Custom Stratocaster – Build

I usually enjoy a complete guitar build, something to get my teeth into and turn out something nice.  It helps to work with the customer first mind you, to make sure I get bits that work together.  The trouble with cheaper parts, from various places it can be a bit of a challenge! At first […]

Burns Steer – Setup

What a great looking guitar.  I’ve never really liked Burns guitars but this one’s rather lovely. It’s an odd sort of thing, It’s got a sound hole, but there really isn’t any sound coming out of it? Some of the frets are a little worn…. and just a little uneven. A fret dress will sort out […]

Fender Stratocaster – Service and Setup

What a lovely old Strat.  In need of a little TLC but basically sound… The bridge is all a little manky, rather corroded, but I’m sure that can be sorted. It’s just a case of taking it all apart and getting the wire brush in there. That’s better, just needs setting up again. Another thing […]

Ibanez – Setup

Here’s a lovely guitar, just not behaving properly, needs a little work. The first thing is the bridge. The trouble with the wooden bridge is that intonation is always a bit of a compromise. The “Tune-o-matic” option means each string can be adjusted separately.  Since it’s a floating bridge the tape is there just so […]

Washburn – Fret dress and setup

A rather lovely guitar, in need of a little bit of work to get it playing properly though. A lovely piece of wood. Some of the frets are rather uneven.  Big fat frets with some very low points, so it’s going to be quite a bit of work. There’s quite a bit of wear and tear […]

Custom Shop Fender Stratocaster

WOW What a great guitar!  It’s not often I get such lovely guitar on the bench.  However It wasn’t quite playing as well as it should, so I gave it a bit of a tweek here and there. This really is something special, when Fender put you name on it for you.  out of deference to […]

Fender Telecaster – Intonation problems

Everyone loves a Telecaster, a cassic guitar, no-one should be without one!  There is, however, one fundamental problem with the original design.  The strings are paired up on the bridge saddles and so the intonation is always a compromise, perticulrly on the D and G strings. There is a simple solution though, compensated saddles.  I’ve […]