Sick String Guitar Repair

Problem solving\serenity prayer

Jesse accepts his fate

File under things I don't love to do on the road: this Tele thinline just got converted from a string through hard tail to Bigsby B5 with a jazz\jag style thimble bridge mounted straight into the body. This stuff gives me some anxiety even in the shop where I can lay everything out accurately, use a drill press to make sure my holes are square to the body, and so on. Doing it by hand, in low light, on the side of the stage, before a show was not my favorite.

3 bolt neck, with a little bit of wiggle room in the pocket, so it was hard for me to really trust that I was establishing the right centerline. Although the conversation plate that came with the Bigsby kit fit the existing 3 screw hole pattern for the original hard tail, the intonation point didn't match up when the conversion plate was mounted. After doing my best to lay out center on the guitar, bridge plate, nut, and neck, I used the conversion plate as a template to align the holes for the bridge thimbles with the correct intonation line, convinced myself I'd done my due diligence in measuring, crossed my fingers and zapped some holes in the body. After getting the bridge mounted I could clamp the Bigsby to the guitar, string up the outside Es, and drill for the Bigsby. I've done Bigsby installs with the included string for layout, but sometimes I feel more convinced about my placement when I see a real string on the guitar.

Luckily it came together decently. I tried to place the intonation point right in the middle of the new bridge so there's room to adjust both sharp and flat, and it worked out. I can barely draw a straight line without a guide, so I always second guess myself on these operations. Thankfully the margin for error is a teeny bit forgiving, so I ended up looking like I know what I'm doing.

John played it for about 2 songs at sound check then went straight into the show with it as his main guitar and we haven't gone back in the past 2 shows. Special thanks to for the advice. Exhale.

Pretty cool to work with multifaceted artists. JG got the itch and painted this mustang bass right before the set at the Glass House in Pomona. If you come out to a show, take note of the custom art on several of the guitars, that's all him. Love seeing expression take different forms. Hot dogs for aftershow forever

Tech tiparooney of the day-- everyone is on IEMs these days, and ears are gross. If, like me, you've lost or destroyed your little loop cleaning tool for your ears, you can make one from a 10 or 11 gauge guitar string off-cut. Just make yourself a big kink in the end of the string, use some fine jaw pliers, and wrap it down. You can stretch the loop out a little with the pliers, and a little trial and error. I wrap up the pointy end with a piece of e tape and then gaff the whole thing to the top of my tuner, for those moments when I'm asking "is the guitar cutting out? Or are my ears broken?" If the guitar player isn't freaking out, usually it's just my dumb ear wax deciding to block an entire channel in my mix.