ABOUT ME (CTGull)

MY FORUM NAME (CTGull) – The first acoustic guitar I bought was a Seagull (about 11 years ago). I had found a friendly Seagull forum and made this name and have used it since. And I live in Connecticut (CT).

MY BACKGROUND – When I was a kid, I was always taking my toys apart, even the ones that weren’t supposed to come apart. Ironically, my father was an accountant and didn’t have a mechanical clue - I had to show him how to use a screwdriver. His father was one of five guys who invented the x-ray tube in the 1950’s. I guess the technical genes skipped a generation? I recently discovered the 16 MBTI Personality Types and found I am an INTP, which explains all the weird stuff I’ve done my whole life. Here’s a post I’ve written about it.

I went to a technical High School for Machine Drafting. I started working in my field after my Junior year, going from Junior Draftsman to Machine Designer in the 15 years I was at my first job. I left that company (the last to leave during a huge wave of corporate restructuring) and moved on to a job as a Tool Designer for 5 years. Unfortunately, the company was going under, and I was laid off.

I’ve been working as a Tool Designer at my current company for over 22 years. I started as a member of a 5 person team. But they all slowly retired, and I’ve been working alone for last 11 years.

Using my Tool Designer background, I design and build many of my tools for working on guitars. How many people can take their “job” home and do something fun with it? So, after sitting in front of a computer most of the day, I go home and sit in front of a computer or work table for another four to five hours at night!

I first learned drafting in 7th grade (over 46 years ago!!). And learned AutoCAD in the late 1980’s but haven’t used it much in the past 10 years. At my second job I learned CADKEY and ProE. I’ve been using DraftSight (AutoCAD clone) 2D CAD software for about 10 years, and SolidWorks 3D CAD software for 17 years. 98% of what I’ve done in the past 17 years has been in 3D.

GETTING STARTED - I started playing the guitar in the early 80’s with my youngest brother. Our father took us to Sam Ash in NYC to buy a Fender Squire bass & strat. My brother and I were into Rush, so I figured out how to play some of the strummed and arpeggiated parts, and he played the bass. Later that year, I traded a moped for a 1962 Gibson ES-125T to a friend of my fathers who had Parkinson’s and couldn’t ride his motorcycle or play guitar any longer (he played it in a band in the 60’s), although he could still ride a moped. After a year or two, life moved on, and I forgot about the guitars.

RE-STARTED - Then sometime in 2011, I rediscovered the guitar and found a teal quilted top Epiphone Les Paul. I wanted to be the next Peter Frampton, but soon realized that wasn’t going to happen. I started thinking more about the acoustic guitar. I found a friendly Seagull forum, and soon found a 2010 Seagull S6 for $250 on CraigsList, and a 2004 Seagull S6+ Folk (still one of my favorite guitars) followed 4 months later.

GETTING STARTED WITH GUITAR REPAIR - Around the same time I found an internet friend in the Seagull forum who fixed acoustic guitars in his spare time. Two months later (9/2012), I bought a couple more worn and broken Seagull S6’s to fix. Bolt on neck reset, fix top cracks, level frets, replaced bridge, etc. They were a great learning experience.

GETTING STARTED WITH VINTAGE YAMAHA’S - My internet friend also got me interested in vintage Yamaha FG’s. I wanted to find an FG-180 at a reasonable price but they were always $300 and up which was lot of money for a mid-range guitar at the time. Vintage FG prices have inflated quite a bit since then! And almost all of them need an expensive neck reset to be playable again. In June 2013, I was lucky enough to find a 1977 FG-350W for $200 on CraigsList. And it didn’t need a neck reset. I watch CraigsList quite a lot, and I knew the seller bought that guitar on CraigsList for $500 six months prior. But he needed to raise some cash fast, and I saw the ad ten minutes after it went up. I had a grin ear to ear when I strummed it for the first time. That model listed for $600 back when it was the top of the line of Yamaha's commercially produced FG's in the late 70’s. In ten years of watching CraigsList, I've only seen three FG-350W's for sale within one hundred miles of me (central Connecticut).

