Ms. Kay

Restoration of 1965 Kay S-1 Part One

When my friend Jack got his first full time teaching gig, it was as music director for a local high school. The department had been under utilized and many of the practice rooms had become dumping grounds for obsolete supplies. During the summer, Jack started clearing away the years of debris and found an upright bass under a pile of boxes and old sheet music. I played electric bass, and he knew I had been looking for a stand up fixer upper. He hinted that it needed repair and that I should come pick it up before he had it hauled away.

What I found was a 1965 Kay S-1 Swingmaster, and I can't see any reason why I wouldn't just call her Kay. She was in pretty rough shape. If I had to guess, I would bet that some careless student let the post slip out from under her, and she fell backwards, catching the peghead on the way and breaking her neck at the block.

Someone, perhaps the guilty party, made a valiant attempt to put all of the pieces back together again, but failed. Based on the materials used, I would guess that this bass saw less than 10 years of playing time before she was permanently stored. To repair the crack, the previous repair technician removed the fingerboard and drilled a 5/16 hole straight through the neck block to accommodate a threaded rod. On the heel side, he or she countersunk a hole to receive a washer and nut. On the front of the neck they drilled through the fingerboard to access the rod, and installed another nut and washer. He or she would then tighten the two nuts against each other to bring the crack back together.

I tightened the nuts and tested the repair. Despite his or her best intentions, a single bolt was not enough to stabilize the neck, and I suspect that the repair tech never reattached the fingerboard. The neck block would need to be reglued if I wanted to get Kay back on her feet.

       

After unthreading the nut from the fingerboard side, the neck was extremely loose, but wouldn't let go completely. There were still some sections where the glue was holding, so I started running strips of sandpaper down through the crack and along the shoulders of the dovetail. Little by little, the neck wiggled more and more until, after a nice rinse with warm water and a few gentle taps with a mallet, I could pull it free.

 

In several places, the original hide glue had not made good contact with all of the surfaces and crystallized without creating a bond. All of this would need to be cleaned up before I could start my own glue up. Using hot water, shop rags, and sponges, I started soaking the old glue and scraping it away with various chisels, putty knives, and other assorted scrapers. In the process of scraping the mess away, I discovered what I believe to be two original factory shims made out of mahogany on each side of the neck block. Apparently, the original neck to body fit left a little to be desired, and I found it necessary to replace them with shims of my own later on.

 

With everything clean up and scraped away, it was time for the re-set. The section of the heel that was still attached to the body was solid, but I still needed to fill all of the voids around the dovetail. Once this was dry, I started the reset. Using the original strings as a guide, I aligned the neck as best I could. Kay is a full figured gal, and easily oversized my work area. To keep the neck positioned correctly, I clamped the headstock to a piece of 1x4 pine propped up on the floor. With everything set and secure, I let the glue cure for 48 hours.

I was pleasantly surprised that the glue up was solid, stable, and aligned, so I began sanding the remaining glue residue off both the neck surface and back of the fingerboard. It is a beautiful piece of ebony, blemished only by the well performed but obvious plug that once concealed  the failed bolt through repair and a stain from what must have been a round garage sale sticker. Once clean, I generously glued the surfaces and clamped them back together using masking tape to align the edges.

 

  

In addition to the traumatic neck injury, Kay's soundpost was rolling around loose inside of her belly. The years of string tension and improper storage caused the top to cave. With some measure of finesse, I was able to roll Kay around enough to grab her soundpost, and using a series of longer and longer wedges, was able to lift the top enough to reposition it.

          

After allowing another week for the bass to condition, I reinstalled a single string at a time over the course of the next few days. Kay had been unaccustomed to normal string tension for quite some time, and I wanted to ease her back into service gently. A week later, I slowly tuned her to pitch, allowing it to fall naturally and be retuned over the next day. A month or so later, Kay plays well and intonates better than my novice fingers can play her. She's still a little rough around the edges, bit I don't mind the added character at all. My wife was kind enough to present me with lessons for Christmas, and I hope to start next week. This was a fun and challenging repair, and Kay isn't finished yet. We've got to replace a bridge and install a pickup too!

