Strings are on and action is measured

Strings are on and I didn't have to adjust the nut or the saddle heights!

I measured with a caliper the thickness of some business cards that I taped together to use to measure the bottom of the string to the top of the fret heights. Here's the measurements at the first fret:

  High E string .013 inch gap @ 1st Fret

Bass E string .017 inch gap @ 1st Fret

High E string .063 inch @ 12th Fret

Bass E String .074 inch @ 12th Fret

Used a guitar tuner to get the strings in tune and the guitar is now playable and no longer in the workshop!  Yes, it sounds great too when I pluck the strings.

End of Project



Tuners are back on

Put the tuning machines back on and found 2 bad ones with minor problems that I hope will not impact the tuning of the string.

This tuner has the screw in nut stripped so it just barely grabs some threads.  Hope it doesn't vibrate/buzz the string.

This 2nd bad tuner has a bit of string left in the hole to help retain the cover of the peg.  Guess I'll leave it in and maybe cut it off after the real string is installed.

Uh-oh, 2 of the Tuning Machines have problems

2 Tuners have problems:
1. the retaining sleeve's threads are stripped
2. the peg cover on one tuning machine is coming off but stays once the string is thru it

Not a major problem but we'll have to evaluate it some more to see how it handles once the strings are on and tightened.

I'm tempted to buy the replacement Grover Tuning machines I found for $35 on eBAy Hong Kong.  But going to wait and see.   Boy, you can continue to spend $$  all the time on these guitars.

Staining and painting next

Well I couldn't match the stain up and in hindsight I should have just left it unsanded because the sanding I did do made it look worse.

Note:  The preslotted nut is now glued on.

Here's what the rear of the headstock looks like now, pretty ugly huh?  But!  It's has a smooth finish though.  Looks just as off colored as the front.

If the saddle sits in the bridge correctly, I'll try the 1st & 6th strings install and adjust for the action height.  That'll be a biggy task/challenge as it may require truss rod adjustment, nut slotting or saddle height adjusting.

Frets need cleaning

The finger board looks fine so I started to tape up the finger board areas to protect it from the filing and steel wood cleaning.

The first 5 frets had a lot of wear, probably the last owner like to stretch the high strings.

All cleaned up.  Now I understand why the guitar techs say to use the steel wool very lightly.  It's very easy to flatten the fret instead of maintaining the crown.  It the string buzzes when fretting a flatten fret, then it may have to be replaced if there not enough meat left on the fret for filing.

Filling

Had to fill the front of the headstock where the chunks of wood splintered off when the break occurred.  The back of the headstock area just below the nut has a deep gouge/hole that needs filling too.

I filed some mahogany wood to create sawdust to mix with my white glue, it was better than the wood filler I found at Home Depot.

Here's what it looks like after the filler dust mixed with the glue is poured on.

And from the back:  Not sure about the dark spot of the filler and how it will react with the stain later.








After some sanding the missing splintered wood is looked filled in.

Sanding, dust and mistakes!

Wow! Lesson learned - There's a time to NOT use an electric orbital sander especially on the back of the neck or headstock areas!  

I used 150 grit flintpaper and it ate wood real  FAST!

Here's some more shots of the sanding exercise:

Need to fill that gap with some wood filler, but the Home Depot stuff did look like it would work so I'll make my own filler by sanding some raw mahogany to create the saw dust to mix in with wood glue and stain.  If it still looks crappy, then I'll just sand the gap area flat, don't like doing that since it'll make that part of the neck thinner and not as strong.  We'll wait and see.

Here's what I ended up using instead of the orbital sander, it's simply a block of hard foam with the sandpaper wrapped around the block.  It's soft enough to take on the contours of the corners and rounded areas.

Next challenge:  Find wood stain to match