JohnJohn

I was reading on one forum of this guy who wanted to fill in a pick-up cavity that he didn't use anymore. I suggested cutting a block and glueing it in place. He responded that that sounded like a lot of work and was going to use expanding foam

Also check the bracing at the X. If the bridge is dipping on one side it could be a brace has pulled slightly throwing off the top tension.

Very nice.Great balance to the paint work.

Your inlays will be okay for standard refretting.If you are going to paint the neck then yes covering them will save you a lot of aggravation later on.Just be carefull with the paint around the stickers.Some adhesives break down at the first sign of any moisture.Last thing you want is to get all the way through your paint job and find out that some of the stickers have shifted. If you're airbrushing one thing you can do for paint is getting tinting white and black + the 3 basic colours in pigment form plus a bonding additive. Createx makes pigments that are rock solid when applied.They're super concentrated so you only need a few dropsJust be sure to get the Extender and add a few drops of that as well,(Createx has a bad habit of going muudy brown or grey if you don't add that when mixing colours.) After painting give it a top coat of straight bonding agent,this will make your life easier for clear work. Also,(should you go this route),give it at least 24 hours to dry.The paint will be dry in a few hours,but with pigments and bonders it needs extra time to fully set-up and cure. It's water based acrylic,so with bonding and proper cure time it will accept most clears without problems. Just be sure to lay down a few spit coats to finish sealing it and to set-up for clear.

I also wonder if it's binding at the saddle causing excess tension at the tuners. What the distance from the bottom of the string to the top of the last fret?A standard distance is 1/16" - 3 /32".At the nut you want about 1/64"-1/32" from the bottom of the string to the top of the first fret.Too much height can cause extra binding and snapping,(unusual to occur at the headstock,but it does happen). Also check the saddle slot to see if it's grabbing the string. If you notice the string going sharp so you have to retune it slightly then going flat after you retune it then it's a good chance that something is grabbing the string.

One of your biggest obstacles will be the neck pocket on the body. If the neck can fit that without gapping and seating properly you will have an easier time of it. Just to be safe,(unless the holes line up),dowel and redrill the neck holes. Just be careful to watch your depth,(remember ibanez_crazy's story-yikes). Once you have the neck in,(worst case scenario you will have to fit a block of wood in there and re-route),double-check your bridge and neck pick-up placement. Outside of gapping your two biggest concerns will be any pitch to the neck in the pocket and the neck centering. Not being familiar with that model-if it has a pickgaurd you may run into some lining up issues there as well.

If you're planning on radiusing the board you may want to scrape the hump out first. This will make the sanding a little quicker rather than trying to sand an even radius into a humped board. After removing the frets use a cabinet scraper to level the board and then radius. Just make sure that the board isn't pulling away from the body first.

After pulling the frets a lot of people like tio fill with tinted epoxy. It will work,but if you ever change your mind reversing this can be a nightmare. Try using maple veneer to fill the slots.This will fill the slots cleanly and will make reversing the process,(if you ever decide to),a lot easier and cleaner.

Very nice,love the details on the frog.

+1, Neck resets should be tackled with a great deal of care and experience.You can tack the back and top in place with a bit of glue and use some tape to fit it back. But that kind of work does require the right tools and experience to be done right. Removing a top requires a lot of work,I would even go so far as to say that removing and resetting a top is a little more advanced than resetting a neck. For $100.00 I would be curious to know what they were going to do and how they where going to do it. I understand that the guitar has meaning to you,but the cost would be quite a bit.It may be something that you may wish to slack the strings on and store properly until you have the experience to do it yourself or until you feel that you can justify the expense.

Sounds like a great idea,though I agree that you'd have to thin the top a shade and very carefully tune the tone bars. I would say that you don't see a lot of that because people don't feel it'll sell. Classical players tend to be traditional.

