If you’ve ever owned hollow-body jazz guitar with a floating bridge, you know the perils of changing the strings without accidentally moving the bridge placement. Even scarier, the bridge is also able to slide around the top of the guitar under full string tension if bumped, potentially throwing off your string alignment and intonation, causing …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/pinning-a-floating-bridge/
Jan 13 2023
Ten years!
Ten years ago I was fired for the first time in my life. I was blindsided, in complete and utter shock, and I suddenly found myself unemployed and quickly going broke in San Francisco. I had been becoming increasingly disillusioned with San Francisco, and had been yearning to move back to the city that most …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/ten-years/
Nov 07 2022
Output Jack Repair on a Gibson Thunderbird
When you play a Gibson Thunderbird on stage the way it’s supposed to be played, you’re probably going to break it at some point – and that’s okay! That means you’re doing it right and rocking out. This particular bass had the instrument cable stepped on during a gig (always loop your cable around your …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/output-jack-repair-on-a-gibson-thunderbird/
Jun 07 2022
Fixing a Broken Headstock with Splines and a Backstrap Overlay
I honestly don’t know how many broken headstocks I’ve repaired over the years. But I can tell you that when I first started doing this 20 some-odd years ago I wasn’t fixing broken headstocks with splines and a backstrap overlay – it was more like a single C-clamp and some wood glue. Boom. Done! Maybe …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/fixing-a-broken-headstock-with-splines-and-a-backstrap-overlay/
Mar 21 2022
Removing and Replacing a Broken Truss Rod
Inside nearly every modern guitar and bass neck is a truss rod: a long, adjustable steel rod designed to counteract string tension on the neck. Without it your guitar strings will eventually bend your instrument’s neck into an unplayable banana-shaped object. They are usually pretty sturdy, but if they are abused they can sometimes break. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/removing-and-replacing-a-broken-truss-rod/
Jan 28 2022
Replacing the output jack on a Parker Fly
When I was 17 years old, I had already become bored of the same-old, same-old approach to guitar design. My jaded teenage eyes were already sick of seeing Strats and Teles over and over and over again. I thought these were grandpa guitars, and I yearned for something new. Then I discovered the Parker Fly, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/replacing-the-output-jack-on-a-parker-fly/
Dec 20 2021
Filling a Kahler route on a vintage Gibson Flying V
Back in the 1980s, guitarists were cutting holes into their instruments for double-locking bridge systems like their Aqua Net was cutting holes into the Ozone layer. A popular choice among them was the Kahler Vibrato System: a stationary-mounted bridge with a cam-operated vibrato arm that allows for all the squeals and dive bombs a Spandex …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/filling-a-kahler-route-on-a-vintage-gibson-flying-v/
Oct 27 2021
Converting an acoustic guitar to left handed
Left handed people have never had it easy. Lefties have been burned at the stake, bump elbows with righties at the dinner table, and struggled with scissors in elementary school art class. Left handed people also have limited options finding a guitar that suits them. Left handed people comprise of 10% of the population, yet …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/converting-an-acoustic-guitar-to-left-handed/
Aug 17 2021
Epoxy Coating a Fretless Bass
Back in the early 1970s, Jaco Pastorius took the electric bass world by storm with his trademark fretless Fender Jazz Bass sound – and people have been chasing that sound for decades. Part of his unique bass tone came from a coating of Pettit Poly-Poxy (boat epoxy) that he applied to the fingerboard to protect …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/epoxy-coating-a-fretless-bass/
Jul 28 2021
Repairing a Collapsed Acoustic Guitar
New Orleans humidity is rough on things. It’s relentless grip on the Gulf South is unforgiving of most man-made objects not designed for swamp life: houses, vehicles, books, anything electrical, and definitely guitars. The combined string tension at standard tuning is about 160 pounds of constant pressure on the soundboard – which means acoustic guitars …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/repairing-a-collapsed-acoustic-guitar/
