Upgrading a Taylor to an Expression System 2

A lot of Taylor owners are considering upgrading their Taylor guitars to the newest electronics, the ES-2 system. It is a big change, as the neck PU, dummy-coil, and sensor harness have gone away. Replacing these, is a sophisticated three-sensor array that mounts behind the saddle, through three holes.

The problem is, the bridges on non-ES-2 Taylors do not have these holes, and they need to be perfectly machined to function and look right. A few of us in the field perform this service for Taylor owners, with Taylor’s full support. I’ve been with Taylor over twenty five years, and they sent me the fixtures to perform this upgrade. I have done quite a few and the customers have all loved the difference.

Here you see the fixture mounted to the bridge, in order to bore the three holes through the bridge, top and bridge plate. The bushings on this jig are wonderful, and guide the razor sharp bit perfectly.

I did not take a “before” photo, as I did not think to do a blog on this until I had already done the drilling, but it is clear from the photos. This customer drove to my shop in southern Vermont from Connecticut, went into town for a couple hours, then returned when it was complete. He was so happy to return the same day with the finished guitar, and this is something I can often do for people who are traveling.

Thanks for stopping by,

Scott

Things are going well in Vermont!

I’ve been here for a few months now, and the locals have started finding me. Quite a few Vermonters and folks from Massachusetts and New Hampshire have been by.

Long Island customers have also come both to drop off new work, and pick up finished guitar repair work. The shop is bustling with work, and as I start to settle more and more, I am busy, and so happy that I followed my heart here to this amazing place. On a side note, look at the light! Windows all around, and 5,000 kelvin LED lighting overhead. It is a joy to work in such perfect lighting, and it really matters when you are doing intricate work.

Thank you all for your support. I am always here to help.

Scott

Martin Guitar Neck Reset

A customer of mine from NY asked me to perform the neck reset on his 1965 Martin 00-18. He decided to pick it up in person, and stay and enjoy Vermont for a couple days. A few others also done this so far, which makes me very happy!

This photo was taken just after I steamed the neck out of the body of the guitar and used a chisel as a scraper to remove any traces of old glue from under the fingerboard. I then continued to clean up the dovetail tenon on the neck and mortise in the head block so that when I carved the heel back to the correct angle, all surfaces would be prepped and ready for gluing.

This neck had been reset by someone before, badly. My work was cut out for me, having to work around the fact that they used a very rubbery carpenter’s glue and removed far too much material from the neck heel.

It all came out fine, and my customer Theo went home happy. Here he is in the studio playing it after the work was complete, and standing on the trail to my studio next to some cairns I built out of rocks from the property.

I encourage folks from out of State, whether old customers or new, to come visit. A small job might be able to be done the same day while you explore Vermont. Larger jobs can be left here for me complete and return to you. There are affordable inns and B&Bs nearby, and the hiking, antiquing and beauty of the area, are wonderful.

Heck… there is likely to be a campfire involved, too.

Helping out a Goodall Guitar

This fine Goodall had been misunderstood a bit by a couple of well-meaning repair people along the way. The owner who drove in from out of State to bring it to me was frustrated because after two attempts with different shops, it still didn’t seem right to him.

The action was a bit higher than he wanted and the tone was bit choked-off. When anyone tried to lower the action it would buzz despite his light touch.

What was going on was pretty simple; several small issues had combined into that feeling that it just wasn’t right.

Firstly, the saddle radius was rounder than that of the fingerboard. This made the g and d string higher on the arc than the others, causing him to have to push slightly harder to fret them. He was not even aware this was happening, but it was causing slight tuning problems, as those two strings were going sharp slightly from being higher and having to be pressed down more.

Next, despite having minimal fret wear, the frets were not level. The truss rod had been overtightened making the neck very slightly back-bowed. This caused some of the frets to rise up in their slots. They needed to be to tapped into place, and that tiny adjustment of the truss rod to bring the neck to a small amount of relief. Some of the frets also had grooves in them from being played, so I did a level an re-crowning of the frets, then carefully sanded and polished the frets until they gleamed.

Also the bottom of the saddle was not perpendicular to the sides. A quick flattening of the bottom edge brought better contact between the saddle and bridge.

