Post by CTGull on Jan 21, 2024 18:38:47 GMT -5
My Story: I got interested in the Loog guitars about a year and a half ago. The Loog Kickstarter had three models, a rectangular model Loog I, the most popular (and common to find) Loog II, and a triangular model Loog III. I finally won the most common one (II) on ShopGoodwill about a month later. My Loog II. I’d never seen the other two models for sale, until last week, when I saw the triangular Loog III on ShpGoodwill. In the last hour, I threw a “large” number at it to be sure I’d win. Amazingly, two other people bid on it, bringing the price up from $19.99 to $35. Still not bad. I anxiously awaited its arrival.
Observation: I picked the box up at FEDEX Office. While walking out I rotated the box and heard the guitars and pieces shifting inside, sliding from one end to the other. NOT a good sign!! When I got home I opened the box and saw a wad of packing paper loosely filling maybe half the box. I pulled out the guitar to find parts of one of the tuners missing. I upended the box and they fell out. It looked like the screw and gear fell off, releasing the knob shaft. But why was the screw still in the gear?? It turns out the end of the tuner shaft broke off and was still attached to the screw! I attempted to remove the tuner from the guitar but the shaft wouldn’t budge. I had to pound the shaft out of the hole! I took pictures, thinking about sending them a nastygram about poor packing and asking for a partial refund. I had a customer’s guitar to work on, so I put it away until the next day.
Day 1 (1/21/24) – Why bother with a nastygram? I figured I would just replace the tuners. The original Loog tuners have a 6mm (.236”) diameter shaft. The Musiclily (Wilkerson) open back tuners, I had bought for the vintage FG-150 & 180, have 6mm shafts. I think they only cost $25 for the set of (6). I can replace the tuners on both Loog’s. The first step was removing the strings. The nut fell out. Then pound the tuners out and opening the holes in the headstock. I used a letter “B” (.238”) diameter drill in the drill press to open the holes. Then I inserted the first tuner thru the hole, lined the tuner body up parallel with the side of the headstock, marked the hole locations, a drilled (2) 1/16” diameter holes x .30” deep, and installed the screws. Easy!! Then I inserted the second tuner. The tuner body slightly overlaps the first tuner!! So I removed the first tuner, sanded the right point, and reinstalled it. Then I sanded the points on the ends of the second tuner body, and installed it. And sanded the left point on the end of the right tuner body, and installed it. Tuners done!! Time to install the strings!
The strings are old, but they will be good enough for now. The guitar is tuned the the (3) highest strings on a (6) string guitar. GBE. Nylong strings are a paint tune, since the stretch. And old strings are hard to tune. It took a while, but I finally did it.
And a few other things I noticed. The pickguard isn’t mounted correctly, the strings are off center, and the fret ends are wicked sharp.
The pickguard is mounted incorrectly because the cutout for the fretboard is in the wrong place. It should be about 1/16” deeper. I started by using string cutters to cut some of the material out, then used the triangular file to shape it until it fit properly.
So I removed the strings again and used the Music Nomad fret beveling file to smooth the fret ends. Then I used the Music Nomad fret end files to smooth the sharp corners on the fret ends. Then 600 grit sandpaper and 0000 steel wool, and the fret ends are smooth.
The fix the strings being off center, I looked at the Loog assembly instructions, I had downloaded previously, and realized they had installed the tailpiece upside down. So I pulled the strings out of the holes in the tailpiece, and reversed them, removed the mounting screws, flipped the tailpiece, reinstalled the screws, and reinstalled the strings for the last time. And went thru the painful tuning process. The strings are centered!
THEN I noticed the nut action is wicked high!! So I got out my nut files, loosened the strings one at a time, and cut the slots about .04” deeper. After starting to deepen the first slot, I realized I probably should have just sanded the bottom of the nut. But, I was already halfway there with the first slot, so I finished them all, probably taking an extra 10-15 minutes vs. sanding the bottom. And went thru the painful tuning process AGAIN!!
How does it sound?? Not great. It’s a toy.
And the whole process probably took me close to 2 hours! The time I had expected to be working on the customer’s guitar!
But I got the satisfaction of “saving” another one, even if it wasn’t worth saving to 99.9999999% of the Earth’s population.
NOW, I need to find the rectangular one!!
The wonderful packing job.
The tuner parts missing.
