guitarist_wo

I have an ESP LTD AC-200E acoustic that sounds and plays pretty well in standard tuning, although the higher register frets have reasonably high action. I've learned to deal with it though. I picked up another acoustic and the action was very low at the higher frets with no buzzes. I'm looking for some adjustments that I could maybe do to mine to get the action low enough without any buzzes. My problem is I want to detune a whole step down. I get horrible buzzes throughout the first five frets or so. I do not really want to shim the nut, but it may need done and then drop the bridge a little bit to straighten out the strings along the fretboard. Any suggestions from anybody to get this guitar detuned with no buzzes?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...eName=WDVW&rd=1 i was wondering how a body like this would sound with it have many different types of wood glued together. i know a 1-piece body sounds wonderful in concern to acoustics, but 15 pieces glues up like this might sound funky. i was wondering if anybody had any experience on making or playing something like this.

well, i'm not sure if i'm going to get to machines. i would like to keep those original. so just cleaning them up will work for those. but, yeah strings are another story. i definately need those. the ones i got with it were in very bad shape and there were only 3 of them with it. but i'm not sure which ones i would need. i have seen all steel ones, and i have seen nylon. what would be the best for this? i know these sound like real newb questions. i just want to make sure i get the right parts and things go well after the blasting i received on the other forum.

yeah, those guys are pretty harsh. i don't think they understood at what i was getting at and i noticed from the first few replies that things were going to get ugly. don't worry about sending me there, it was definately an eye opener. i want to do it myself though. it's more rewarding that way and i'm doing it for a dear friend of mine and her grandfather. so, i guess i will not post anything back there, cause they will tear it apart and not care about anything but the money. thanks for sticking behind me and i PM'd "arnold" from that board. i will stick to this forum for help. you guys actually care. thanks!

I have decided to fix and repair all of the body damage before I do any sanding or refinishing. I figured that would be the way to go so that I do not put stress on the pieces when they are disassembled. I will take it apart, repair what needs it, put it back together and then refinish. Does that sound like a good plan? I was thinking of either using Gorilla Glue or some regular carpenters resin wood glue. I'm guessing this bass will be more on display then played, so acoustics of it after I'm done may not be very important. Although, I would still like to get some new strings for it and maybe put it in tune. I have been told that it is going to be displayed next to an old piano that has been restored, so I'm guessing it will not get played regularly. Also, once I took the top off, I found that the little pieces of wood they used to fix the cracks on the underside were rounded off on the edges. Would the be for the acoustics of it so the sound does not get trapped on the blocks? Like in this pic here. The small block all the way on the left of the picture is rounded on all 4 sides to meet up with the body. Sort of looks like a short pyramid. I was thinking of just using some wood shim material to fix all of the cracks underneath, since I'm not too worried about acoustics. Would that be sufficient? I'm also going to reinforce every joint and edge using glue to help stiffen up this old, dry bass. The neck is loose at the joint to the body and there are 2 screw holes on the back of the neck as seen here. I know there should not be holes there, so I'm guessing when it was repaired before, someone just drove 2 screws in there. When I was fishing around in those holes with a screwdriver and a flashlight, I could not find the screw heads. What would be the best way to take this neck off and then reinforce it? just glue? or screws and glue? A will probably have more questions later once I dig into doing the full repairs to it. Thanks for all of the help so far!

sorry it took a while to get these pics up, but here they are. i have over 40 of them so that you can all have a good idea with what i'm working with. this project is very important to me and will be to my friend and her grandpa if it's all done right. so any help or advice on absolutely anything here will be greatly appreciated. well, i will get straight to the pics. here they are: Body: pre-repair Headstock: pre-repair Large crack on top Large crack on top (#2) Headstock: pre-repair (#2) Neck Joint: pre-repair Back: pre-repair Hole Near the bridge and i have the piece that goes there too Foot: pre-repair Whole Bass: pre-repair Neck Joint: pre-repair Body: pre-repair After the top came off Inside after the top came off Chunk of top plate that stayed Inside bass Whole bass after I took top off Joints inside bass Inside bass Inside bass (#2) Top after it was taken off Top after it was taken off (#2) Top after it was taken off (#3) Underneath top Small pieces of wood holding old cracks together Underneath top (#2) Tuners on headstock Headstock Headstock (#2) Back of headstock Side of headstock: notice the chunk missing on spiral part Tuners Tuners (#2) Inside bass: pre-cleaning Inside of bass before edges were cleaned Inside bass: after cleaning Inside bass: after cleaning (#2) A clean edge Another clean edge I still have some questions too: What should i use to get the old finish off? sandpaper? stripper? The neck joint is very loose but i can't seem to find a way to get it off. It looks like it was repaired before because there are 2 holes on the neck at the joint. I think it is held in by screws, but i can't tell and a screwdriver does not help in finding the screws. Should I take the neck off or just support it more with screws? Glue? The tuners are very tarnished and beat up. What chemical would be the best to get them closely back to their original shape without damaging them at all? I would like to keep all the parts original if they are salvageable, but if not, I will get some new parts. The foot or endpin is pretty beat up so I may get a new one. So, any help up to this point would be awesome. I think I'm going to start in on it again within the next couple of days. Thanks for all of your help!