Lastly, the nut slots were erratic in their depths. The strings were at different heights, and it required different finger pressure on each to push down to the first fret. This makes a guitar less intuitive to play, and causing tuning problems. One by one, each issue was dealt with. When complete, it had more tone, greater sustain, and was easier to play. It was not rocket science but these small issues added up to a larger picture which was stopping this nice guitar from being its best.

Guitarist Melvin Miller Jr.’s Gibson Les Paul headstock repair

I first met Melvin Miller Jr. years ago when he showed up at my studio with a broken headstock on his vintage Gibson 335. I asked him “What do you do for a living?” He replied “well, now I’m in a Motown cover band.” There was something about his “now” that made me ask “what did you do before?”

That’s when it got interesting. He was a pit guitarist for Motown back in the day. He played with many of the greats including the Supremes, co-writing two songs on one of their albums, and worked with Funk Brothers bassist James Jamerson, among many others. I fixed his 335, and had not heard from him for years, though other ex-Motown players started showing up at my door, due to his referrals.

Last month he sent me a Les Paul. It suffered a broken headstock at a show. It meant a lot to me that a NY artist who worked with me years ago wanted to send his guitar up to my new studio in Vermont. The repair came off perfectly, and it’s on its way home to him as I type. I am not a fan of refinishing and touching up the original finish on a guitar, so I’ve developed a system where I can make the repair nearly invisible without having to spray a touch-up over the repair. This keeps the guitar more original, and does not hide the work the way spraying over the repair with a solid color does. It’s best to be able to see the repair, and where the damage was. When it is sanded and buffed, it is very hard to see the repair, and it is smooth to the touch and reflects light like the rest of the neck. It cannot be felt at all, while playing.

From his current band “Shadows of the 60s” website:

Melvin Miller has played in shows with/for The Supremes, Donnie McClurkin, Atlantic Starr, Miki Howard, Glenn Jones, Janet Dubois (Good Times), Ruth Brown, Little Anthony and the Imperials, The Delfonics, Ray Goodman & Brown, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Gideon McKinney, Dave Revels ,The Main Ingredient, The Four Tops, The Dells, Peabo Bryson, Sam & Dave, James Brown, and Maxine Brown.

Here are the before and after shots of the repair of the broken headstock on his Gibson Les Paul.

Thanks for taking the time to visit!

Visit from a Diddley Bow Maker

One of the first visitors to my new studio here in Vermont a few weeks back was a man named Eric. He called me to run a couple ideas past me regarding a tuning peg for the Diddley Bow he was making. He came here with his teenage daughter who was a very nice young woman. Eric is a great guy, and his passion in making this instrument really resonated with me. Anything I could do to help without touching the instrument myself, I was happy to do; after all, HE is making it and my fingerprints should not be on it!

A diddley bow is a primitive and very cool instrument with one string. They evolved from being a single string on a nail mounted on the side of a barn or shed, having some sort of screw or other manner of tightening. They were then plucked and noted in a manner similar to a washtub bass.

Eric’s diddley bow is pretty sophisticated, and he’s even making his own electric pickup from scratch. I suggested a simple violin tuning peg, and he agreed. So I handed him a drill, a reamer and a tuning peg, and he went to work. My only request was he bring it by when he is finished.

Thanks for checking in!

New Band Saw for the Studio

Today I decided that with the new workshop after twenty six years of faithful service, my old Delta bandsaw needed a new home. So I’ve upgraded to a stallion with twice the horsepower. A more powerful bandsaw that is better at re-sawing is a tool I’ve always wanted and I decided I deserved it.

This new saw will cut through hardwood blanks like butter. When I am re-sawing thick slabs for acoustic guitars sets or electric guitar body caps, it will be faster, easier, and more accurate. The old saw’s motor was getting tired and it will serve a new friend here in Vermont well who mostly uses pine and softer woods in his shop. He’s an octogenarian ex-marine who runs circles around folks half his age. He’s teaching me so much about getting by up here that I’d be lost without him. Such kindness and genuine friendship is rare; so quid pro quo… he’s getting it as a gift.

I can’t wait to get to work with this new tool. I told the owner of Dan’s Max Saver Store in Charlestown, New Hampshire, to hide the pretty tools next time I come. This place sells everything from bandsaws and shaper tables to clothespins and turkey basters. What an amazing part of the country to live in.