FIXING GUITARS FOR SCHOOLS - In October 2013 our middle son told his music teacher that I fixed acoustic guitars. She said that she’d love to teach guitar in music class but there was no budget for buying guitars. So, I offered to find/fix/donate them, and started looking for acoustic guitars that needed work. Although most were donated, I paid up to $20 for a few. Over the course of the next 5 years, I found, fixed, and donated 37 guitars to the 2 local middle schools. It was a win-win for both of us as they got free guitars, and I got experience repairing them.

MORE FG's!! AND GOING TOO FAR - And I started buying more vintage Yamaha FG’s, 2 in 2013, 2 in 2014, 5 in 2015, 8 in 2016, 9 in 2017, and... You get the idea. Most had an unacceptably high action, so I’d sand the bridge down to be able to lower the saddle enough to make them playable. Unfortunately, I discovered you can go too far as I ruined a couple of vintage FG’s sanding the bridge too low - the tone and volume were reduced.

GETTING STARTED WITH VINTAGE FG NECK RESETS - So I started doing research about dovetail neck resets. By then, I had completed 4 bolt-on Seagull neck resets. So, I had a working knowledge of what to do after I got the neck off. But the challenging part was learning HOW to get a neck off. It was rumored that vintage FG’s were built with epoxy (or Asian Mystery Glue); and therefore, couldn’t be taken apart. But I had to find out for myself. I made a steam setup and a neck jig for pressing the neck out of the pocket - I shamelessly copied the Stew Mac design and added minor improvements. With great difficulty, in October 2015 I removed my first vintage FG neck just to prove I could do it! But I set it aside and didn’t actually complete the neck reset for another 13 months, finishing it in the end of November 2016.

At the same time I realized I had been butchering FG’s by sanding the bridges lower to make them playable. I sold most of them and committed to repairing them the right way after that. At this point (November 2016), I had found 19 vintage FG's, including (finally) finding a 1971 FG-180 for $20 (3/16” high action with nylon strings!). By then, I had several guitars that needed neck resets. So, one day in December 2016, I decided to tackle another neck removal. Starting with a 1973 FG-160, I then moved on to a 1974 FG-170 and finished up with the $20 1971 FG-180. I took all 3 necks off in one very long evening!

RESEARCH - In September 2013, I asked for and received an Excel spreadsheet of Yamaha’s Acoustic Guitar Archive from Yamaha USA. I’ve heavily modified it and done many additions and corrections. In early 2016 I started planning the Yamaha forum. Sadly, in May 2017 Yamaha took down their Guitar Archive web page, and that gave me the push to create YamahaVintageFG.boards.net. I made the YamahaVintageFG.com website 4 months later as suggested by a several people. I use both to share what I’ve learned (including the Yamaha Guitar Archive) and document current/past/future projects, although the forum is the most up to date.

During this time, I’ve collected over 3000 Yamaha serial numbers, and nearly 500 date codes, 13 different labels (in only 15 years!), and other data from various online sources and donations. This allowed me to identify when Yamaha made many changes and identify rare variations. Unfortunately, due to the language barrier and the passage of time, we will probably never know why they made so many changes.

CUSTOMER NECK RESETS - In August 2018, someone asked me if I do vintage FG neck resets, and I said yes. By then, I had completed 7. He asked if I would do one on his 1970 FG-180. Again, I said yes. Was I crazy?! Yes! He’s part of a band that was going on a mini tour of the northeast US for 6 weeks. We met as he passed through Connecticut at the start and again at the end of his tour during which time I completed the neck reset. And the rest is now history! I’m now (as of December 2022) up to 66 finished vintage FG neck reset’s including 33 for customers. And I have plenty more to do...

OTHER NECK RESETS - Additionally, I’ve done 16 vintage Harmony neck resets, 1 Martin, and 3 Guilds, and 6 bolt on Seagull neck resets. I also have 4 more 60’s Harmony’s, and 2 1920’s Supertones’ in line for neck resets. And ideas for special projects, like a small body wider string spacing FG (YamaXLjr).

