Post by CTGull on Sept 13, 2021 19:23:20 GMT -5
I was delivering a finished guitar repair (a neck reset for a late 1960’s 12 string Harmony H1270) to a customer where he worked at the Guitar Center in West Springfield MA. Of course, we had to go into the acoustic room to see what they had. Which wasn’t much. I tried many guitars, none of which were anything special. Then he pulled this one down. He said it was the best acoustic in the building. YES!! It was!! Neither of us had heard of the brand. We looked it up and found a nice website, with THIS guitar on the main page! COOL! It is very unique, with inlays on the fretboard, top & back. So I bought it!!! Was I crazy for spending that much money on a guitar??!! I normally buy cheap fixer-uppers but never had a good guitar (not that vintage Yamaha FG’s or Harmony’s aren’t good!).
I sent an email to the address listed. The website says he is in Kirkland WA. And I did some research to figure out how this guitar made it across the country to West Springfield MA. After I bought it the ad was deleted off of Guitar Center’s website. But searching on the name came up with two hits. The webpages no longer existed, but I was able to view the cached pages. It first appeared at the Guitar Center in Redmond WA on 6/25/21. Then on the main Guitar Center page 7/17/21. It never made it to the West Springfield Guitar Center page. The guy I delivered the Harmony H1270 to said the guitar came to their store on 8/3/21. I assume someone wanted to see it, but didn’t buy it. I bought it on 8/7/21, only 4 days after it arrived. Fate???
I got a response a couple of days later: “The guitar you are referring to was a bit of an experiment after purchasing my CNC. I wanted to put graphics and inlays on the backs of my work but I didn't want to have to painstakingly match each bit and shard of wood with the corresponding pocket. So this is a big inlay that was filled with epoxy (same with the rosette detail).
The guitar was finished in August of 2020. I sold it to a contact of mine in Everett in February of this year. When I built the guitar I put D’Addario Light strings on it and it just didn't have the volume that I thought it could have. So I put medium strings on it and it just transformed. Whatever strings you want to put on it would be fine, but I would recommend medium gauge.
I've attached some build pictures for you.”
I asked a few more questions and received another reply:
“I suspect the top may be a bit over-built and the light string tension (and saddle break angle putting pressure on the bridge) doesn’t activate the soundboard like I thought it would. Medium strings seemed to do the trick.
I chose rosewood pins because I felt it went with the motif I was going for. The other option was ebony.
I tend to like ¼” thick saddles as the energy transfer (in theory) is greater. The story with this particular saddle is that it started out as a 3/32” saddle but I found that there were some slight intonation issues. I opted to reroute the saddle slot to ¼” and that gave me enough distance to get the intonation right. That is also why the contact points are pushed to the back. This also creates a better break angle.
I use a tenon-less bolt on neck with barrel nuts. So from a repair standpoint, all you have to do is de-glue the fretboard extension and unbolt it and it’s free. I usually use fish glue for my fretboard extensions and I believe this is the case with this guitar. I have switched to hide glue for most of my building but I still use fish glue on some items. I use fish glue on the bridge and fretboard because of the reparability, and on binding because of the open time. I don't remember (for this guitar) if I stuck to this regiment or not. If it was before my switch to hide glue (which was fairly recent), then most of the guitar was built with fish glue (and maybe some wood glue, but probably not).
As far as the saddle goes, that is something I am evolving even still. My target thicknesses are bridge: 5/16 and saddle: 5/32 (sticking out of bridge). But if I am off with my neck angle even a little bit the saddle will suffer.
Kits are a great way to start building guitars. My very first guitar build was a kit but I’ve been building from scratch since then.”
My observations: The nut action is good. The neck relief is a bit low. The action is a little over 3/32" low E & a little under 3/32" high E. The bridge is .33” thick. The saddle sticks out .09”.
It's heavy (4.80 lbs) in comparison to vintage plywood Yamaha’s, but the heel is very large and the neck is nice and thick. In comparison, a 1967 to 1972 Yamaha FG-180 (dread size) weights 3.90 to 4.30 lbs, and my 1981 Yamaha SJ-180 (small jumbo, nearly identical size as this, but the SJ-180 is very dead) weighs 4.60 lbs. I’ve always like the small jumbo shape. It’s too bad Yamaha never made one in the 60’s or 70’s.
It is very responsive, with good sustain, the tone is very similar to vintage FG's, but not boomy, maybe a little thin. A neck reset & medium strings should fix these minor problems, although I don’t know if I want to try the medium strings until after the neck reset is done, they will make it harder to play.
The intonation is right on except the D is a little sharp. I’ll take a close look at where the strings contact the saddle and shift the D slightly forward on the new saddle.
Since I’ll probably only use this guitar for fingerpicking and light strumming I’ll probably set up the action with a very low 1/16” low E & 3/32” high E. And touch up the fret level and crowning to be sure there are no surprises with the very low action.
