back is pretty clean, unlike my work table.
The nut and shims.
When I removed the strings I found the wood bridge pins are a mess. I gave him the option of original vintage black Yamaha pins, or new bone pins. He chose the black pins. The original strip tuner are very gritty and loose. I've ordered Grover V97-18 open back tuners.
Along with the divoted frets, the fretboard has up to .015" deep divots. He had talked about just replacing the first 5 frets, but it doesn't make sense to sand half the height off the new frets to level them to the old frets. So he agreed to a complete refret. Then I asked about sanding the fretboard to level it and remove the deep divots. He said to leave the fretboard as is, with all the nearly 50 years of wear. I thought that was a great idea, a clean & level fretboard might not look good with the groovy bridge.
The saddle slot had been roughly opened up to fit a 1/8" compensated saddle, it's tapered on the sides and not flat on the bottom. It will need to be cleaned up with the router.
The inside is very dusty and I found a possible loose brace.
I had to use a UV light to read the serial number.
