Resurrecting a Hoyer 12 String

A while back,  I got an old Hoyer 12 String guitar to be restored or more like resurrected.  I had never heard of them so research had to be done to get this job done with any integrity.  The guitar's bridge and pickguard was missing and what they may have looked like was a mystery for a while!  There were three holes in the top in the bridge area, but not the 12 string block holes that would be there if the bridge had the typical bridge pin set up.  My next guess was the guitar may have had a separate tailpiece to anchor the strings but after careful examination, I could not find the tell tale marks of a tailpiece ever existing either.  I found Hoyer guitars on the Internet but no images that looked like our Hoyer.  The guitar was made in Germany and still made today, however the new ones did not resemble our old one!  After much consideration, I felt the bridge must have been screwed down to the top, the saddle being adjusted for height by machine screws which would have gone through the holes in the top..  But if there were no bridge pins, how did the strings attach to the bridge?  The only other possibility was a back load bridge, such as used my Ovation or Takamine guitars.  I did not want to jump to that conclusion for I had never seen that type of bridge on older guitars before and this Hoyer had to come out of the late 50's or 60's.  Still, there was no other explanation for the lack of bridge pin set up and no tailpiece.  It must have had a back load bridge, which is a bridge with small holes on the back edge for each string to be held in before it passed over the saddle.  The customer was getting impatient with my slow investigation and I was forced to make a judgement call and procure a 12 string bridge from an Ovation for this project.While I waited for the bridge to come in, I moved my investigation over the the missing pickguard.  I did see evidence of a vague shape for it with 7 small screw holes in the pickguard area.  By connecting the dots from the scerew holes, I could come up with a general size, though not really a specific shape for the original pickguard.  Again, press for time, I decided to use a modified Martin style design from my own imagination.  I drew up something that would cover the general area and cut it from tortoise shell blank from Stew-Mac Parts.It looked pretty good!  I had no sooner made the pickguard and fastened it in place, when I found a photo of our Hoyer for sale on E Bay.  The original pickguard was almost that of a pickguard for a Gibson Dove or Hummingbird with scallops and points.  Back to Stew-Mac for another pickguard blank.  I took a photo of the area of the sound hole, had it blown up to proper size and started on it.  I lost track of  how many hours I cut, filed and sanded.  I had no sooner finished it, when the customer abruptly took the guitar from me never allowing me to install the proper guard!  Any one interested in a custom Hoyer pickguard?  

A Seldom seen Gibson Electric

I just did a set up on something I've never run across before, A 1981 Gibson Professional 335-S Deluxe solidbody electric guitar.  After more than 35 years in the music industry, I have never run across this baby.
They made three models, the Professional Deluxe, being the top of it's line.  A double cutaway, two Dirty Fingers pickups, mahogany body and neck, ebony fretboard,bound, and coil tap.
At first I thought the coil tap was added later, but after doing some research, I see Gibson really made it that way.  I found the coil tap to be sorta useless;  too much 60 cycle hum.  I guess no matter what ya do, you can't make a humbucker sound like a single coil Fender!  I brought this matter up to the customer and advised him I could replace all the controls (they have a fine dusty powder-like corrosion all over) and copper shield the body cavities if he chooses to use it as a player VS a collector's item. 

The set up went well and he's happy with it's playability and will think over the notion of re-wiring the guitar.  The pic is off the Internet and my customer's model is beautiful cherry finish.



I love getting new things to work on that I have never seen before!

Stay tuned for the story of restoring and old German Hoyer 12 string!

Bigsby on a Tele!