Adding correct knees braces to my post and beam studio

My new studio in Vermont features classic post and beam construction. The original owner never finished the space and had 2×4 and 2×6 boards nailed where the knee braces should have been. So my new friend Stu, who is a wooden kayak maker, helped out. He brought over some thick slabs of rough-cut pine and cut out the tenons on the braces to fit into the notches that were already in the posts. He got all the geometry correct, drew the profile on the boards, then cut them out on the band saw. The braces were tapped into the notches and then joined to the beam above.

The new pine was much whiter than the old reclaimed wood. This simply didn’t feel right to me as I’m all about the details. I applied several different stains, each with different properties, layering them on to create the effect of time. I worked very hard to match the color and spirit of the posts.

The first photo shows one of the two braces the original owner made on the corners near the front door. After these, he stopped. Stu matched the new ones to these and it really made a difference in the feel of the space! Thanks so much Stu, and Phil, my contractor. You guys are the best.

Now…who’s going to come visit?

-Scott

My Journey to Vermont

I’ve spent over two decades helping people with their guitars in my shop in Long Island. It’s something I enjoy doing a great deal. Whether I am designing and building a custom guitar or repairing an instrument for a customer, it was my way of trying to make the world a better place. That’s something I take very seriously.

My business was running wonderfully throughout these years. I had built a great relationship with Martin, Taylor, and Gibson guitars, hundreds of wonderful local artists, and a handful of celebrities I respect visited and asked for guitars or repairs. Work started coming in from around the world and I was feeling very blessed.

I was born in New England, however, and never truly felt at home in New York. There were too many cars, too many stresses, and I wanted a quieter, more introspective life for my children. With so many customers, my shop was busier than I’d ever dreamed. It’s hard to give that up. Still, I longed for a simpler life with a land, quiet a dark night sky and the studio of my dreams. The more time passed, the more willing I became to give up the security of an established business with a large client base. I wanted something special where I could help folks out in an environment that supported my spirit.

My family and I came to know a community in Vermont through some events I did there to promote a book I wrote, and we made friends there and fell in love with the area and lifestyle. Despite the change of this magnitude is scary as Hell, my wife and I bravely chose to start fresh where we knew we’d be happiest. For two years, we shared our dream of finding a house in the woods that also had meadows for growing food, and that it had to have a separate workshop for my guitar building and repair business. The more we talked about it, the more friends we made, and the more things began to happen. Magical things. It was as if the more we put our dream out there, the more it began to happen. This is how it works. Looking back, it feels as if we were led here.

With each short visit we made to look at houses, we made new friends who told us other people we needed to meet and know. One set of these new friends led us to the home of a furniture builder, who lived in a 10-acre forest. He’d built an amazing workshop on his property next to his home. But had moved to Maine and was looking for the right people to buy his property. We talked about life and I shared my dreams with him for both my business and my family. He saw how much we loved his property and was happy that a guitar maker would be working and creating in the shop he built. We made an offer and it was accepted.

My new studio sits in a forest on a magnificent property, that also has a stream and two small meadows. I see now that the years spent in New York honing my skills and building my business were really just practice for something greater and more meaningful.

So, I am starting fresh with renewed passion and vision. Please come share this with me. I’ll make you some coffee or tea. We can walk the woods and talk about the guitar you’ve always wanted. Or I can fix the instruments you love that need some TLC. Some of you may even start to dream a bit about what you really want in life by just being here: Be prepared, it’s contagious. I’m looking forward to new friends, new stories, and visits from old friends.

-Scott

Finish repair on a Fender Stratocaster Guitar

This Strat came in with a big chunk taken out on the horn, right at the end-grain of the flame maple top. It was deeply into the wood and there was a lot of fractured finish, causing refraction as it went deeper. The photo on the left is after I cleared away the damaged finish and used a graining marker on the maple to color it prior to filling, sanding and buffing, which can be seen in the “after” photo. This was all done with no refinishing or respraying. Simply tinting the raw wood in the damaged area and building up several layers of translucent layers of finish material, which was then carefully shaped and polished to reflect light as if the damage had not occurred. You can still see the darker area where it was filled, but it is so much better than simply leaving it the way it was. I considered this a “non-cosmetic” repair. It would have cost a great deal more to make this vanish and the client agreed that it was not needed.