The parts found.
The tuner parts.
Drilled the holes for the new tuner.
The new tuner on the left, the old on the right.
From the front.
Filing the fret ends. You can see the metal and wood chips.
DONE!! This is the mess I created working on this guitar.
I forgot to take pics of modifying the nut & pickguard. And I didn't check the intonation.
Observation: I picked the box up at FEDEX Office. While walking out I rotated the box and heard the guitars and pieces shifting inside, sliding from one end to the other. NOT a good sign!! When I got home I opened the box and saw a wad of packing paper loosely filling maybe half the box. I pulled out the guitar to find parts of one of the tuners missing. I upended the box and they fell out. It looked like the screw and gear fell off, releasing the knob shaft. But why was the screw still in the gear?? It turns out the end of the tuner shaft broke off and was still attached to the screw! I attempted to remove the tuner from the guitar but the shaft wouldn’t budge. I had to pound the shaft out of the hole! I took pictures, thinking about sending them a nastygram about poor packing and asking for a partial refund. I had a customer’s guitar to work on, so I put it away until the next day.
Day 1 (1/21/24) – Why bother with a nastygram? I figured I would just replace the tuners. The original Loog tuners have a 6mm (.236”) diameter shaft. The Musiclily (Wilkerson) open back tuners, I had bought for the vintage FG-150 & 180, have 6mm shafts. I think they only cost $25 for the set of (6). I can replace the tuners on both Loog’s. The first step was removing the strings. The nut fell out. Then pound the tuners out and opening the holes in the headstock. I used a letter “B” (.238”) diameter drill in the drill press to open the holes. Then I inserted the first tuner thru the hole, lined the tuner body up parallel with the side of the headstock, marked the hole locations, a drilled (2) 1/16” diameter holes x .30” deep, and installed the screws. Easy!! Then I inserted the second tuner. The tuner body slightly overlaps the first tuner!! So I removed the first tuner, sanded the right point, and reinstalled it. Then I sanded the points on the ends of the second tuner body, and installed it. And sanded the left point on the end of the right tuner body, and installed it. Tuners done!! Time to install the strings!
The strings are old, but they will be good enough for now. The guitar is tuned the the (3) highest strings on a (6) string guitar. GBE. Nylong strings are a paint tune, since the stretch. And old strings are hard to tune. It took a while, but I finally did it.
And a few other things I noticed. The pickguard isn’t mounted correctly, the strings are off center, and the fret ends are wicked sharp.
The pickguard is mounted incorrectly because the cutout for the fretboard is in the wrong place. It should be about 1/16” deeper. I started by using string cutters to cut some of the material out, then used the triangular file to shape it until it fit properly.
So I removed the strings again and used the Music Nomad fret beveling file to smooth the fret ends. Then I used the Music Nomad fret end files to smooth the sharp corners on the fret ends. Then 600 grit sandpaper and 0000 steel wool, and the fret ends are smooth.
The fix the strings being off center, I looked at the Loog assembly instructions, I had downloaded previously, and realized they had installed the tailpiece upside down. So I pulled the strings out of the holes in the tailpiece, and reversed them, removed the mounting screws, flipped the tailpiece, reinstalled the screws, and reinstalled the strings for the last time. And went thru the painful tuning process. The strings are centered!
THEN I noticed the nut action is wicked high!! So I got out my nut files, loosened the strings one at a time, and cut the slots about .04” deeper. After starting to deepen the first slot, I realized I probably should have just sanded the bottom of the nut. But, I was already halfway there with the first slot, so I finished them all, probably taking an extra 10-15 minutes vs. sanding the bottom. And went thru the painful tuning process AGAIN!!
How does it sound?? Not great. It’s a toy.
And the whole process probably took me close to 2 hours! The time I had expected to be working on the customer’s guitar!
But I got the satisfaction of “saving” another one, even if it wasn’t worth saving to 99.9999999% of the Earth’s population.
NOW, I need to find the rectangular one!!
The wonderful packing job.
The tuner parts missing.
The parts found.
The tuner parts.
Drilled the holes for the new tuner.
The new tuner on the left, the old on the right.
From the front.
Filing the fret ends. You can see the metal and wood chips.
DONE!! This is the mess I created working on this guitar.
I forgot to take pics of modifying the nut & pickguard. And I didn't check the intonation.