I got a great job to do recently; installation of a Bigsby tailpiece on a Tele.  A nice young guy brought me the instrument advising me that he intended to do the work himself but on second thought, was over his head.  I told him I'd take on the challenge. 
I removed the strings and looked over the parts to be installed.  The original bridge is mounted on the bridge pickup plate with the upturned lip to hold the infamous bridge cover, nick-named the ashtray.  Most guys removed them and used them as ashtrays, hence the nick-name origin.
The original bridge plate had to be replaced to accommodate the new bridge, which was very similar to the Gibson Tuneamatic bridge.  The new bridge mounts on two bushings pressed into the body.
The first critical task was to drill the two holes to position the bridge bushings.  The bushing holes would have to be exactly positioned, allowing the bridge to be perfectly lined up with the rest of the string travel.  There is no room for error; if it were off, the vibrato operation could be compromised.  When the vibrato is used, the tailpiece bar tilts forward, allowing the strings to slack pitch and return to the neutral position when released, returning the strings to their exact pitch (in theory).  The bridge bushings are exposed under the two holes in the bridge/pickup plate.  I used the plate to mark the spots I had to drill out for the bushings.  After taking my measurements, I made the customary sign of the cross, and used a brad point drill in the drill press to drill into the body.  I marked the drill bit carefully to show how deep I had to go to accommodate the bushings.  As I said, there is no room for error, as the bridge rocks back and forth with the vibrato action also so it must be perfectly in line with everything.  I used a drill bit one size below of the bushings so they would press in nice and tight.  I used a wood block and small hammer in lieu of an arbor press and carefully tapped the bushings home.  Next, I dropped the bridge into the bushings to test their position.  The bridge feet went down into place but tightly.  Not good, as the bridge must "float" in the bushings freely to work correctly.  One of the two holes was off ever so slightly.  Now I had to fashion a hardwood dowel to plug the incorrect hole and fill it and start all over with the measurements.  The hole was off ever so slightly.  I re-drilled the new hole and re-fitted the bushing.  I dropped the bridge back in their bushings and this time it floated freely as it should.  Good Bridge!  The dowel around the bushing would not be exposed to the eye, being surrounded by the bridge plate.  That part done, it was time for a break before continuing.
The next step was to mark the place to drill four holes to mount the vibato tailpiece.  Again, the measurements were critical.  I laid the tailpiece in the approximate area.  The installation kit came with a length of thin string and the idea is to tie the string to the low E string post on the tailpiece, run it up the neck to the low E string tuner, over to the high E string tuner, and back down to the tailpiece to the high E string post on the tailpiece.  This allowed me to watch the two strings on each edge of the fingerboard and align the tailpiece till the strings were perfectly parallel.  Keeping everything as tight as possible, I wiggled the tailpiece about till everything was straight and marked my spots to drill the tailpiece mounting holes in the body.  After drilling the four small mounting holes, I screwed the tailpiece onto the body.  Using the strings, I re-checked my alignment.  Nice; everything lined up straight.  The string trick was a great idea.  Bigsby thinks of everything! 
Lastly, I had to mount the bridge pickup on the new plate and screw it down to the body.  Next, came the strings.  The customer preferred Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys.  After stringing it up, I proceeded to setting the intonation and string height on the new bridge.  The neck never changed position and no adjustment was performed.  I stood back and looked.  Everything looked as though it came from the factory that way.  I played it a bit to see how it felt and reacted before trying the vibrato action.  It all performed normally so I plugged it in and cranked it up.  It seemed pretty darn nice, but a couple strings were reluctant to return to pitch when applying the vibrato.  I made some slight adjustments to the nut slot and applied some nut lube to the slots.  Bingo;  perfecto-mundo!  I contacted the customer then had myself a nice cold beer!

Happy Twanging, all!

Straightening out an ornery Ovation

One of oldest friend's 35 year old Ovation Balladeer was bothering his hands to play and he brought the guitar to me for a look see.  "This is an ornery old dip in the neck!" I told him.  Normally, a simple neck adjustment would correct the neck bow, so I removed the truss rod cover cap and dug out a nut driver to proceed with the neck adjustment.  Oh Oh, not so easy.  The neck had been adjusted over the years and now the adjustment nut had come to the end of threads on the truss rod.  Whoa, Nellie!  After thinking a moment, I remember getting a tech update from Fender (20 years ago, while working for a Fender Dealer as a certified tech.)  By removing the adjustment nut and placing a washer over the truss rod end and replacing the nut, you position the nut out father on the truss rod, giving more thread area to turn on.  Brilliant!  I searched about and found two small nylon washers just the perfect size!  I put them both over the truss rod end and prayed that I'd have room to start the nut.  Hallelujah!  I did, but now will the neck straighten out for ole Tommy?  Did it ever!  Just what the doctor ordered; the neck came right back to normal playing range and with some extra light strings on, it played like butter.  I would have put lights on but Tom had suffered some nerve damage years ago and his left hand really appreciates the extra lights and that 35 year ole gitbox sounds sweeeeet!