There’s limited options when it comes to amplifying resophonic guitars and even fewer when it comes to the tricone style. There’s three resonator cones underneath the “T” bridge cover and a separate pickup for each would be tricky to pull off. We looked into three possibilities and settled on the Lace-designed Slimline humbucker by National Guitars. Installation was very straightforward and the sound was rich and warm, while still translating the unique metallic quality of resophonics. Thumbs up on the National Slimline and thumbs up on this cool Recording King guitar.

We get phone calls from time to time asking if we have a Plek machine. The answer is that no, we don’t (They are extremely expensive pieces of equipment that we simply couldn’t afford even if we wanted one.) And we’ll be the first to admit that none of us have operated or really had close experience with one directly. We have, however, had experience with guitars that have been “Plek’d” and have researched them to better understand what they do. There’s lots of information out there, so if you’re interested in more reading just Google away. So that said, here’s our thoughts.

Here’s the manufacturer’s page for the Plek Station – the model a repair shop would use.

A plek machine is a computer numerically controlled device that evaluates fretboards, recommends particular operations to correct any problems, and then carries out those operations if instructed to do so. Sort of like us.

Sort of. The main use of the Plek machine is to level and crown the tops of frets, work we do as part of our Works set-up. The machine does this based on numerical data and grinds the frets with milling blades until the computer tells the machine to stop. This is work we do by hand, using sandpaper and fine-grit hand files. Once the frets are level and crowned -whether by a human or by machine, they must be smoothed and polished by hand. The machine works off the evaluations of a technician, so the important factor in both cases is who is doing the work? We don’t know who is operating the machines that our clients have used – some of them are in factories, some in Plek-equipped repair shops. But we do know that we have been asked to correct poorly Plek’d guitars and we do know that our technicians have the skill and experience to meet or surpass the quality of any machine in the world.

If we were mass producing guitars, we’d definitely want one. They save money and time in those kinds of environments. But our shop exists to deliver nuanced, personalized service to make our clients’ instruments feel and sound their best. So for us, we’ll take skilled hands over an expensive machine any day.

You’ve seen Chet Atkins, Brian Setzer, Eddie Cochran, Duane Eddy, Pete Townshend, and many others with this classic guitar. It’s a 1960 Gretsch 6120 in that familiar orange. It arrived in pretty rough shape, with the neck very loose in the pocket and several missing pieces of hardware. The hardware was easy, but take a look at the neck reset portion of the repair.

Despite the gobs of dry glue that tell us this guitar has already been “repaired,” the neck was loose and wiggling around in the pocket. Hard to believe that didn’t hold, right?

Part of the Gretsch neck joint is a wood screw driven through the side surface, into the neck tenon, and covered with a round wooden plug. Here we can see the stress that area has taken with the poor neck fit. It doesn’t look like that plug has been removed before, so our investigative staff believes this one took a heavy blow at some point – enough to jar the neck loose but not enough to come out. The repairman tried wicking glue into the neck pocket to hold it firm, but that attempt didn’t last.

Once we removed the plug and screw, the neck came out without much trouble.

It’s clear that the neck pocket or mortise was broken inside. The first thing we need to do is reinforce that area so a solid neck joint can be created.

Once the pocket is stabilized, we can clean up the neck and glue it back into place.

The single string on either side of the clamping caul, lets us know if the side-to-side angle of the neck is correct. Once it’s just right, we apply the glue and clamp it solid.

A new plug as well as a little touch-up to the side and binding area has this vintage beauty looking good again.

Ready to rock this town inside out, with a new bar, spring, and bridge  for the Bigsby vibrato.

A beautiful old guitar, resurrected.

The owner of this GK 1001 RB 210 combo, was getting a flabby, distorted output from his amp – particularly at loud volumes. He tried running the external speaker output to a separate speaker cabinet and found that it worked fine that way. There could be a problem with the output jacks or with something deeper inside the amp. But Pat suspected it was a blown speaker. He needed it fixed in time for a recording session in just a few days; could it be fixed in time?

The owner likes to push the volume on this amp, but that can cause problems. There’s no limiter to keep this amp from distorting and solid state power amp distortion can damage speakers. Given that the stock speakers on this amp were inexpensive and made in China, it was no surprise that they didn’t last long.

For the time being, we’re just replacing the damaged speaker and an Eminence Delta 10 is a good quality replacement that will hold up better in those high volume situations.

When speakers are damaged or wearing out, even low volume notes – ones that shouldn’t sound distorted – tend to sound fuzzy on the decay. Sometimes louder playing actually sounds less distorted than quieter playing. As they get worse, the symptoms become more and more obvious until the amp is just unusable, like this one was. But after a new speaker and cleaning out of the amp chassis, this GK is again ready to rock.

Can’t wait to get this one up and running! Check it out.

