Leaderboard

Stop me if you've heard this one. Back when I made my living playing bass, money was tight, and bass strings were expensive. I had heard of people boiling their strings, but I was on the road, and didn't have a kitchen available. However, I did still have to do laundry. So I'd take the strings off of my bass, coil them and stick them inside a sock, then run them through with a load of laundry, washer and then dryer. They came out almost like new, bright, shiny, all grunge gone. Any corrosion or physical damage was still there, of course, so they were never quite like new, but close enough to get by until the next load of laundry. Worked a charm.

Yes, all are production models....now, but a dozen or so years ago, they were just pencil sketches that I posted on the old Harmony Central Electric Guitar forum. What would become 'Backlund' guitars were first seen here as embryonic pencil doodles. Bruce Bennett was the one who stepped forward and built the first prototypes, as well as all of the following JBD guitars. The rest, as they say, is history.

Pace yourself! It's a marathon, not a sprint!

I agree, also, I'd like to say thanks for the coverage you provide. The other sources I view tend to all report the same thing, and each year I look forward to your coverage. You don't need to write a review of everything, just take and post a picture (like you do). Anyway, thanks for the coverage!

no, not acceptable at all, and if they saw those pics, and were okay with that appearance, I would return the guitar and buy from a company that cared about quality and their customers. I would also make sure I gave them bad reviews EVERYWHERE! This is exactly why many of these instruments are 'lower cost'...they don't invest in quality. You are learning a valuable lesson regarding spending that kind of money for an instrument sight unseen. If it were a $300 guitar, okay, take the 10% and live with it, but at $900? No f---ing way!

23'd.

I had my first opportunity to play a J Blacklund at the Shepherd Center hospital last summer. They were calling it the “purple Prince” guitar. I have no Idea how they ended up with it (in a hospital music room). I remember thinking it played so well that I looked up the company and was shocked. I’ve thought about dragging a Fender over there and seeing if they want to trade. Also, I’ve been drawing out sketches for new guitar shapes

Phil, thanks for posting these pictures

Before you do anything else, take your Yamaha to the nearest music store and ask for a "setup." It will make your current guitar easier to play and it'll be much cheaper than a new guitar.

I'd recommend a classical guitar.

3D print.

Hmm. Single bolt? I'm assuming that that's the truss rod? Perhaps it has wooden positioning dowels then. My 40 year old Takamine (remains of the repair I personally botched pictured below) had a butt joint with no tenon or bolts, but DID have 4 positioning dowels (2 on the vertical centerline of the heel, 2 on either side of the truss rod) - supposedly to keep the neck joint from twisting. If that's the case and you want to reset the neck, you should put tape on either side of the body to protect the finish and use a Japanese pull saw to carefully cut the neck from the body. You will also have to remove the bridge though, because the scale length is going to be reduced by the thickness of the blade and the tape which will throw off the intonation.

The closest modern production knobs are probably on the reissue steels. They are a bit different and I can't find any for sale by themselves. https://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-EPI-EFCL-LIST What happened to original? Lost or broken? Finding an original like that, (or even the carousal knobs like on the reissue) will be tricky. If you have another to copy you may want to consider a silicone molding kit. I'd make two new knobs from a casting of the original, and put the original somewhere safe.

Well hello rookie! LTNS..

Bravo Phil. Next best thing to being there - perhaps a bit better as I didn't wake up with sore feet and a hangover!

I got exhausted just looking at everything. Much thanks Phil.

"It's not how you sound, it's how you look. And you look mah-vel-ous!" to paraphrase Billy Crystal bit on SNL years ago

in the right setting, blowing isn’t necessarily a bad thing... trumpets and brass instruments in general for example... wait... what were you thinking.. woodwinds?