alexggbr
Active Member
I got a vintage 80s les paul from a friend of mine kinda for free. It's a really nice guitar, all in mahogany, with a (maple, I think) top and rosewood fingerboard. It's a Brazillian brand Gianinni.
The guitar is rather old and has been through a lot - repaints and some other shit. The frets looked horrible and uneven, and, being old as they are, and also they were too short and all f*cked up, generally speaking. As the guitar didn't get in decent tune, I checked and realized that the neck was bown towards the body.
Anyway, I took out the frets, and tightened a little bit the truss rod. After a couple days, the neck looked better - but the fretboard started to get loose from the neck.
So I decided to take the whole fingerboard out, and replace it for a new Ebony one (something I already had in mind). I also wanted to check out if the truss rod was working ok. BUT, when I removed the fretboard, I got two little surprises
1) The fretboard took out a little chunk from the body top wood when I removed it:
2) The truss rod placed is between a long piece of wood and the neck wood - and it seems PRETTY WELL GLUED AND BOUND:
So...what should I do ? I thought about three possibilities:
1) Sand the entire area from around the chunk to make it all even and matching the neck angle;
2) Just sand the chunk itself, glue a small piece of maple and then sand it back to its original height;
3) Throw this shit away (joke);
What about this wood piece over the truss rod ? Should I remove it to check the truss rod?
I'm no luthier at all, I'm actually just starting to deal with this stuff. This guitar is actually my 2nd challenge. And I'm not considering taking it to a pro - it's a thing I wanted to do myself, plus all luthiers from where I live will just give me a hard time and charge me both my balls and my left hand.
So, guys, what do you think ? If anyone could give me any hints, I'd be really thankful.
The guitar is rather old and has been through a lot - repaints and some other shit. The frets looked horrible and uneven, and, being old as they are, and also they were too short and all f*cked up, generally speaking. As the guitar didn't get in decent tune, I checked and realized that the neck was bown towards the body.
Anyway, I took out the frets, and tightened a little bit the truss rod. After a couple days, the neck looked better - but the fretboard started to get loose from the neck.
So I decided to take the whole fingerboard out, and replace it for a new Ebony one (something I already had in mind). I also wanted to check out if the truss rod was working ok. BUT, when I removed the fretboard, I got two little surprises
1) The fretboard took out a little chunk from the body top wood when I removed it:
2) The truss rod placed is between a long piece of wood and the neck wood - and it seems PRETTY WELL GLUED AND BOUND:
So...what should I do ? I thought about three possibilities:
1) Sand the entire area from around the chunk to make it all even and matching the neck angle;
2) Just sand the chunk itself, glue a small piece of maple and then sand it back to its original height;
3) Throw this shit away (joke);
What about this wood piece over the truss rod ? Should I remove it to check the truss rod?
I'm no luthier at all, I'm actually just starting to deal with this stuff. This guitar is actually my 2nd challenge. And I'm not considering taking it to a pro - it's a thing I wanted to do myself, plus all luthiers from where I live will just give me a hard time and charge me both my balls and my left hand.
So, guys, what do you think ? If anyone could give me any hints, I'd be really thankful.
