Dating Instrument Options

I got a nice vintage Fender Jazz Bass in for electronic service. The customer, an old friend claimed it was one of the first bass guitars he got as a teen. He thought it was from the 1960's.

The electronics were not putting out the normal output, the bass having not been played in time out of reckening. I could see where it had already been re-finished at some point, already de-valuing the vintage worth. I advised him that replacing the pots wires and jack would further lower it's collectible value. He said he preferred to play it so we agreed to have me re-do the electronics.

While I was working in it, I inspected it for the date of manufacture. It had a serial number stamped on the neck plate and the big reverse F. That dated it somewhere in the early 70's. Removing the neck should have shown dates in the body's neck pocket and the neck's bottom heel. No such luck; whoever re-finished the bass destroyed all that info. I knew in the early 70's Fender started making the jazz bass using the bullet truss rod at the top of the headstock and a three bolt neck attachment. This bass was before that period.

Inspecting the codes on the back of the potentiometers, it read: 1377310.

The date code of the pots broke down as follows:

137 Manufacturer: CTS (Chicago Telephone Suppliers)

73: 1973

10: The 10th week of 1973.

That narrowed it down some. The pots were made in March 73 and Fender went to the three bolt neck plate later that year, so the bass had to have been made in mid 1973. At least we narrowed it down to spring or summer of 73.

He is using the bass in the reunion of his first band from high school. I love history!!

The importance of a proper set up

What is a set up? Well, it's like a tune up on your car. A few subtle adjustments can make a world of difference in the feel, response, and sound of your instrument.

Strings: They don't last as long as people think and could even effect your tuning, clarity, and intonation. (We'll get into intonation later) Perspiration gets into the windings of the strings, causing them to sound dead or unbalanced with the others. I almost always advise the strings be changed with a set up.

Fretboard maintenance: Another advantage to changing the strings is the access to the fingerboard and frets with the strings removed.

0000 steel wool will clean the grime off the fingerboard and frets. A scant amount of linseed or lemon oil will add some moisture to the unfinished rosewood or ebony.

Truss rod adjustment: Almost all stringed instruments have an adjustable truss rod to maintain the proper relief in the neck. The tension of the tuned strings, after a while can pull on the end of the neck, causing too much relief in the neck. What that means is the strings end up too high off the fingerboard, esp. around the mid-section of the fingerboard. If the strings were left off the instrument for a period of time, the neck can bow backwards, causing the strings to fret out or buzz on the frets. The neck should have a bit of relief or "bow" to play true, but too little and you end up with buzz; too much, and the strings are hard to press down on the fingerboard.

Saddle height at the bridge: On electrics and acoustics alike, if the saddle or bridge is too high, the strings are too far off the fingerboard, making it much harder to play. If the saddle or bridge is too low, the strings buzz on neighboring frets, much like the neck bowed too far in either direction. Electric guitars and basses have individual saddles to adjust the height and intonation for each string. Also the individual saddle adjustment makes it easier to set the saddles to the proper fingerboard radius. The fingerboard is rarely perfectly flat, but slightly curved, making it more comfortable to play across. The string saddles need to be set to the same relation to the fingerboard radius.

Intonation: Correct intonation allows the open picked string to play in proper pitch at the 12th fret and the harmonic note at the 12th fret. It is checked with a reliable electronic tuner or better yet, a strobe tuner. After tuning the open picked string, the string is picked at the 12th fret and should maintain the same 440 pitch. If it is flat on the 12th fret, the string length is too long, if it is sharp at the 12th fret, the string length is too short. Proper intonation should be set with new strings installed and stretched.

Tremolo adjustment: The tremolo unit has to be adjusted to maintain proper bridge height. Even breaking or removing a string, or changing string gauges, can throw the bridge out of whack if it has a tremolo system.

Electric instrument controls: All the volume, tone, switches, jacks, etc. should be checked and tighten if they have become loose. If they are allowed to become too loose, the entire control ends up roating when you turn the knob and eventually, it can lead to a wire breaking off the control. This is very common with the jack!

If the instrument has active electronics, the battery should be checked for it's available voltage. Musically speaking, a 9 volt battery is dead below 7 volts and should be changed.

Tuner adjustment: Most tuners on the headstock have an adjustment to keep them from slipping too far out of whack. Properly adjusted, the tuner should turn freely with just a bit of relief. If it's adjusted too tight, the tuner guts will wear out prematurely. The securing hardware should be tightened on the tuner also to prevent the tuner from rotating around in the headstock.

Cleaning: All of the instrument should be cleaned. A damp soft cloth should clean most grime off the finish. A good non-silicone polish will bring the luster up on the finish after it is nice and clean. Extremely grimy instruments are cleaned with a bit of naphtha solvent. This does not harm the finish. In fact, if the grime and grease is left on the finish too long, the finish will be compromised by trying to rub the grime off.

Most professionals know what it means to have a set up on a regular basis. Most new instruments probably can use a set up at the start. A change of string gauge is another reason for a set up. Beginning students will greatly benefit from a set up by having an instrument that they do not have to fight to learn how to play.

The set up is the start to a long lasting relationship with your ax!

Hum reduction on a Tele

Today, I'm working on a Squier Telecaster. The stock pickups were noisy and wimpy and the customer acquired a set of stacked Bill Lawrence Tele pickups to install in the attempt to reduce the 60 cycle hum. I installed the pickups a few weeks ago, but the customer claims it's still as noisy as ever!

