Tecolote Guitar Works

It’s a crazy life.  At least once a week I hear something new and, well, unusual.

My current favorite is “I have a strange sound in my guitar”.     I ask the person to play the offending note or chord.    I lean in close.  I don’t hear anything odd.   I play the instrument myself and still don’t hear anything unusual.    After staring at me in disbelief the fellow says “well, if you COULD hear it what do you think it would be?”

Another memorable encounter was the man who came in for a set up.  He seemed rather indignant when I told him my fee and said;  “SIXTY DOLLARS for a set up! I can get my OIL CHANGED FOR TWENTY FIVE BUCKS!”    Hmmmmmm……

Then there was the chap who, when informed that the needed repair would cost fifty dollars asked me to do it for twenty five.   I politely declined the opportunity to lose money and  his reply was “well I can see that YOU don’t support the arts.”  Yikes.   I was almost, but not quite speechless.

A frequent favorite and one that any craftsman has heard and bristled at is the possibly well meant but insulting nontheless “take your time and do a GOOD job.”    Ugh, the obvious inference is that if the person did not remind us we’d revert to type and hack the daylights out of their instrument.   Go figure.

I won’t forget the person with the middle European accent who, when I informed him that I did not have strings for his balalaika called me a “homo”, or the well lubricated soul who threatened to sue over finger prints he claimed I left on his guitar.

I told ya it’s a crazy life, didn’t I.

The last few weeks have seen a bunch of these jobs.   Several Martins rolled in including a nice ‘47 D-18 and a ‘67 D-28 with a stunning set of Brazillian Rosewood that looked like the nicest of the pre-war guitars.

A beautiful Hoboken era Guild D40 also graced my bench.   These early Guild flat tops were often just great sounding and this one was no exception.  A splendid guitar.

My favorites from this latest batch were not the vintage Martins but a couple of oddballs; a late 60’s Harmony Sovereign and a gorgeous little Carson J. Robison.

The Harmony is very close in size to an Martin OM and was built with ladder bracing. According to the original owner it cost $65 when new.   The neck reset cost over five times that in 2010.   Don’t ya love inflation?

If you’ve never played a ladder braced (most flat tops are X braced) guitar they are really a treat.   Loud and very full in the trebles, they might lack subtlety but they really get the job done nonetheless.

The Robison is an inexpensive guitar  built by Gibson for Ward’s in the 30’s.  The little Robison looks like the L-00, complete with a lovely Gibson sunburst but has ladder bracing and no adjustable truss rod.   It’s a killer blues beast and light as a feather at around 3 pounds.

Time to get back to the bench and set the angle on a Martin 12 string.

It’s almost inevitable that a guitar will sustain some finish damage sooner or later.

On a new or pristine instrument this is akin to the first door ding on a new car.   You know it’s probably going to happen but when it does……….ugh.

I’ve seen some people near tears about a minor scratch on an inconspicuous spot and some players who can shrug off a foot long skid mark on the soundboard.   Everyone has a different tolerance level and a different expectation level when it comes to repairing the damage.    As any experienced guitar tech will tell you small “spot” repairs have a disconcerting way of growing ever larger.

Before we go further please indulge me a moment.    Guitars are tools to make music and as with any tool they will show ordinary wear and evidence of occasional mis-adventure.   If you have a little nick or a big dent, or any of the usual assortment of surface blemishes that guitars are prone to try to view it in the perspective of a tool that shows wear.    Believe me, virtually no one who is seriously involved in playing or listening to guitars will care even a little bit about some cosmetic flaw in your pride and joy.   Making music is the point of these things, the rest is vanity.   End of editorial.

Three hundred pages could be written about finish repairs so I’ll just skim the surface of the most common repair requests here.

Light scratches that don’t go through the finish to the wood underneath can usually be buffed out to invisibility.

Deep scratches are dealt with by very careful wet sanding followed by buffing which, like the above can be rendered invisible.

Chips, deep abrasions, fractures; When the damage goes through the finish coats to the wood as in a very deep abrasion or a large chip you have a much more complex and expensive repair which no matter how skillfully executed may remain somewhat visible.   The wound can be minimized but probably not made to “go away.” The color and type of finish will dictate the difficulty with these sort of problems.

Solid black or white guitars will be the easiest to repair and any translucent finish will be the hardest.   Fender Butterscotch or that gorgeous Gibson dark ruby red are a couple of colors that can drive even a master finisher nuts when it comes to spot repairs.

