Members Chordite Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 I was at a local auction and a couple of guitars came up, an electric and a classical, both looked clean so I picked the pair up for 10 bucks on the off chance. I wanted a cheapy to get my brother started on guitar and not have to cry if he didn't take to it and gave it to a goodwill store in six months Home on the bench we had two classic cases of 'newby attack' rendering both unplayable The electric had had the truss rod cranked up to the point where the hex head was rounded and is now unreleasable and the nut slots filed to below fret level The classical, meanwhile had been 'treated' to a set of steel strings and as a result the soundboard was beginning to separate. I have managed, with a neck shim and new nut, to get the electric surprisingly playable and the classical is currently in glue clamps. Anyone else bought a guitar and found it subjected to tyro abuse? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 Thanks for the new word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 Oh, where do I begin.....? I think the worst case, was an Ibanez (surprise) a 550 body and a 517 neck that was painted in truck bed liner. INCLUDING the neck. Yeah...Second worse was a 80 Gibson Sonex 180 that the entire neck was painted in silver glitter and glue.And a 73/74 Epiphone et270, that had been routed for a Floyd... nuff said? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 I get to see (and try to fix) some very badly abused guitars, but this was one of the worst. This is a 1940 000-28, probably worth somewhere in five figures. It needed a neck reset but instead some hack decided to shave the bridge down by a quarter of an inch. The owner took it to (another) music store in town to have a pickup installed which they completely botched - the saddle slot is so shallow that with a UST there was literally nothing to support the saddle The owner brought it to the shop that I work with and I routed the saddle slot deeper and installed a better pickup system, we'll do the reset one of these days and at that point we'll replace the bridge and do it right. The bright side of this little fiasco is that I did get the guitar playable (the owner gigs with it regularly) and he has commissioned me to build him a jazz guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 Oh, where do I begin.....? I think the worst case, was an Ibanez (surprise) a 550 body and a 517 neck that was painted in truck bed liner. INCLUDING the neck. Yeah... Second worse was a 80 Gibson Sonex 180 that the entire neck was painted in silver glitter and glue. And a 73/74 Epiphone et270, that had been routed for a Floyd... nuff said? BP, I'll see your truck bed liner and raise it. The guitar on the right is a 1932 Dobro (yeah, a mere 80 years old). When I got it it had been spray painted black and the cone cover was crushed. I'm sorry that I didn't take any pictures but it did clean up pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 yeah, you got me. Still think the rhino covering was harder on the hands to play though. And it DID clean up wonderfully, you did a wonderful job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 I did music shop repairs for years and found abuse caused through ignorance the #1 cause of repairs for amps and guitars. Of course many of us have learned by making mistakes. I don't know one Luthier who hasn't made a few whoppers in their time. The key is to learn from those mistakes and take proper actions to correct mistakes. In your case it sounds like the guitars might be low end, inexpensive instruments. Those are great for learning your repair basics. The truss rod nut stripping is a common issue on low end gear. The manufacturer uses cheap soft metal which wears out easily. Compound that with a beginner guitarist that doesn't know how to make proper adjustments, nor has the proper tools to make them. Truss nuts usually strip because someone used the wrong wrench. They may have needed a metric and used an inch and it simply stripped it out. Your work around using a neck shim and new nut doesn't address the real issue. If that neck is back bowed you can have all kinds of issues from tuning, neck twisting, to frets popping up, fret buzz and general out of tune notes. I do suggest you get yourself a special tapered hex wrench designed for those kinds of repairs, then remove and replace the truss nut. http://www.stewmac.com/Tools/Special..._Wrenches.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chordite Posted June 16, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 Yes they are both chinese "guitar shaped objects" There is a very slight backbow if you squint down it but intonation and action okay now and fine for a beginner. With a better guitar I would make the tool investment. The classical, is a John Hornby Skewes "Palma" which is a basic school tuition model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chordite Posted June 16, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 Paint? I almost forgot the state my encore was in when I got it. Technically okay but what a mess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thatsbunk Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 Of course many of us have learned by making mistakes. I don't know one Luthier who hasn't made a few whoppers in their time. The key is to learn from those mistakes and take proper actions to correct mistakes. I'm guilty of this... years ago before I realized a truss rod was for neck relief & not string action I tightened the truss rod on my old Yamaha acoustic 2 full revolutions ... Fortunately for me it was a yamaha & built like a tank so no damage was done (still have that 40 year old guitar today). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted June 16, 2016 Members Share Posted June 16, 2016 My buddy gave me an Ibanez that he found that was in similar condition. I took it apart and its been in a box on a shelf for maybe 2 years now. The older I get the less energy I seem to have for doing restoration work. I have maybe 2 other cheapies around the house that I just haven't bothered with. Honestly, even though I got them given to me, by the time I add in the cost of the cost of parts, I couldn't get enough resale value out of them to cover the parts or the labor. I would restore them just for my own use but they just wouldn't be very good players with those cheap chunky necks and plywood bodies and they'd just wind up being wall hangers like several others I have. I been getting into doing unusual builds to get unusual tones lately. When I'm done with my current project, I'm thinking about a semi hollow body electric using a galvanized steel top to give the guitar some steel resonance. I think it might give me some decent steel guitar blues tones if I design it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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