The Plan: Remove the strings. Measure the saddle & saddle slot. Loosen the neck bolt; loosen the fretboard with the heat lamp, heat shield, and spatula; remove the neck. Check the neck relief & fret level. Remove the nut, tape the fretboard, and level the frets. Make a new saddle. Check the neck projection, put tape on the heel at required distance, put tape on the body next to the neck heel, undercut the heel with the Dremel and 1/8” ball burr, file the heel to the tape, pull sand the heel to the tape, check the neck projection. String up in the neck jig.
I sent an email to the address listed. The website says he is in Kirkland WA. And I did some research to figure out how this guitar made it across the country to West Springfield MA. After I bought it the ad was deleted off of Guitar Center’s website. But searching on the name came up with two hits. The webpages no longer existed, but I was able to view the cached pages. It first appeared at the Guitar Center in Redmond WA on 6/25/21. Then on the main Guitar Center page 7/17/21. It never made it to the West Springfield Guitar Center page. The guy I delivered the Harmony H1270 to said the guitar came to their store on 8/3/21. I assume someone wanted to see it, but didn’t buy it. I bought it on 8/7/21, only 4 days after it arrived. Fate???
I got a response a couple of days later: “The guitar you are referring to was a bit of an experiment after purchasing my CNC. I wanted to put graphics and inlays on the backs of my work but I didn't want to have to painstakingly match each bit and shard of wood with the corresponding pocket. So this is a big inlay that was filled with epoxy (same with the rosette detail).
The guitar was finished in August of 2020. I sold it to a contact of mine in Everett in February of this year. When I built the guitar I put D’Addario Light strings on it and it just didn't have the volume that I thought it could have. So I put medium strings on it and it just transformed. Whatever strings you want to put on it would be fine, but I would recommend medium gauge.
I've attached some build pictures for you.”
I asked a few more questions and received another reply:
“I suspect the top may be a bit over-built and the light string tension (and saddle break angle putting pressure on the bridge) doesn’t activate the soundboard like I thought it would. Medium strings seemed to do the trick.
I chose rosewood pins because I felt it went with the motif I was going for. The other option was ebony.
I tend to like ¼” thick saddles as the energy transfer (in theory) is greater. The story with this particular saddle is that it started out as a 3/32” saddle but I found that there were some slight intonation issues. I opted to reroute the saddle slot to ¼” and that gave me enough distance to get the intonation right. That is also why the contact points are pushed to the back. This also creates a better break angle.
I use a tenon-less bolt on neck with barrel nuts. So from a repair standpoint, all you have to do is de-glue the fretboard extension and unbolt it and it’s free. I usually use fish glue for my fretboard extensions and I believe this is the case with this guitar. I have switched to hide glue for most of my building but I still use fish glue on some items. I use fish glue on the bridge and fretboard because of the reparability, and on binding because of the open time. I don't remember (for this guitar) if I stuck to this regiment or not. If it was before my switch to hide glue (which was fairly recent), then most of the guitar was built with fish glue (and maybe some wood glue, but probably not).
As far as the saddle goes, that is something I am evolving even still. My target thicknesses are bridge: 5/16 and saddle: 5/32 (sticking out of bridge). But if I am off with my neck angle even a little bit the saddle will suffer.
Kits are a great way to start building guitars. My very first guitar build was a kit but I’ve been building from scratch since then.”
My observations: The nut action is good. The neck relief is a bit low. The action is a little over 3/32" low E & a little under 3/32" high E. The bridge is .33” thick. The saddle sticks out .09”.
It's heavy (4.80 lbs) in comparison to vintage plywood Yamaha’s, but the heel is very large and the neck is nice and thick. In comparison, a 1967 to 1972 Yamaha FG-180 (dread size) weights 3.90 to 4.30 lbs, and my 1981 Yamaha SJ-180 (small jumbo, nearly identical size as this, but the SJ-180 is very dead) weighs 4.60 lbs. I’ve always like the small jumbo shape. It’s too bad Yamaha never made one in the 60’s or 70’s.
It is very responsive, with good sustain, the tone is very similar to vintage FG's, but not boomy, maybe a little thin. A neck reset & medium strings should fix these minor problems, although I don’t know if I want to try the medium strings until after the neck reset is done, they will make it harder to play.
The intonation is right on except the D is a little sharp. I’ll take a close look at where the strings contact the saddle and shift the D slightly forward on the new saddle.
Since I’ll probably only use this guitar for fingerpicking and light strumming I’ll probably set up the action with a very low 1/16” low E & 3/32” high E. And touch up the fret level and crowning to be sure there are no surprises with the very low action.
The Plan: Remove the strings. Measure the saddle & saddle slot. Loosen the neck bolt; loosen the fretboard with the heat lamp, heat shield, and spatula; remove the neck. Check the neck relief & fret level. Remove the nut, tape the fretboard, and level the frets. Make a new saddle. Check the neck projection, put tape on the heel at required distance, put tape on the body next to the neck heel, undercut the heel with the Dremel and 1/8” ball burr, file the heel to the tape, pull sand the heel to the tape, check the neck projection. String up in the neck jig.
