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Alvarez Yairi DY 85


Pocock

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My Yairi is a 1985 model, obviously 10 years younger than Pocock's DY85. Mine, at this point is rock solid and doesn't need a reset. I had 5 frets replaced on mine a couple of years ago when I first got it. We set it up with a bit higher action on purpose and it increased the volume considerably. The return on the set up has proven a great trade off when jamming with friends. I love my old Yairi.

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Yairi is almost always lam. Yairi believed in a very rigid frame for responsive tops' date=' so his creations have been mostly lam b/s. Nothing wrong with that, IMHO. Only corksniffers rate the materials higher than the craftsmanship.[/quote']The quality of the workmanship and the materials are completely independent. I assume you mean the workmanship is crucial and the materials don't matter much?
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$200?

 

Well you got robbed there, but you got a great price on the guitar so I guess it evens out.

 

Robbed? I don't think so. I'm getting the frets re-sealed, full fret level and re-crown plus a new saddle and strings. Priced it out at the top two repair shops here in Chicago and both quoted me at $210. Maybe robbed compared to Mayberry pricing but not in Chicago.

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. . . I'm getting the frets re-sealed' date=' . . .[/quote']

A quick comment: You're probably getting the frets reseated, not resealed. Some of your frets have started lifting from the fretboard. This is either because the guitar is dried out or the frets were poorly installed, most likely the former IMHO. Frets can sometimes be pressed back into place and superglued but it's also sometimes necessary to remove them and reinstall them. I hope whatever shop you decide to take it to will also humidify your guitar if necessary, which it probably is. They take the time to do that in Mayberry, you know, but probably not so much in the big city where you are since everyone is in such a big hurry. Good luck.

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Yeah, re-seat and seal is the term I was looking forbiggrin.gif Thanks! Here's the work being done by charge for anyone who wants to dissect the cost and tell me where I got robbed.

 

$100:

Fret-level and recrown/redress, smoothing rough fret ends, detail

clean and polish, resting, adjustments for intonation and playability,

tightening of hardware

 

$65:

Bone Saddle material and installation

 

$35:

Re-seat and seal frets

 

 

 

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Everything looks okay except the price for the saddle. Here in Mayberry (Oops, I mean St. Louis), it's about $50 parts and labor for a nut. I haven't priced saddles but they're generally less expensive than that. Bob Colosi, whose work is not cheap, will make you a saddle for around $30: http://www.guitarsaddles.com/pricing.asp. Assuming $30 to have a saddle made, "installation" and a good bit of the labor should be covered under "adjustments for intonation and playability," which means a setup. "Installing" a saddle means removing the strings, pulling the old saddle, sanding the new one to height, dropping it in the slot, and replacing the strings. You can get a pre-made bone saddle for about $5 and sand it to the correct height yourself. That and I don't see a line item for humidifying. Is it included?

 

::Edit to add I've still never heard of "sealing" frets. I'm assuming they mean gluing them down but your guess is as good as mine.

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I haven't been following this thread and not having seen the guitar (or knowing exactly what your repair tech is doing) its kind of hard to judge the prices. I normally charge up to $65 to make a new bone nut - that is a lot more work than making a saddle, which I usually charge 25 to 35 to make. I'll level, crown and dress frets for somewhere in the 30 to 60 range, a hundred bucks gets a nut, saddle, frets and setup unless there are significant problems. The going rate to replace frets is 10-15 each, 150 or so for the whole board. A nut, saddle and setup is almost always required if major fretwork is done. Not sure about the "re-seating" or "sealing" - as I said on another post sometimes CA glue is wicked in to hold frets in place - I'd have to know more about this.

 

Sounds like you are in the $200 range for completely going thru your guitar minus a neck reset - that isn't unreasonable

 

edit to add, I purposely make my charges as low as possible to help get guitars back in the hands of players so please don't go running to your tech with my prices. I'm not in this to make money and I constantly put way more hours in a project that I charge the owner. Kimsey's prices are representative of the industry

 

http://www.bryankimsey.com/

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I paid $10 each to replace the first 5 frets on my Yairi, which I thought was very reasonable,

 

EDIT: I forgot that I got six bone saddles from a guy in Hong Kong on ebay for $12. They were almost perfect and required only a little tweaking to fit. I gave a few of them away on the HCAG because there were more than I needed.

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I do all of that work myself for my own guitars and friends for free. Totally shaping a nut from a blank is some work but the fretwork and saddle work is pretty simple. And the OP didn't even get a new nut made. I can't imagine paying more than a hundred for fret dressing and a new saddle here in Naples, Florida ...including materials..

