Guitar shenanigans

Talk about musical instrument construction, setup and repair.

Moderators: kiwigeo, Jeremy D

Post Reply
User avatar
peter.coombe
Blackwood
Posts: 742
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:52 pm
Location: Bega, NSW
Contact:

Guitar shenanigans

Post by peter.coombe » Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:58 pm

Have any of the guiter makers experienced this?

I got my first guitar back for some repairs a couple of days ago. It had been left in very high humidity and hot temperatures for far too long. The owner had played some outside gigs at around 34deg and pissing down rain for 4 days in a row and then just put it back in the case and left it for 3 weeks. So it was probably close to 100% humidity in the case for 3 weeks. The fingerboard expanded out over the neck and the fret ends were now holes. The Ebony tuning knobs swelled and came loose from the tuner shafts and the guitar could not be tuned. The neck also had a noticable bend. The strings were rusty, and the spare set in the case had also rusted. Downright abuse I say.

Anyway after leaving it out of the case in the workshop at 45% RH for a few days to let dry out and fixing all the problems I strung it up and could hardly believe my ears. It sounds friggin amazing, it still sounds amazing, I can't put it down. Completely different instrument from when I last had it in my hands around 6 months ago to fix a couple of my "features" (it is now about 2 yo). The difference is huge. I have other guitars I can compare it with so it is not my imagination. It totally blows away guitar number 2, but guitar number 2 blew it away 6 months ago. What is going on? It has been played a lot, but then it had already been played a lot 6 months ago. I'm gobsmacked. Surely guitars don't need to be abused to get them sounding like this. I'm baffled. Any ideas?
Peter Coombe - mandolin, mandola and guitar maker
http://www.petercoombe.com

User avatar
EricDownunder
Blackwood
Posts: 170
Joined: Wed Apr 18, 2012 12:59 pm
Location: East Kurrajong, NSW

Re: Guitar shenanigans

Post by EricDownunder » Sun Mar 24, 2013 10:09 pm

It's funny I have a very old hand made not expensive Gianini The sound quality is amazing everyone who plays it agrees, well recently I aquired a video camera on the end of a cable sort of thing so I put it inside the gianini to have a look the camera also has a light on the end and what did we find "MOULD" maybe it's like the famous stratavarious figure that!
Keep Smiling,
Eric Smith

User avatar
Trevor Gore
Blackwood
Posts: 1638
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: Guitar shenanigans

Post by Trevor Gore » Sun Mar 24, 2013 11:08 pm

Are the braces still attached as originally intended?

User avatar
peter.coombe
Blackwood
Posts: 742
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:52 pm
Location: Bega, NSW
Contact:

Re: Guitar shenanigans

Post by peter.coombe » Mon Mar 25, 2013 12:14 pm

As far as I can determine everything seems to be attached, nothing I could find is loose, and no buzzes. The modal frequencies have dropped only by about 1-1/2 Hz since I last measured them which was more than a year ago. Can't see any mould.
Peter Coombe - mandolin, mandola and guitar maker
http://www.petercoombe.com

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 84 guests