Post by CTGull on Sept 30, 2023 18:44:24 GMT -5
Her Story: This is a bit of a freaky one with some magical thinking, but led me to this guitar ultimately. I don't know much about its previous owner, but my connection to it was interesting.
In 2016, I moved into a house in south Philly that was owned by someone in my family. It needed a considerable amount of repairs and work, which took months to turn into a livable place. A month or so of being in a half construction zone, I began to become heavily interested in country classics like The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, George Jones and Hank Williams, etc. Would play their music often while painting walls or sanding floors and felt compelled to buy a guitar. I found this Goya in a small music shop in NJ. It was one of those "picked it up and couldn't stop playing it" moments. It was priced fairly low, so I was nervous it wouldn't be a good investment, but bought it anyway based on its playability and sound. Spent the next year learning and obsessed over the artists I was hearing. I recorded a bunch of country covers and began calling myself Jo.
Things became more interesting when my next door neighbor Bernie (who noticed I was a musician playing guitar often) asked if I would take a look at her husband's guitars to see if they are worth anything. She had been widowed for about 10 years and was sitting on a bunch of his stuff. I was happy to learn she had a musical husband and wasn't annoyed by my banging and clanging. She took me down into her basement where there were 4-5 guitars all piled in cases. On the back wall were pictures of Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, George Jones and Hank Williams. My eyes widened a bit thinking wow, I would've gotten along with this guy, and you don't find people who play country music in south Philly too often! He apparently gigged and specifically played country covers throughout the city. Bernie began pulling guitars out of cases and they were all really nice; 70's Martin, a Gibson, Yamaha, and another brand I didn't recognize. She said there were more upstairs, and these were his "less played" ones. In the upstairs bedroom was a Guild D-25 on a stand cloaked by one of his old flannel shirts. Under their bed was a 1930's Gibson tenor banjo he picked up during the war and lastly, his favorite guitar, a 1910-1920's Gibson J-45. It was his first guitar and pretty beat to sh!t, but immensely loved and preferred over his others for good reason.
I nearly screamed and told Bernie I was so glad she asked me because there was a goldmine here and I had just gotten home from the only shop in the area that deals with high end vintage Martins and Gibson’s. Inside the guitar case were a bunch of setlists. The first one that fell out was a list with songs I had also just recorded and covered under my country moniker, Jo Nelson. Almost the same list verbatim. We had pretty similar taste...omg. While looking inside the sound hole for a serial number of sorts for identification I saw two initials carved into the back that said J.S. I asked her what "JS" stood for. She said, Joe. Joe Sullivan.
Wow, so he played country music, and his name was Joe? That's what I've been doing all year unknowingly as Jo.
I think of my Goya as the channeler. Who knows if it was a coincidence, but that guitar has always been special to me.
Tuning: been in C# minor (C# G# C# E G# C#) but also move around. I’d like to keep one guitar in E standard so if this is better for that we can. I'm undecided because I'm learning a lot of John Fahey, Jack Rose and old blues style players.
Observations: I had her remove and keep the truss rod cover, since I intended on inspecting the guitar in our van and didn’t want to risk losing the screws. The guitar is tuned to Open C#, but I will refer to the strings as if it was in standard tuning. There’s a piece of paper in the B string nut slot. She said there is some fret buzzing on the B & high E strings. That is because the saddle is so low there is ZERO string break angle, the string is vibrating across a long contact surface on the saddle, which is flat, causing the buzz. The low E & A bridge pins are different than the other 4. They are all buried very deep into the bridge. The pickguard is missing, with a little bit of finish missing, and lots of glue residue. There is finish crazing all over the guitar, typical of a lacquer finished guitar of it’s age. It is free of large dings, with a few small ones scattered around, with some buckle rash.
Then I initially looked at it, the fretboard looked flat, with no radius. Using my under string radius gages, I find it is 20”, flatter than the usual 16”. I have many radius sanding blocks, but I have never technically bought a 20” block. But I do have one. I bought a cheap Chinese made block on Amazon that was supposed to be 16”, but it turned out to be 20”. So, I DO have one!
