So I take my beloved MIM Jimmy Vaughn Strat to my luthier to have the setup redone on it. I'm moving from 10s to 12s, and I wanted the tremelo tightened up a little. Nothing major.
Now a few words about my luthier. He's a breed apart. His shop looks not unlike a Tim Burton vision of a demented and demonic Santa's workshop.
Boxes and wood planks lay around the floor. Amps are stacked to ceiling, covered in layers of dust that serve some here-to-for unexplained sonic function only within the physics of this strange world.
Paint cans are stacked carefully and neatly at the back of the paint booths, so that they are so covered in color and shellac that reading the cans ceased to be possible many years ago, and now opening them requires small, unlicensed nuclear devices.
Broken half-complete guitars, mandolins, and coffins-like boxes lay around on every surface. I assume the coffins are actually guitar cases, but only because it allows me to sleep better at night.
His carefully padded workbenches are covered with layers of power-tools, files, screwdrivers, soldiering irons, surgical impliments, rib spreaders and devices which remain unidentified despite numerous attempts.
He arrives precisely whenever the hell he wants to each day, or every other day as the mood suits. He keeps a carefull hour, after which time he may or may not remain in his establishment regardless of if an order is pending or not.
He always keeps a skilled apprentice, carefully choosen for his or her ability to refrain from commenting about the state of upkeep of the establishment, as well as any luthiering skills they may or may not possess.
In spite of all of the above, the man is simply the very best at what he does. He's a genuine genius, with a reputation that is well and deservedly earned. It is not uncommon to be within the confines of his shop, carefully and assiduously avoiding touching anything so as to not cause an avalanche of dust and debris and note that some of the broken wrecks of guitars hanging on the walls with their electronic guts hanging out bear the names of some seriously impressive guitarist.
So this is my luthier. To get him my guitar, I may have to drive there 3 or 4 times, because even though I may arrive right precisely when I said I would, and when he agreed to actually be in his, for want of a better word, store, there is no actually expectation that he will in fact be there. We both are aware of this, and we agree to play the game of "catch the luthier at home" because it is not only vastly entertaining, it beats the hell out of taking the guitar to anyone else within 500 miles.
Alas, after multiple pilgrimages, I placed my beloved strat in his hands. I returened several times over the next few days to see if I could catch someone there to give a few dollars too and pick up my instrument. When I finally did, I took it without any real examination (because it's never been required before) paid my few measily dollars and drove the 45 minutes home.
Where I discovered that my nut is ever so slightly chipped at the g-string and produces a most remarkably annoying buzz when played accoustically.
Oddly, it is entirely unnoticable when plugged in! But, what is not acceptable is that if I fret any G on either the D or B strings, the now loosily held G string starts to vibrate sympathetically producing a slightly annoying overtone.
So I have to find a way to get the guitar back to him. I'm sure he'll be properly apologetic, and I honestly expect that he did not in fact realize this had happened (probably when filing out the nut for the larger guaged strings). But what's problematic is now I'll be without my strat for another week.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
A broken guitar is one thing, but having to go without.... :cry:
You can always tell if a guy's a genius by the state of his workshop. A perfect example of inverse correlation.
I'd probably forgive the goof.
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
You can always tell if a guy's a genius by the state of his workshop. A perfect example of inverse correlation.
I'd probably forgive the goof.
A :-)
Oh, I'll forgive it. I'm sure he didn't notice 'cause he tested it plugged in and you can't hear it that way unless you happen to play a G note on an adjacent string.
I'm just frustrated that I've got to catch him in his shop again :)
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
Where I discovered that my nut is ever so slightly chipped at the g-string and produces a most remarkably annoying buzz when played accoustically.
My strat does this on the same string, too. The nut slot isn't cut quite right and the string rattles against the front edge of the nut. I think the slot is angled so that the string breaks over the back edge of the nut (twards the tuners) as opposed to the front edge of the nut (twards the frets). At first I thought it was the break angle over the nut, but I stuck the G under the string tree and it still does it.
Unfortunately the fuzz comes through plugged in, too.
Ahhh, but that isn't all! The nut on my acoustic needs to be replaced because the slots on it are cut in V shapes that pinch the wound strings and make tuning an absolute motherb.
-Metaellihead
Ahhh, but that isn't all! The nut on my acoustic needs to be replaced because the slots on it are cut in V shapes that pinch the wound strings and make tuning an absolute motherb.
So your not having to do two at the same time you may be able to remedy the acoustic temporarily. You can use the strings with a piece of wet/dry 400 or so grit sandpaper folded once around a string. For whatever slot you are working on use the next smallest string (or even 2 sizes smaller) with the sandpaper around it like a file going back and forth in the slot. Hold the "file" parallel with the headstock so you are cutting it at the angle so the string sits on the neck side of the slot. If you need to do the high e just use the paper folded over to round the slot.
I don't know if that would work. The slots are literally in a V cut, the wound strings don't actually touch the bottoms of the slots. The low E looks to be the worst, there is about a millimeter of gap between the bottom of the slot and the string, the other wound strings less, but a gap still. To make the proper U shapes that are in good contact with the strings and don't pinch would mean that the strings would sit lower in the nut. Right now the action is perfect, I don't want it changed.
If the strings did sit lower I'm afraid I would have buzzing problems when playing the strings open. Maybe you can see in the picture those black areas below the strings? That's how far the slots go down, they're black from me putting graphite in there to loosen things up.
Right now it's just slightly annoying to tune it. I've learned to work around it in the year and a half I've owned it, so if I took the strat in for work I could definately live with it. And when I do get it replaced I want the same crappy plastic put in, I do not like the idea of changing any of the tonal or playablity characteristics.
-Metaellihead
I hear ya. And in the long run it would be best to just replace it.
Yeah. I've thought about it long and hard. I just got a call on my interview last week and I've now got a job so I can actually do it when my paycheck comes in. :P
-Metaellihead