SPARE PARTS AND OTHER REPAIRS – I also make some spare parts and have done many other repairs. Nuts, saddles, 3D printed/bone FG-300 saddle assembly. And I’ve done partial/complete refrets, bridge replacement, bridge plate patch, tuner replacement, custom “Bridge Doctor”, remove loose/restick pickguard, and others. SERVICES AVAILABLE
CUSTOM DESIGNED TOOLS – I’ve used my tool design background to make improvements to or designed new tools to help me work on the guitars. Neck removal jig, neck clamping jig, 3D printed nut file guide blocks, templates/blocks for making nuts & saddles, neck back bowing block, and others.

PLANS – I am planning on selling some of my vintage FG’s (locally, possibly on Reverb) once I complete a couple more. “Certified Playable FG’s!" Unlike most of the FG's in circulation with high action/needing a neck reset or with other problems, these will be ready to play. And once I make some room I’ll probably buy more to fix and sell.

THE FUTURE – I’ve had thoughts of trying the internal steam type neck reset demonstrated by John Miner in Australia. I’ve talked to a few people who’ve tried this with some success. I think the biggest problems are the inaccuracy of the process, and the possibility of the wood returning partially to its old position. This is more of a “redneck” type neck reset where the goal is “close enough,” or it will take a few tries to get the neck angle where you want it. With taking 2 to 4 weeks per session (and possibly multiple sessions) it becomes a long term process vs. the more traditional neck reset that I can do in a week or less. And it requires a dedicated area for the process, doing more than one at a time would take up considerable room that I don’t have. And there is some risk that you may separate a glue joint while clamping the guitar. Also, I don’t think the steam does anything to a plywood guitar, it won’t absorb moisture as a solid wood guitar would. Enough steam to soften the plywood would certainly loosen glue joints. It’s putting the guitar in traction that does all the work.

VINTAGE HARMONY X BRACE CONVERSIONS – I’ve seen a few luthiers doing this, with supposed “Holy Grail” tone improvements. While I’ve heard some of the X braced versions played, I’ve never heard a comparison of ladder vs. modified X braced. I’m not convinced the alteration is worth the time or money. I’ve done neck resets on a few vintage Harmony’s and most of them sound pretty good. I’m having a tough time rationalizing doing a major disassembly of a good guitar for possible minor improvements. I’ve saved enough info/pictures/videos to be pretty sure I can reverse engineer and do a decent job of reproducing an X braced version. But I’ve got enough guitars to work on for now.

BUILDING GUITARS - I’ve also thought about building a guitar (or guitars) from a kit or even from scratch. They best way to start down that road would be to go to classes (5 days to 2 weeks) offered by a hand full of luthiers. Robbie O'Brien in Colorado would a great one to learn from, but that’s quite a distance away. Eric Schaefer is only 4+ hours away and also a good possibility. The closest is in northern Massachusetts, but it’s the most expensive of the three. To be clear, these classes aren’t cheap - $3000 (5-7 days) to $6000 (2 weeks)!! Most of them have online courses for a fraction of the cost, but you don’t get the hands on with “The Master” component. Maybe when I get closer to retirement, if they don’t retire first... I recently (and completely unexpectantly) bought a used guitar at Guitar Center (while delivering a repaired Harmony H1270) that I found was built by a hobby builder. We’ve talked a bit about building and repairing guitars. He wishes he had learned to repair guitars before learning to build them, so he would better understand the process of taking them apart, which would probably influence his building process. I’m fortunate this hasn’t sparked wanting to build vs. repair. Maybe someday.

LEARN TO PLAY MORE! - And I really need to learn to play more!! I’m pretty good with chords and some basic strumming and finger picking. But I can’t play much, just enough to make it look like I know what I’m doing. I’ve bought plenty of resources, but I need to make learning to play a priority over fixing them. For the past few years, my drive has been fixing them - maybe in the future that will change. Did I mention, I’ve been saying that for years?

WHAT’S PROBABLY NOT GOING TO HAPPEN – Video. I take notes and many pictures as I’m working, then I put them into posts in the forum. But I don’t have time to set up, shoot, and edit video as that can take hours. My daytime job is nine to ten hours per day plus a half hour drive each way. THEN, I work on guitars in my “spare” time.

I hope this helps people understand where I’m coming from. And my quest to learn more and save these great guitars.

Email YamahaVintageFG@gmail.com with any questions.