I measured the fret heights with the Stew Mac digital calipers, that has a groove ground in the end to allow it to be placed over the frets to measure them easier than trying to hold the caliper perpendicular while trying to read it. I find most are between .035” and .040”, but the 6th thru 10th are between .030” and .034”. While they aren’t bad, the 6th thru 8th area is typically lower than the rest. When doing a neck reset, and lowering the action, a very flat fret plane is required. Lowering the action exposed the “rocks” of high and low frets, which result in buzzing or dead notes. Taking all the frets down to the lowest frets could require lowering them at least .010”, and probably lower. Frets at .025” or lower should be replaced, because there isn’t enough height to crown them, if more than 10 need to be replaced a complete refret should be done. I will know more after the neck has been removed (relieving any possible stress from its attachment to the guitar) and I straighten the neck as much as possible by adjusting the truss rod. The frets have some minor divots in the first 3 frets, with the worst being the B string.
The truss rod adjusts with a 5/16” (8mm) socket. A standard 5/16” truss rod wrench is too long to fit in the truss rod pocket. Fortunately, vintage Yamaha FG’s have the same problem, they use a shorter socket, which fits this guitar fine. I will adjust it after I’ve taken all the measurements, and again after I remove the neck.
The nut action is high for the low E, A & D; good for the G & high E, and very high for the B (that is shimmed). The neck relief is a little high. The straight edge hits on the 1st & 14th frets, with a .012” gap in the middle. The neck projects 1/8” below the top of the bridge. Tuned to Open C#, the action is a little under 7/64” low E, and 1/16” high E. The bridge is .39” thick. The saddle sticks out a VERY low .04” (low E) and .02” high E.
Lots of finish crazing (lacquer checking).
What a beautiful neck!!
WOW!! I need to get another picture without all the reflections.
The saddle is VERY low!!
What looks to be the bridge lifting is only that corner.
The B & E strings are level across the saddle!
The bridge pins are buried in the holes.
The action is only a little high, but there's almost no saddle exposed, and the B & E strings have zero break angle.
In 2016, I moved into a house in south Philly that was owned by someone in my family. It needed a considerable amount of repairs and work, which took months to turn into a livable place. A month or so of being in a half construction zone, I began to become heavily interested in country classics like The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, George Jones and Hank Williams, etc. Would play their music often while painting walls or sanding floors and felt compelled to buy a guitar. I found this Goya in a small music shop in NJ. It was one of those "picked it up and couldn't stop playing it" moments. It was priced fairly low, so I was nervous it wouldn't be a good investment, but bought it anyway based on its playability and sound. Spent the next year learning and obsessed over the artists I was hearing. I recorded a bunch of country covers and began calling myself Jo.
Things became more interesting when my next door neighbor Bernie (who noticed I was a musician playing guitar often) asked if I would take a look at her husband's guitars to see if they are worth anything. She had been widowed for about 10 years and was sitting on a bunch of his stuff. I was happy to learn she had a musical husband and wasn't annoyed by my banging and clanging. She took me down into her basement where there were 4-5 guitars all piled in cases. On the back wall were pictures of Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, George Jones and Hank Williams. My eyes widened a bit thinking wow, I would've gotten along with this guy, and you don't find people who play country music in south Philly too often! He apparently gigged and specifically played country covers throughout the city. Bernie began pulling guitars out of cases and they were all really nice; 70's Martin, a Gibson, Yamaha, and another brand I didn't recognize. She said there were more upstairs, and these were his "less played" ones. In the upstairs bedroom was a Guild D-25 on a stand cloaked by one of his old flannel shirts. Under their bed was a 1930's Gibson tenor banjo he picked up during the war and lastly, his favorite guitar, a 1910-1920's Gibson J-45. It was his first guitar and pretty beat to sh!t, but immensely loved and preferred over his others for good reason.
