Rocking in 2007

Greetings to all musicians and mankind alike !

As the year 2006 draws to a close, I send out my prayers and wishes for all to celebrate this New Year, safely, healthy, and in the presence of your loved ones.

Those of you playing out this New Years Eve, a few reminders for a meaningful performance:

Get your ax ready for the new year.

1. Remove the strings, and clean the fingerboard with 0000 steel wool. this will get al the gradou off the sides of the frets.
2. If the fingerboard is rosewood or ebony, sparingly, apply a bit of lemen oil to the wood; not a lot,
for this tends to dry to wood out in the long run.
3. Clean all the places you can’t reach on the body with the strings normally on: the pickup rings,
the bridge saddles, all the areas under the strings
4. Re-string; nothing sounds as good as fresh new strings. The tone and harmonics will burst out!
This also minimizes the chances of breaking strings in the middle of your performance.
5. Tighten any loose hardware, such as tuners, strap buttons, etc. The instrument is always
Vibrating and things tend to loosen up over time.
6. Give your instrument a good cleaning. Really heavy caked on stuff will clean off with a little
napha (lighter fluid) and soft cloth. It won’t harm the finish. As you contaminate the cloth,
Rotate it to a clean surface, so you won’t rub the grime into the finish.
7. Finally, a nice polishing with a good instrument polish; I use GHS Guitar Gloss. Like
car wax, rub on a small amount, allowing it to dry and haze up a moment, then wipe
with a clean soft lint free cloth.
8. Check out the rest of your gear; cords, batteries, loose jacks, etc.
9. Pack up to play in a manner that allows easy set up; it’s worth the extra time!
10. BREAK A LEG !!!

Acoustic Tough To Play?

A lot of guitar players, especially the newer ones get discouraged with their ongoing progress because the instrument is hard on their tender fingers. Sound familiar? Maybe the action (The distance between the strings and the fingerboard) is too high. Most cases of this symptom is an easy straight-forward fix. There are two places to look to check this. The first is the straightness of the neck. Hold the guitar, body away from you, and look down the fingerboard, from the headstock down. Close one eye and check each side of the fingerboard. The neck should be fairly straight, but not perfectly straight. There ought to be a slight amount of relief. Relief is a small distance between the strings and the fingerboard. If you see a big bow or a lot of distance at the mid-section of the neck, it needs an adjustment. That's where that little Alan wrench comes in. Most newer guitars adjust inside the soundhole at the base of the fingerboard. Loosen the strings, and stick the wrench in the hole. Make sure it seats in nice and square. Turn the wrench to the right (clockwise) 1/4 to 1/3 of a turn. Tighten the strings up and check it. You should see some change (less bowing at the mid-section of the fingerboard. Don't take all the bow out. If the neck is perfectly straight, or bowed backwards, you went too far. Loosen the strings again, insert the wrench and turn it to the left (counter clockwise) a bit. After you achieve this adjustment, and the strings still seem too high off the fingerboard, the saddle height could need lowering. The saddle is the white thing sticking up out of the bridge that the strings pass over. Again, loosen the strings enough to lift and slide the saddle out. You may need a small needle-nose pliers to grab it. Take some sandpaper on a hard flat surface such as a piece of glass or other surface you know is flat. Lay the paper down, and sand the bottom of the saddle down, keeping the saddle straight and perpendicular with the sandpaper. Just a little at a time, and re-install, tune and check the height of the strings. Most new guitars come with a fairly high saddle and need to be sanded down some. If the guitar has a pickup under the saddle, be careful not to disturb it, they are fragile. Make your adjustments in small increments. Its time consuming, but you will end up with an instrument that is much easier to play. don't try to get the action as low as you can. Remember these rules: The larger the gauge string, and the higher the action, the more tone and volume you will end up with. The lower you go with the action, and the thinner the string, the more tone and volume you loose. Its a give and take. Experiment with different strings. I use medium gauge strings on my acoustic, .013-.056. Many cheaper guitars are not built to withstand the extra tension of the heavier gauge strings, so keep that in mind. Break a leg !!

