Post by CTGull on Aug 22, 2021 7:35:04 GMT -5
HIS STORY: He grew up in Vermont, was living in Pennsylvania, and moved to LA last year. He sought out this Red Label FG-180 after hearing the same model played by Elliott Smith on several of his albums, which he loves.
He bought this guitar in Brooklyn, NY about 16 months ago. The seller misled him a bit (that's being generous to him) about the action, and after finding out the FG-180 he bought truly needed a neck reset, he acquired a vintage FG-151 with good action because it was far cheaper than the repair of the FG-180 in LA. While he loves the FG-151, this FG-180 has such a clear distinction between notes that allows for some really fun fingerpicking playing styles that sound great on it. The only thing holding him back has been the high action and some wonky frets.
He had it setup in LA, but it looks like all they did was tweak the truss rod, make a new bone compensated saddle, and fill a couple of the low nut slots with glue. The action was still a mile high. With the bridge being only ¼” thick and the saddle slicking out 1/16”, there’s no room for any adjustment, a neck reset is the only option. While the frets are nicely crowned, most of them are a little low, but not as low as the pictures he send made them look. I’ll know when I check the fret heights and level after the neck is off. If the neck and fret plane are “wavy” they best thing to do would be to do a complete refret vs. levelling them even lower.
He is really looking forward to playing this guitar every day after the work is done.
He flew from LA to NYC to visit friends, bringing the guitar with him. We met at the Stratford CT train station and talked for 1.5 hours. Since we were expecting a direct hit from a Cat 1 hurricane the next day, I wanted to get it apart ASAP.
The pickguard is actually flat and tight to the top!! Very rare!!
Sanded bridge and very low compensated (wrong!) bone saddle.
And it's very loose in the slot. The saddle measures .095", the slot is .114".
Glue was used to build up a couple of the nut slots.
HIGH action!!
LOW saddle!!
INTERNAL PICS
The top bracing in a mirror.
The bridge plate is a little chewed up. That is typical, the drilled the bridge pin holes without backing up the bridge plate and blew out small chunks of wood.
The back bracing.
He bought this guitar in Brooklyn, NY about 16 months ago. The seller misled him a bit (that's being generous to him) about the action, and after finding out the FG-180 he bought truly needed a neck reset, he acquired a vintage FG-151 with good action because it was far cheaper than the repair of the FG-180 in LA. While he loves the FG-151, this FG-180 has such a clear distinction between notes that allows for some really fun fingerpicking playing styles that sound great on it. The only thing holding him back has been the high action and some wonky frets.
He had it setup in LA, but it looks like all they did was tweak the truss rod, make a new bone compensated saddle, and fill a couple of the low nut slots with glue. The action was still a mile high. With the bridge being only ¼” thick and the saddle slicking out 1/16”, there’s no room for any adjustment, a neck reset is the only option. While the frets are nicely crowned, most of them are a little low, but not as low as the pictures he send made them look. I’ll know when I check the fret heights and level after the neck is off. If the neck and fret plane are “wavy” they best thing to do would be to do a complete refret vs. levelling them even lower.
He is really looking forward to playing this guitar every day after the work is done.
He flew from LA to NYC to visit friends, bringing the guitar with him. We met at the Stratford CT train station and talked for 1.5 hours. Since we were expecting a direct hit from a Cat 1 hurricane the next day, I wanted to get it apart ASAP.
The pickguard is actually flat and tight to the top!! Very rare!!
Sanded bridge and very low compensated (wrong!) bone saddle.
And it's very loose in the slot. The saddle measures .095", the slot is .114".
Glue was used to build up a couple of the nut slots.
HIGH action!!
LOW saddle!!
INTERNAL PICS
The top bracing in a mirror.
The bridge plate is a little chewed up. That is typical, the drilled the bridge pin holes without backing up the bridge plate and blew out small chunks of wood.
The back bracing.