Back on the bench it goes and this time, we're going to install copper shielding to the pickup and control cavities to reduce the hum.

The neck must be removed before the pickguard can be removed on this model! Off with the strings, off with the neck, and now we can get the pickguard off. All the electronics have to be un-soldered and removed to work on the shielding in the cavities.

The channel for the neck pickup wires was originally a tunnel leading to the cavity for the bridge pickup. I decided to route an open passage so I could apply the copper shielding in that area also.

With the copper shielding cut and glued in place, the next step is to re-mount the pickups in their cavities.

I thought it best to replace the original switch, volume and tone controls, wiring, and jack with new.

I used a switch for the Fender American Standard Tele.

Well, there we have it. All back together and strung up with D'Addario EXL-110 strings.

After a set up, this baby should quack like a good Tele should!

Repairs Rock Prices

REPAIRS ROCK PRICE LIST


$ 30.00 Basic Set up: Electric, Acoustic, and Bass Guitars:
Set up includes: truss rod adjustment, tuner adjustment, fingerboard cleaning, saddle height
and intonation adjustment, tighten loose hardware, re-string, pickup height
adjustment, test, clean.

$ 40.00 Set up with Floyd Rose Trem

$ 15.00 Jack replacement on most electric guitars & basses

$ 30.00 Jack replacement on acoustic-electric instruments

$ 30.00-50.00 Pickup replacement on most electrics *

$80.00-100.00 Re-glue bridge on acoustic

$75.00 Complete re-wire Les Paul (parts additional)

$50.00 Complete re-wire on Strat or Tele (parts additional)

$60.00 Copper shielding on electrics to minimize hum

• Custom work, such as routing body for over-size pickup install, custom pickguard mods, and other irregular modifications is subject to $ 40.00 per hour.


TELE MODS
The 4 Way Switch Drops in original slot and adds the two pickups on in Series. The other three positions stay as original.
Parts, Labor $ 60.00

Volume Control Closer to the fingertips. By re-mounting control plate 180 out and switching volume and tone control position, and turning the switch 180 out, you get from left to right, Volume, Tone, and Switch.
Way Cool for Swells!
Labor $ 30.00

Bigsby B-5 Tailpiece $250.00

Satisfied Customers


Tom Briggs Insurance Agent
tbriggs2@rochester.rr.com


John Stiles Professional Musician
jstiles@rochester.rr.com


Joseph F. Laubacker Engineer
jflaubacker@verizon.net


Albert Pacete Chaplan/Deacon
apacete@aol.com

The Broken Bauer

A friend in Lyons brought me his old George Bauer Bowl Back Mandolin, with the neck coming off and top, smashed in. I wiggled the neck a bit, and it came off, with a bit of the top still holding onto the edge of the fingerboard, which also crumbled off the bottom. It looks as though all the pieces are there but restoraton to playable condition is pushing the bar.

George Bauer was in Philidelphia, Pa and putting out stringed instruments in the late 1880's. He later joined forces with Stuart Banjo and took that company over in the early 1900's.

Our poor broken one is called model Monagram, and I see that model in later instruments too and considered entry level. With it's beautiful top, Brazilian Rosewood bowl strips, I'd hardly call it entry level! The neck joint is one I've yet to see. Not the dove-tail joint that we're used to encountering, but a crude, hand carved asymetrical joint.

Well, after consulting a luhier here in Rochester, he brought to my attention, that the neck was previously re-glued, using Gorilla Glue. The urethene glue has already satuated the wood fibers, rendering hyde or other wood glues not effective. So, at his advice, I cleaned up my joints and reglued the neck with the Gorilla Glue.

The next serious issue, is the left top bout where the fingerboard and top meet. The top is smashed down over 1/8 inch. I cut a scab to glue under my seam, and jacked and glued the left top section to the fingerboard.

A new Tele Mod

Being a Tele kinda guy, myself, I love it when a customer has a new request for a mod on a Tele. Yesterday, a great player and new friend to me brought in a Tele for a pickup replacement job and a request to move the controls around on his Tele. He asked that I turn the control plate 180 out, so that the switch was on the other end of the plate. He wanted the volume control to be on the left side, closer to the picking hand for easier reach. It sounded like a great idea to me. He claims that guys in Nashville started doing this.
This required, turning the control plate around 180. The switch, also had to be turned around 180. The volume and tone controls had to be switched in their respectave positions also. With the guitar strapped on, looking down, the controls now were from left to right: Volume, Tone, and Selector Switch. The volume could now be much closer to swell and adjust. Genious!

Those Darn Baggage Handlers

Ya really gotta be carefull traveling with your guitar. I've seen it happen many times, many ways, but with all the string tension on your baby, if it takes a spill, it could mean a broken headstock, even in the original hard shell case. Our repair here is from not loosening the string tension and attempting to have airline baggage folks handle the instrument.

First step was to remove the tuners from the headstock. I used a two part epoxy to make the repair. Brushing it on lightly, both pieces, I reunited the headstock with the neck. Clamping it prooved to be a challenge; as I applied clamp preasure, the two parts wanted to slip off allignment. I had to loosen my clamping preasure so the two parts stayed put!

I'm a bit new to this procedure; when I removed the clamp after curing, I had overflow from the epoxy, requiring sanding the area smooth, removing my overflow.

Next, was matching the finish to create a blend. It took some oak and walnut stain to get close to the same shade as original. Next, came a few coats of clear laquer

Well, the ole girl's back in one piece; Not invisible, but quite playable.
Amy, I'd leave this baby home the next time you fly!