Hi, great site! I have a 345 that I bought new in 1980. Am doing deep cleaning and polishing now. First time that frets were reshaped. Time for new strings. After looking for more info about yamaha frets, I found your forum, great! Thanks for all your work. As I am reading all the posts I check my guitar and noticed it has some problems that I like to fix. Action is high, it is playable but it is not how it is supposed to be. neck is straight, thrustrod works like a charm. After all these years it developed a belly, and the bridge is tilting towards the soundhole, no loose braces as I can see. Saddle still original. Backside also slight bow, as far as I remember it is supposed to be like that. I will upload some pictures of the belly and bridge once I find out how to do that. My question; where shall I look for the serial number? More questions at a later stage. thanks
Hi, great site! I have a 345 that I bought new in 1980. Am doing deep cleaning and polishing now. First time that frets were reshaped. Time for new strings. After looking for more info about yamaha frets, I found your forum, great! Thanks for all your work. As I am reading all the posts I check my guitar and noticed it has some problems that I like to fix. Action is high, it is playable but it is not how it is supposed to be. neck is straight, thrustrod works like a charm. After all these years it developed a belly, and the bridge is tilting towards the soundhole, no loose braces as I can see. Saddle still original. Backside also slight bow, as far as I remember it is supposed to be like that. I will upload some pictures of the belly and bridge once I find out how to do that. My question; where shall I look for the serial number? More questions at a later stage. thanks
Thanks!!
A small belly is normal, the top is supposed to have a slight crown. Yours looks to be a little excessive. But, that can happen from 40 years of string tension. The same with the neck projection. Assuming the neck is flat, it looks like the neck projects 1/8" below the top of the bridge, well into neck reset territory. A Bridge Doctor can help with a slight tilt in the bridge, but it won't fix the belly in the top or the neck angle.
The serial number will be on the brace just inside the sound hole, under the fretboard. There will probably be a date code on one of the interior sides.