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. . . I got six bone saddles from a guy in Hong Kong on ebay for $12. They were almost perfect and required only a little tweaking to fit. I gave a few of them away on the HCAG because there were more than I needed.

Yeah, I got a couple of of them. Thanks again. :thu:

I routinely do free setups and minor repairs for friends. I don't do fretwork beyond polishing but I'd like to think the results are pretty good. Personally, I'm thinking $175 or so for what the OP had done. $65 to replace a saddle is just 'way out there IMHO considering they're also charging for a setup. And I'm still surprised there's no line item for humidifying considering this is a 40 year old guitar that's essentially been in storage.

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I don't mind paying someone for a service that I don't have the time to do myself. It's not like these guys are getting rich from repairing guitars. They are performing high quality work that is tedious and time consuming, takes patience and requires some passion for the craft, I presume. I will gladly overpay $25 for a dedicated craftsman taking care of my babies :cool:

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About 10 years There was a guy on the internet who made very expensive pool cues. He used real elephant ivory for those long little inlaid triangles. Anyway he had lots of scrap ivory from this that he was selling cheap/trying to get rid of that were the perfect size for guitar saddles. something like 3" by 1/8" by 1/2". I bought up about fifty of them for $4 each... so now I have a lifetime supply. To my ear they do make a difference over bone, mammoth ivory, synthetic etc....He said the ivory was old stock grandfathered in before restrictions on international trade. The stuff is really easy to shape, polishes like a dream, and just gives a great dry bell-like tone with lots of volume when well fit into a nice ebony bridge. Mammoth ivory can sometimes sound as good....but it varies a lot in consistency based on where it preserved.

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I don't mind paying someone for a service that I don't have the time to do myself. It's not like these guys are getting rich from repairing guitars. They are performing high quality work that is tedious and time consuming' date=' takes patience and requires some passion for the craft, I presume. I will gladly overpay $25 for a dedicated craftsman taking care of my babies :cool:[/quote']

 

I like your attitude. I pay a few dollars more to shop at my local music store rather than the big boxes - I like their attention to each individual customer. Hope your tech does a really good job and that you are happy with your new/old guitar.

 

Question about your forum name - is it a handle or possibly a family name? The reason that I ask is that George Pocock was one of the greatest builders of rowing shells (the eight man boats used in crew racing) and he recently passed away. I have done (and do) a little rowing and the traditional shells were built very much like a guitar - a highly engineered frame of spruce covered with a wood such as cedar - beautiful as well as functional. Just wondering if there was a connection.

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About 10 years There was a guy on the internet who made very expensive pool cues. He used real elephant ivory for those long little inlaid triangles. Anyway he had lots of scrap ivory from this that he was selling cheap/trying to get rid of that were the perfect size for guitar saddles. something like 3" by 1/8" by 1/2". I bought up about fifty of them for $4 each... so now I have a lifetime supply. To my ear they do make a difference over bone' date=' mammoth ivory, synthetic etc....He said the ivory was old stock grandfathered in before restrictions on international trade. The stuff is really easy to shape, polishes like a dream, and just gives a great dry bell-like tone with lots of volume when well fit into a nice ebony bridge. Mammoth ivory can sometimes sound as good....but it varies a lot in consistency based on where it preserved.[/quote']

 

You interested in selling a few of them to me?

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I like your attitude. I pay a few dollars more to shop at my local music store rather than the big boxes - I like their attention to each individual customer. Hope your tech does a really good job and that you are happy with your new/old guitar.

 

Question about your forum name - is it a handle or possibly a family name? The reason that I ask is that George Pocock was one of the greatest builders of rowing shells (the eight man boats used in crew racing) and he recently passed away. I have done (and do) a little rowing and the traditional shells were built very much like a guitar - a highly engineered frame of spruce covered with a wood such as cedar - beautiful as well as functional. Just wondering if there was a connection.

 

Sent you a PM.

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Hi pocock, I've recently bought a 1988 Kazuo Yairi DY-85 in excellent conditions, I brought it to the great lutist Pietro Furlattini in Verona - Italy and asked him about sides and back material, because I thought they were laminated. he said that it's all solid mahogany, he refused to make a hole in the sides to install an endpin jack because he stated that it was the best guitar he had in his hands this year. As he knew that I was searching for a Martin D42, he told me to stop searching, because that DY-85 sounds way better than D42. So, be proud of your Kazuo Yairi!

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