Martin’s
Guitar Repairs
Martin’s
Guitar Repairs
A picture speaks a thousand words....
This Fender Mustang was one of the very first made in 1963! She cost my customer
a few bob to buy but she was sadly in need of TLC. The pickup switches had
disintegrated, the electrics were noisy, the frets were worn out and the fingerboard
was pitted and in poor condition. The lacquer had crazed (which looked cool) and
was filthy (which is not). The previous owner must have had a bad case of ‘Rory
Gallagher’ syndrome because the crud on the body was virtually un-removable.
We’ve come across
this a lot in MGR. If
you are a sweaty guy
keep your axe clean
because the
combination of you, smoke and crud can turn into a dense
guitar eating film which is the very devil to remove. Incredibly,
this kind of film can actually be polished so it shines (but it
goes white if it gets wet...yuk).
So, we stripped her down, cleaned and polished all the
chrome, the pickguard and pickup covers, the knobs,
machine heads. The slide switches were replaced with new
‘Switchcraft’ switches from AllParts and the wiring renewed
with vintage cloth covered wire. The pots were cleaned and
the socket tightened - in fact everything got tightened up.
The frets were removed, the fingerboard restored with all
the pits and furrows repaired (we could tell you how but the
guild of luthiers would curse us through the ages! - Suffice
to say we use wood dust to rebuild the missing wood
fibres). Refretted, the frets were levelled and polished and
a new bone nut was fabricated and fitted.
Squeaky new strings, an new replacement whammy bar
and a pro set up later this vintage guitar looks, feels and
most importantly, sounds and plays the business.
If your guitar can do with a bit of ‘spa treatment’ pampering
give us a call - we’d love to help!
