Martin – Partial Re-Fret

Here’s a nice one.  It’s been well looked after but well used. The frets are rather worn. As ever it’s worse at the paying end. First thing first, out with the nut. and then out with the old frets.  A little heat often helps to loosen things off a little. then in with the end […]

Martin – Bone nut and saddle

How does your guitar sound?  One simple improvement is to replace the existing nut and saddle with bone ones… I’m a traditionalist and I really like traditional bone nuts and saddles. To make sure I get the size exactly right I need to get the action setup properly first.   The neck was a little […]

Martin GPCPA4 – ToneWoodAmp

This Martin needs a little bit of work, the action is rather high.  That’s easily fixed but I was amazed by the box of magic that the owner also wanted to add. The action was very high, a pity on such a nice guitar. Before taking the saddle down it’s important to make sure the neck […]

Martin Acoustic-Electric conversion

Want an acoustic with an electric pickup?  There are lots of simple conversion kits out there, this one more simple than most… First thing first, drill the hole for the new jack socket/strap button. It’s a little larger than even my largest drill, so it needed a little work with a round file.. The pickup […]

Martin – Bone Saddle and Setup

A nicely put together guitar… just a rather high playing action…. Looking at the neck I think it had a little too much set in it as well. so the first thing I did was to bring that down. The only way to reduce the action is to take a little off the bottom of […]

Martin – Intonation problem

Nice guitars these, usually much better than this, but the Intonation was rather badly out in this one. There didn’t seem to be any real reason for it so I started off with a new, compensated, bone saddle…It sorted out most of the problem, but not quite the Bass “E”.  Next I widened out the […]

Spring Cleaning

How grubby is your guitar?  Need a bit of a clean?  It’s not something you might often bother with but it’s worth spending a little bit of time looking after your cherished guitar. This one wasn’t bad but it’s always worth giving the fretboard a light coat of oil whenever you change the strings. Some […]