I nearly screamed and told Bernie I was so glad she asked me because there was a goldmine here and I had just gotten home from the only shop in the area that deals with high end vintage Martins and Gibson’s. Inside the guitar case were a bunch of setlists. The first one that fell out was a list with songs I had also just recorded and covered under my country moniker, Jo Nelson. Almost the same list verbatim. We had pretty similar taste...omg. While looking inside the sound hole for a serial number of sorts for identification I saw two initials carved into the back that said J.S. I asked her what "JS" stood for. She said, Joe. Joe Sullivan.
Wow, so he played country music, and his name was Joe? That's what I've been doing all year unknowingly as Jo.
I think of my Goya as the channeler. Who knows if it was a coincidence, but that guitar has always been special to me.
Tuning: been in C# minor (C# G# C# E G# C#) but also move around. I’d like to keep one guitar in E standard so if this is better for that we can. I'm undecided because I'm learning a lot of John Fahey, Jack Rose and old blues style players.
Observations: I had her remove and keep the truss rod cover, since I intended on inspecting the guitar in our van and didn’t want to risk losing the screws. The guitar is tuned to Open C#, but I will refer to the strings as if it was in standard tuning. There’s a piece of paper in the B string nut slot. She said there is some fret buzzing on the B & high E strings. That is because the saddle is so low there is ZERO string break angle, the string is vibrating across a long contact surface on the saddle, which is flat, causing the buzz. The low E & A bridge pins are different than the other 4. They are all buried very deep into the bridge. The pickguard is missing, with a little bit of finish missing, and lots of glue residue. There is finish crazing all over the guitar, typical of a lacquer finished guitar of it’s age. It is free of large dings, with a few small ones scattered around, with some buckle rash.
Then I initially looked at it, the fretboard looked flat, with no radius. Using my under string radius gages, I find it is 20”, flatter than the usual 16”. I have many radius sanding blocks, but I have never technically bought a 20” block. But I do have one. I bought a cheap Chinese made block on Amazon that was supposed to be 16”, but it turned out to be 20”. So, I DO have one!
I measured the fret heights with the Stew Mac digital calipers, that has a groove ground in the end to allow it to be placed over the frets to measure them easier than trying to hold the caliper perpendicular while trying to read it. I find most are between .035” and .040”, but the 6th thru 10th are between .030” and .034”. While they aren’t bad, the 6th thru 8th area is typically lower than the rest. When doing a neck reset, and lowering the action, a very flat fret plane is required. Lowering the action exposed the “rocks” of high and low frets, which result in buzzing or dead notes. Taking all the frets down to the lowest frets could require lowering them at least .010”, and probably lower. Frets at .025” or lower should be replaced, because there isn’t enough height to crown them, if more than 10 need to be replaced a complete refret should be done. I will know more after the neck has been removed (relieving any possible stress from its attachment to the guitar) and I straighten the neck as much as possible by adjusting the truss rod. The frets have some minor divots in the first 3 frets, with the worst being the B string.
The truss rod adjusts with a 5/16” (8mm) socket. A standard 5/16” truss rod wrench is too long to fit in the truss rod pocket. Fortunately, vintage Yamaha FG’s have the same problem, they use a shorter socket, which fits this guitar fine. I will adjust it after I’ve taken all the measurements, and again after I remove the neck.
The nut action is high for the low E, A & D; good for the G & high E, and very high for the B (that is shimmed). The neck relief is a little high. The straight edge hits on the 1st & 14th frets, with a .012” gap in the middle. The neck projects 1/8” below the top of the bridge. Tuned to Open C#, the action is a little under 7/64” low E, and 1/16” high E. The bridge is .39” thick. The saddle sticks out a VERY low .04” (low E) and .02” high E.
Lots of finish crazing (lacquer checking).
What a beautiful neck!!
WOW!! I need to get another picture without all the reflections.
The saddle is VERY low!!
What looks to be the bridge lifting is only that corner.
The B & E strings are level across the saddle!
The bridge pins are buried in the holes.
The action is only a little high, but there's almost no saddle exposed, and the B & E strings have zero break angle.
