Saintbridge Guitar Servicing and Repair

It may be Christmas, not bothered, but had to get this Yamaha BBG-4A II bass finished on time for the owner returning to Cornwall tomorrow. In all it came to me non operational and with half a battery box and that was back in June, it has taken up until 2 weeks ago to get a replacement battery box for it, Yamaha Europe failed me there and fortunately I have an Army buddy who's son lives in Redmond, California, not far from the Yamaha US Outlet and he brought me over a battery box on visiting his parents. So along with that and 2 pre-amp installations, the first one failed and a complete overhaul and setup it is now after testing ready to go home to it's owner.

Just so you can see what I get up to, this Yamaha bass, I had to replace the pre-amp , controls and battery box, which incidentally came from California in the US, as Yamaha EU failed me, reason it was replaced is due to corrosion, most of the original items were seized and couldn't be salvaged, so I gave the options to the owner and here we are, with a brand new pre-amp, battery box and controls. Although the battery box is not on show.

So this Benson hollow bodied guitar, a Chinese copy of the Gibson ES-335 was dropped off looking a bit sad for itself, the output jack was missing along with a few other issues, but they've now been ironed out and it's had a full service plus a setup and it's ready to be returned to the owner.

Secondly this Fender American Elite Telecaster which had a buzzing from around the bridge area on the high E string, so everything was checked out and a complete setup done, the frets checked with a rocker and truss rod adjusted. All seems to be in order and any sign of a buzz has vanished. The owner is coming around later to confirm this, when he gets to check it out on my rig.

Two more guitars finished this week, firstly this Charvel, I believe to be a model 375 Deluxe although I could be wrong. It had a problem with the electrics which caused it to cut out. On investigation I found that one of the terminals on the volume pot was bent over and touching the centre terminal, this was duly put right and all appears to be in order now.

So the next job on the agenda, this hand built Stonebridge acoustic guitar belonging to a regular client. This must be the sixth guitar I have fitted piezo pickups to for him in the last few years. I believe there is a mandolin he wants me to take a look at doing at some stage.

This Yamaha FG 335 L ii was brought to me a while ago, the owner had a problem with the string heights. A quick check revealed that the top deck was bowed upwards and so the bridge raised. To over come this I bought in from France a Bridge Doctor kit, as every dealer in the UK was out of stock (a popular item). This is attached to the base of the bridge inside the guitar with an adjustable rod that applies pressure to the back plate thus bringing the top panel down slowly. Over time and with gradual adjustments each time it can work and in this instance it has, it now has 2mm clearance at the 12th fret and no doubt with time it should come down even further.
In addition I fitted new strings and serviced the remainder of the guitar.

Which finally brings me on to this Martin DX1RAE. I completed a service at the request of the owner, fitted new strings and made some adjustments to bring the string heights down and make it more playable. Gave it a quick clean and it's now ready to be returned to it's owner.

So the latest guitar in the backlog of work, this 25 year old Ibanez acoustic guitar. It came in looking a right state and sorry for itself, quite unbelievable, like it had been kept in the shed under all the crap.
Now it's been restored to a reasonable level again, which should please the owner somewhat.

I spent the last few day modifying this Fender Jazzmaster guitar for a client, fitting replacement parts from the Fender American catalogue. Setting it up is now finished and it is ready to go back to the owner.

Moving on from the Telecaster, I also gave the owners sons Stratocaster type guitar a full service, which it was definitely in need of, he should find it a lot more pleasing to play now.

Job completed, had a few minor issues with the jack socket, but that's all sorted now, all functionally tested and ready to go.