What about veener? Check out the wood gallery section at this link: http://www.amwoodinc.com They show pictures of the different types,so you can cross reference all of the woods mentioned and find the one tht you feel is the closest.It may also show you a grain that you like even better.

A material finish would kill the projection and alter any tone. It sounds like someone put some work into it,maybe restoring it would give you a decent piece.

When you pull the bridge you can reset the piece that is braeking away with CA glue.A little sanding and ca over the crack area with the dust still on the area will build up the area.Being an older Yamaha I'm guessing that it's either rosewood or ebony,which is good because dust from either with small dabs of ca sanded and then redone will leave the area looking like it has never been cracked. Most likely when you get the bridge off it'll be warped,to solve this soak the bridge in boiled water for about 15 minutes and clamp flat.Let dry overnight and the bridge should be back to a flat shape.If not then redo.If the bridge doesn't fully settle after a few tries then it should be flat enough that level sanding won't remove so much wood as to leave the bridge unusable,(if the bridge is too thin then it's just gonna split and pull from the tension over time).

Those pins are hiding screws that people have mentioned,you'll have to pop those first.Some screws can be unscrewed,(as the nuts seal to the top from bridge gluing). Then go with the hobby knife score and the heat. You may also want to tape the area off first and lay some cardboard around it,so if the knife preses down it will reduce possable scarring on the top. Occasionally pieces of the top come up,save those to glue back in.When you reglue the bridge score the area under where the bridge is going to go so the glue can sink in deeper. If the plugs over the screws get trashed during removal,(it happens sometimes-trust me ), you can grab plastic endpins,they're usually a perfect fit

Have you put a straight edge on the board,(both bass and treble),and adjusted the truss rod so that the neck will flatten?This will show if or where the neck is warped. Also put the edge across the sounboard in front,(neck side),of the bridge and below it. If you sight down the neck it won't be very accurate for dimensions,but if you do that and look at the neck/body join you may spot a hump in the fretboard. Quite often as the top shifts the fretboard may hump as well.Some places will raise the action to try to get around this,but if the to humps or dives then the problem will become obvious after tackling this. Whatever the source of the problem is this isn't something you want to tackle as a first repair,(sorry),this kind of thing should be taken to a reputable shop to be evaluated.

Have you tried local seafood restaurants and markets?Just buy the oysters or get their shells,it's a lot more work cutting and levelling from shell but it may give you some nice options.

try this link: http://www.rereanch.com The section called "Finish 101" should really help

Thanks dash

Ouch,too bad looks like it would have been nice.

You'll need top and bottom ferules,well,some folks don't use top ferrules,but it can cut into the wood if you don't. One thing that you can do is use a small piece of tubing cut to a small length that is wider than the string but smaller than the ferrule.You'll have to do some carefull measuring so it isn't so long that it allows the ferrules to seat flush,(some people like to counter-sink the ferrules). You may want to cut the tubing slightly,(but not much),shy to allow for any contraction of the top.This doesn't happen very often but it can happen. Some use tubing,some don't I just finished a guitar without it and it works fine.But if you do use the tubing maybe use a soft metal of a plastic,useing something like surgical could result in the string getting caught during insertion-very annoying. Remember to allow for a decent spacing between the t-o-m and the top ferrule so the string isn't at an extreme angle.

I'd like to do an L.E.D. inlay,but want to fully research it first. I checked the tutorials but didn't see anything,unless I missed something. Can someone suggest a good link on this?

A while ago somebody posted a link to a site that you type in your scale length and it shows the spacing. Anybody recall that site?

Another option,(and it's added work).Is to get a neck,pull the frets and strip the finish. I think Warmoth does custom oders and might not have a problem shipping an unfinished neck with no frets installed.

It's important to wetsand between coats.Make sure that the finish is even and no shiny spots arfter sanding.Clean all the dust off and respray. I like to put on a coat or two of Watco's Danish Finishing Oil before the last coat. It takes a little longer with the drying time but the results are worth it.