Continuum

When we last left our hero, I had finished up my first two guitars (which by some cruel trial of patience, total fluke, callitwhatyoulike, both had things happen that require major/minor repair. More on that to come). Fresh off of this euphoria (and from leaving Red Wing for the summer) I found myself in Des Moines, Iowa being hired muscle for my sister in assisting with her move out of state. It just so happens that there is a repair shop operated in the Des Moines area by a former graduate of the same guitar program I had just completed (It's these guys. Check them out.). It also happens that they were in need of a repair technician. It just so happens that I am now a repair technician with ties in the DSM area.

What a crazy happenstance.

Literally 3 weeks out of guitar school, I found myself needing to move to Des Moines for the summer.

A lot of crazy stuff can happen in a short period of time, and as I soon discovered, a lot of repair work comes in cycles. Many guitars came across my bench in the beginning of the summer that needed new nuts/saddles and set ups, because the summer humidity had thrown everything our of whack. Once these were taken care of, there was a fair amount of wiring in new electronics and repairing damage from when guitars get a case of the dizzies and decide to fall down. Throw in the occasional neck reset and crack repair, and you get my summer in the shop.

One particular guitar that came across my bench for a neck reset also needed a new saddle. Both shown in a side view, the top is a standard sized saddle blank prior to shaping. The  bottom piece was the saddle that I had pulled out of the instrument. Needless to say, I had to do a bit of work to get this guitar back into a proper working order.

pieces of business card on the nut shelf done by the customer to Mcgyver the nut to the proper height

This guy was a cake walk compared to the repair I had to do on this 2001 Ovation. I will say that Ovations are not my particular favorite guitar, but without them, repair techs would have a lot less work/less money. This damage was caused by a lack of humidity, heavy gauge strings, a bridge design where the tension runs parallel to the guitar top as opposed to traditional designs that pull perpendicularly, and finally having the bridge glued to the finish, which isn't as strong as if were glued to the wood.

 To fix it, I took some heavy duty black colored epoxy, worked it under the bridge/finish peel and clamped the ever-loving crap out of it. We chose epoxy because normal glue wasn't necessarily strong enough to guarantee that it would hold up to this strain from the bridge pulling across it. That, and since we were gluing the poly finish down too, wood glue wouldn't hold that, either, so epoxy it is!

Its not an unsightly fix, but the owner said not to worry about making the repair totally disappear, so this is what we left it as. It is certainly stronger now than what came from the factory, and there was no appreciable loss in movement from the top when playing.

Then you get really oddball things that come across your bench:

A 7 string bass with wenge/purpleheart laminated neck and solid purpleheart fingerboard? Heck, I'll fix it...