i've built a few guitars in the past but have not really tackled the neck and going all out building one from scratch. So, i figured i would purchase something like this to just practice on and not be upset that i ruined a very expensive piece of wood, and maybe, with my woodworking and slim guitar building abilities and a couple upgrades, this could be a nice guitar. i would also like to test out some dyes for fiinish. And i figured since this is ready to go for paint, then it also would not be bad to "test" finishes on. I will have to do some more research before i purchase. I'll let you all know what i find out. thanks!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...gory=47067&rd=1 has anybody purchased one of these before. i was considering just buying one to mess with since it is fairly inexpensive. i could test some body work and fretwork on it at least and possibly some finish work. and if it were to turn out good, i would definately update all of the hardware and electronics. definately the pickups. i won't be out much if things go wrong, so i was wondering anybody elses opinion on these? thanks!

i was doing some searching around on the net and found some pics of what the bass looks like. it has the flame just like this one here. It's just about that color too. So, shellac might be the best? or should I get the tinted varnish from StewMac? I would love for this to have a mirror finish and get it as shiny as possible with a beautiful color underneath. I have high hopes for this bass, even looking at the state it's in now. Sorry for not posting pics yet, but that link should give you an idea of what I would like it to look like after I'm done. I will get the pics ASAP! thanks a whole bunch for all of the replies!

i will post pics as soon as i can get them transferred from my camera and get them hosted on a site. i took tons of pics of everything to help ID this bass and hopefully with a little of everyone's help, i can get a year and a manufacturer from it. i ended up taking off the whole carved top yesterday with a putty knife. lol. it was very fragile and the glue was really flaky, so it was easy to get off. i'm going to reinforce everything on it with some small skinny pieces of wood (shims) and some wood glue or the glue/sawdust combination. what would be best. i know with the pics it will be a lot easier for you all to help. i will see if i can get some of them up tomorrow. thanks for the replies and please keep them coming, as this project will mean a great deal to my friend and her grandfather (the owner of the bass and the person who bought it brand new a long, long time ago, and is unable to remember what it looked like when he bought it.) i would love to restore it back to the original color, but i may just do it to my liking and use a dark cherry stain with some sort of clear coat? what would be better for the clear? poly, laquer? how would i apply it (spray can, paint on, etc.) or what is the best way? these are all questions that i still want to get answered before digging into this project. thanks!

i just received the task to attempt to refinish and completely restore a very old acoustic stand-up bass. i'm not sure of the manufacturer or year of it yet, as i just got it last night and have not done a full inspection. i build and repair solidbody guitars and have not worked or completely built an acoustic before. although, i do repair and work on acoustic 6-strings. i was wondering how much different this project will be. this bass is about 6 feet tall, so size (and weight) is definately a difference. what i had in mind was to string and refinish the wood and get it back to a playable condition. i will post pics of it when i can get them taken. when i got it out of the attic it was in worse shape than what i had though. there is a huge chunk broken off from the bottom of the body all the way to where the neck connects. but the piece is still present, so i could possibly repair that. and i also noticed the neck is loose and it looks like it was been worked on before. other than that, it's not real bad. there are of course dings and scratches and the wood is very dry (from being in a garage attic for years and the weather getting to it). i'd probably guess it's close to 50 years old, but not certain. i would like any help of ID'ing this to a year and manufacturer if possible. advice on how to repair and restore it will definately help also. or some websites i could look into. i want to do everything i possibly can to get it back to looking marvelous, like it did the day it was bought. like i said i will post some pics of it soon, so that people can have a better idea. thanks!

hey, i have an HH pickup configured guitar that i am trying to wire up with a werid 5 way or it might be a 3 way. it is all ESP so if that helps in decoding this thing i don't know. i just need to find out how this switch works so that i can get it wired up correctly. it has a ground lug and then 7 lugs going around in a half circle from that number 1-7. if someone could help me wire my humbuckers up to that it would be appreciate. and my humbuckers are not coil tappable either, so there is just a ground wire and a hot wire from the pickups. PLEASE HELP ME!!!

alright, i decided to switch the two 5 ways in the guitars, since i knew how to wire the 4 lugs-on-both-side switch with the 3 (H/S/H) pickup config. no i just need to figure out how to get the HH guitar wire to the other switch that has a ground and then lugs labeled 1-7 on it.

yeah it look just like that, but it has 7 lugs and not 8. i think that stewmac megaswitch has 8 lugs plus the ground lug. this one i have has 7 lugs plus the ground and i can't find anything on it. if someone would help me out with these 2 setups, it would b appreciated greatly.

i have a 2 humbucker setup, 1 volume, 1 tone, and a 5 way switch. I would like the 5 way to be wired in the following way, but i'm not sure how to get it: Position 1: Bridge Position 2: OFF Position 3: Bridge and Neck Position 4: OFF Position 5: Neck i am using a regular fender style 5 way switch that has 4 leads on each left and right sides of the. do i need to jumper something to get both pickups on in Position 3 of the 5-way switch? ------------ i also still need some help on another setup with the H/S/H pickup configuration. i can't seem to find any schematic that has H/S/H, 1 tone, 1 volume, and a 5 way switch. The 5 way switch is an ESP one, i think, or at least it came off of an ESP guitar. it is weird though, and I can't seem to find anything on the setup of the 5 way. I would like this to be exactly like a Fender setup, where: Position 1: Bridge Humbucker Position 2: Bridge Humbucker/Middle Single Coil Position 3: Middle Single Coil Position 4: Neck Humbucker/Middle Single Coil Position 5: Neck Humbucker this 5 way switch leads are set up in a line going in a half circle from ground and then number 1 to 7. i'm not sure which lead on that goes with what switch position. as long as i can get it hooked up like that above, i would be happy. none of the humbuckers are coil splittable on either one of these setups. just a hot and a ground wire off the pickups. if you need a picture of the switches that i am using email me at guitarist_wo@hotmail.com and i can you send you them. any help would be cool. thanks.