A Customer's Testimony

Hi, Blog-heads !

I recently put the Eric Clapton Mid-boost mod in this customer's "Franken-Tele" All the work is under the pickguard, of course, and is only evident by the third control knob on the guitar. But his testimony is found below, and speaks for itself! thanks Timm for the nice words:

Bucky, I attached a couple of shots of the new guitar for you. You can post them if you want, but I would wait until I get the custom graphics on it. I think I'm going to do my initials under the bridge "SRV" style. We have a show coming up this Sat., so I can finally let it loose. I wish I could rehearse with it though, I feel like I'm racing a car without driving it first! :-) I noticed on your other blog that you're somewhat of a "bbq"ist. My father and I fancy ourselves as amateur smokers ourselves. Not alot gives us much more pleasure than hanging out on a Sunday with a huge honking brisket on the old "low and slow". We should get together and exchange dry-rub recipes and cooking tips. All the help my father and I can get would be greatly appreciated. Anyway, thank you so much for all the work you've done. Trust me when I say it has not gone unappreciated. Melinda told me she hasn't seen me this excited in quite some time. Randy (the other guitarist in my band) has asked me for your information, so expect a call! I'm glad the lord has blessed you with a gift to create things that sound this good.Thanks Again,Timm

COOL MODS

COOL MODS

For Telecasters: The 4-Way Switch Most all Teles have a 3-way Switch for pickup selection. That allows for either pickup alone, or the two in parallel.
The 4-Way Switch gives the above selections, plus a 4th position with the two pickups together, but wired in series. The sound is much fuller than in parallel, more akin to a humbucker, with higher output and darker body. Very Cool for Blues and Rock!!!
It fits right into the original switch slot, and only requires some wiring modifications
Price: $ 50.00 Parts and Install

For Stratocasters: An additional Switch assigned to the neck pickup.This may be accomplished via a mini toggle switch (requiring an additional hole in pickguard), or a Push-pull Pot replacing one of the tone controls. The tone operates as normal turning the pot clockwise to dial in more bass, and pulling up on the knob engages the switch for the pickup. This allows you to have the bridge and neck pickups on together, or all three pickups on together; seven selections total.
Price: $ 50.00 Parts and Install

For Any Electrics: The Eric Clapton Mid-Boost Pre-amp A control engaging 4-25 DB Boost to the mid-range. This requires routing a cavity under the pickguard, and wiring mods. This will give your ax an individual expression beyond description! Too Cool !!
Price: $ 225.00 Parts and Install

REPAIRS ROCK !

Welcome to Repairs Rock Web Site!
My name is Bucky Gelo. I've been repairing stringed instruments since 1975. I worked for a large music store in Norfolk, Va at the time, and they had no repair tech. other than the amp guys, who sat back in there shop, with headphones on, staring into their oscilloscopes, and made low pitched gutteral noises every once in a while. I was selling instruments and what-not, and the store's credit manager at the time. Most of the guitars we had in stock, were in great need of setting up, before they could be auditioned and sold. I started with that, and went on from there. It was a high volume store, and it was soon evident that a fair amount of customers were in need of repairs. Some guys were playing out with these guitars having the electronic guts hanging right out of the instruments! As long as sound came out, they used them. Amazing. I began offering to make minor repairs, and found a new market for the store. Although I was (and still am) a little skinny guy, somehow, I acquired the nick-name "Big Buck" and customers were coming in, asking for Big Buck to fix their broken ax. About the same time, after-market companies such as DiMarzio Pickups sprung up and guys wanted to start customizing their Strats, and Les Pauls, and Teles. I saw my fair share of hack jobs, and started offering the service myself. I've been fixing guitars ever since.

Set Up: My set up includes, fretboard cleaning, nut adjustment, neck adjustment, bridge or saddle height and intonation adjustment, tightening up any loose hardware, new strings, and a good cleaning. Basic Set Up runs $ 40.00 plus new strings and other sundry parts

I am located in beautiful upstate New York outside of Rochester. My service includes pickup and delivery.