This guitar was once part of Richard Gere’s collection that was auctioned off in October 2011. It’s a very early example of a 1958 Gibson ES335. The earliest ones from that year had unbound fretboards and this one is in terrific shape. A few parts needed to be replaced and spruced up, and when we were all done we got to enjoy the rich tones of some of the earliest P.A.F. humbuckers. It was a pleasure to get it up and running. Read on for some more pics!

The first thing that had to go was a non-original brass nut, installed years ago. Gibsons from this period used a nylon nut and we were able to get our hands on a 6/6 nylon blank to make a replacement that should make the guitar sound and look more like it did originally. We also needed to fit new buttons onto the original tuning machines.

It’s got the real deal “Patent Applied For” sticker to tell us this is a genuine P.A.F. pickup. They each measured around 7.5k ohms and sounded clear, chimey, and rich. Exactly what you’d hope to hear from some of the greatest pickups ever.

Some more eye candy:

Just beautiful. We should all have one of these!

A client of ours spotted this TV yellow 1959 Les Paul Jr for sale at a pretty nice price. The body looks great with all sorts of natural wear and lacquer checking and it sounds terrific. But the back of the neck and headstock are another story. The headstock snapped at some point – not an unusual occurance for Gibsons – and was glued back together. Unfortunately, the repairman decided to strip the entire neck, refinish it in a greenish yellow that didn’t match the body, and then stamp a serial number into the back of the headstock. As guitars of this period had only an ink serial number applied with a rubber stamp, not only were the cosmetics all wrong, there was a new crack that had formed next to the old one.

Our goal was to ensure that the neck was completely stable and looked correct for its age. Here’s how we did it.

The owner loves the way the body looks and we have to agree. Obviously this  guitar has seen lots of use in its 50-some years.

But here’s that headstock break. A nasty one that

There’s multiple fractures including one by the stamped serial number and … wait, this is a ‘59; they’re not supposed to have stamped serial numbers. It should be ink. Yikes, another issue with the previous repair.

There’s some poorly applied filler or putty that’s pretty ugly looking. There are, however, some un-touched areas of the original finish around the logo. The owner wanted us to preserve as much of the original finish as possible, even if the new touch-ups looked distinctly different.

So we start by opening up the breaks that aren’t solidly repaired and gluing them tight.

Next, we taped off the untouched areas of original finish so we wouldn’t apply new paint over the old and change its patina.

The back of the neck gets completely stripped and prepped for finishing.

Next we fill and smooth the errant serial number and apply the multi-layered TV yellow finish, matching it to the body color.

Then clear-coats of lacquer which have a slightly amber tint. Just a few coats until it matches the body.

We distressed the lacquer to blend with the natural wear on the body. That’s a newly ink-stamped serial number too. Turned out pretty nicely.

The old and new finishes will never really look as if nothing happened here. But they blended nicely and we preserved as much of the original look as possible.

With to the owner’s 1960 Les Paul Jr. which we previously repaired, this is quite a pair.

We’ve known about Trussant guitars for a while here and have seen them played by the likes of James Hatfield, Joe Walsh, Jack White, Steve Earl, Tom Morello, and even Bob Dylan. But this Steelcaster was the first time any of us at Fret Works had a chance to see one up close and actually try it out. The sound is rich and solid – not metallic or tinny. Very impressive sounding but lets face it, it’s the way they look that turns heads. Click continue to take a look at some close-ups.

We got a Friday morning phone call recently from a band that was passing through Chicago when the bass player’s Ampeg SVT Classic head started malfunctioning. There was all sorts of non-bass noise coming from it and they wondered if it was possible to get it back up and running for their gig at Lincoln Hall in Chicago the following night. Another technician had recently changed the tubes and the owner thought perhaps he was sold a bad set. He prepared himself to spend another $200+ on tubes. Pat has years of experience working on Ampegs and was not convinced that the tubes were the problem. 

The SVT Classic has the unusual feature of a “user bias adjustment.” That is, you don’t need a technician to open up the chassis to make small adjustments to the amp’s bias. You just adjust the trim pots on the back until a) the indicator light glows green and b) you like the way the amp sounds. On this amp however, Pat noticed immediately that one of the bias controls would not glow green at any position. It turns out this is not an uncommon issue with these amps and he knew right where to look first.

The power tube circuit is deep inside this amp and Pat needed to undo several handfuls of screws and disassemble this beast just to get to the components he needed to test.

Once inside, Pat measured every component and discovered an open grid resistor on the power tube circuit board. He replaced it and put the amp back together to test.

There was no guarantee that the power grid resistor was the only problem, but it and the bias control was definitely not functioning properly.

With the new resistor in place, the bias indicators both glowed green and more importantly, the amp sounded great again. It’s now back on the road and laying down the bottom end with Sleeper Agent.

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