In those instances when colors need to be matched even the most perfect job may change with the passage of time.   Light affects most finishes to some extent often causing some darkening or lightening which can, after some time simply call attention to the original area of damage.

Dings and dents, as long as they’re pretty small, like 1/8″ or so can often be nicely repaired by carefully filling the dent with finish material then level sanding and buffing.   Similar to scratches, if the wood underneath the finish ding is not damaged these pesky little dents are fairly easy to deal with.    Darker colors and woods are somewhat more forgiving than pale soundboards or see-through colors.

Cracks are always partnered up with finish damage.   Crack repair is a fairly involved topic with regard to the structural aspect alone.   Cosmetic finish repair over the crack is a complication.    Light colored spruce soundboard cracks are frequently quite hard to render invisible.   I generally let customers know that while the crack can be stabilized and be structurally sound there will probably be some sort of lingering evidence of trauma even with finish repair.   Often I recommend against even attempting finish repair over cracks.

Expectations and reality don’t always mesh nicely.   When I tell customers what to expect on finish repairs I try hard to make sure their expectations are in line with with what can really be done.  This brings to mind the little quote I have pinned up over one of my benches here at TGW.  “Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn’t have to do it himself”.

Refinish or repair is often the question.   Frequently with a solid body such as a Strat or Tele there are so many small finish problems that a refin is a reasonable way to go.   Major refinish work on most acoustic guitars is more problematic but is not the “no-no” that some would have you believe.

In the next blog post I’ll cover the subject of complete and partial refinishing in more detail.

It came as quite a surprise but I just realized that Tecolote Guitar Works has completed its second year.  Here we go to Year Three.   I like the sound of that.

Highlights of ‘09 (aside from still being in business) are first and foremost the steady influx of new customers who have become repeat customers.

It seems that people like the idea of an unmatched level of personal service.  I take as much time as necessary to make sure the right approach is chosen on all jobs and it’s obvious that many customers have never received that level of care on their repair and modification projects.

The two Jack Straw/TGW shop built guitars have been well received and add a new dimension to our offerings.   We will be building a couple of new electric guitars soon.

Another high spot in the year was the arrival of our new pal and TGW mascot, Ripley.   Rip is a splendid young English Bull Terrier who looks forward to meeting you.

Lowlights?  Yes, there have been a few.   The TGW website and all my blog entries were completely destroyed by a malicious hacker.  Tony, my 13 year old Bull Terrier passed on.  Yours truly was slandered on the internationally viewed website of a certain self-appointed genius of the guitar business from North County.  Ask me and I’ll be happy to tell you all about him and his business practices.

Another sad note was the closing of Kevin Kinnear’s  Epic Guitars in Carlsbad.   After working with Kevin for several years I have no doubt that if anyone could have bucked the recession and got a new shop off the ground it would have been him.   Unfortunately there were just too many factors lined up against Epic including a certain amount of obstruction from those threatened by competition.    All of us who know Kevin wish him the best and hope he can stay in the guitar business.

We’re looking forward to 2010 but we really want to thank all of you for making 2009 a great year that has given us a lot to build on.

In particular we want the following individuals to know how valuable their friendship and support has been.   Joshua Blatchley, Dr. John Dodge, Bill Fiedler, R.J. Flood, Kevin Kinnear, Charlie Loach, Erin Matthews, Fred Marotta and the crew at the Zone, Jeannie Needham, Michael Oletta, Wayne Riker, Wil Rule,  Joe Selveen, John Warner, and John Zucca.    You’re the best.

Finally, after what seems like a year TGW has a new and, more importantly, secure website.

Our original site was maliciously hacked several times.   The accompanying blog and all of its content were attacked as well, comprehensively destroying all my previous posts.

For our old friends who enjoyed the site, blog, and monthly Riff newsletter,  these features will be back starting now.

The new website will be fleshed out with new photos and content as soon as I can get the info to our Web Guru,  Mr. John Warner of Warner Web Design up in Huntington Beach.

John has been great to work with as we have needed much hand-holding on this project and he’s been there to make things work.   Get acquainted with his services at http://www.warnerwebdesign.com.

For our new friends,  welcome to the TGW Blog.   If you check back now and then you’ll find out about “Guitars According to Bill”, as well as  tips on maintenance, heads up on the occasional new piece of gear, and the latest on TGW shop projects which at the moment include a TGW/Jack Straw solid body electric and a Jack Straw 12 fret 000 flat top.

Photos of the two new instruments will be posted here and on the Riff soon.