 

The Camo Caster

Custom Double Neck Strat Kit Build

On the bench today, (and for quite a few days) we have what I'm calling "The Camo Caster."  Local musician, Michael Morales, plays with Group Therapy, and has always wanted a double neck, but has been more comfortable playing Fender style guitars than the usual Gibson.  Given the rarity of 6/12 Fenders and the potential cost of a custom "from scratch" build, Michael found a 6/12 kit on eBay.  Before I cold get my hands on it, he had a custom camo graphic Hydro-Dipped over the body, the back of the necks, and pickguard.  Here's what it looked like when I got it:

Regardless of how you may feel about camo and guitars, the pattern is both unique and striking.  From a tonal standpoint, I have some concerns about dipping the wooden body of a guitar in a chemical emulsion and then sealing those chemicals into it with vinyl printed material. I worry about the long term stability of the body and neck integrity in this state as well.  When Michael brought it to me for initial inspection, we talked about all of these concerns.  This is simply a guitar he always wanted to see built and play, and since I'm excited to help someone pursue a guitar dream, I hopped aboard.

Early in the design process, Michael decided that he wanted the stock chrome hardware switched out for black, the stock single coils switched to blackout or blade style humbuckers, and a general upgrade where possible to any integral components.  It took a few hours of searching and shopping, but after several emails of confirmation, we had the parts ordered and on the way.

While I waited for the parts to arrive, I focused on the biggest concern with the kit quality, the neck.

At first look and feel, I could tell that there was something wrong with the finish on the fingerboards.  It's difficult to feel from the photo, but they felt like sandpaper.  Michael is uncertain if this is a result of the Hydro-Dip or they way the necks came out of the box.  Personally, I suspect the latter.  In short, the necks were unplayable.  There are other examples of quality issues aside from the the roughness of the finish. The black smudge seen next to the dot position marker is the epoxy they used to either fill the hole or attach the plastic dot inlay.  There were several of these on both necks, all below the finish. 

Since budget was a concern, we decided to forgo a complete tear down of both necks for a respray.  With the knowledge that new necks might be in this guitar's future, Michael requested that I do my best to refinish the fingerboard with the frets on.  Not the best situation, but I had an idea.

The radii of both necks is a whopping 20" so I cut an arc across a scrap piece of 1/4" cherry and made myself sanding forms.  From there, I needed to sand with the grain in between the frets until I could get down to a level where the grit was gone.  I started with 220, worked my way up to 600, and then sprayed everything down with several coats of semigloss clear lacquer.  After some debate and at least one attempt to mask off all of the frets on both necks, I decided to spray over them all, and polish the lacquer off after.  

You'll notice at the end of the headstock, some of the Hydro-Dip chipping off.  At edges and drilled holes, the graphics wrap is very sensitive. These happened while I was screwing in the tuner backs.

The fingerboard issues aside, the rest of the hardware went in without a hitch.  I had some concerns about finding correctly sized replacement parts, but with the exception of one screw in the 12 string bridge, all of the chrome hardware was easily replaced with black.  For the 6 string neck, we went with black OEM six in line tuners, but since the 12 string neck lacked a string tree or 17 degree headstock tilt, I chose Wilkinson EZ lock tuners, hoping that the upper and lower hole design would help keep the strings better set in the nut.  Man! That was a lot of tuners!

 

Here's a pic with everything bolted on:

Once everything was in place, I could turn my attention to the electronics.  Aside from being white covered single coils, the OEM pickups were extremely low output, measuring 3.7K at the hottest.  Since our goal on the 12 string neck was something similar to a vintage Rick, we found 7K Kent Armstrong Dual Blades with closed covers, and to give Michael a "hot rod strat vibe" on the 6 string, we went with 8.9K Kent Armstrong Dual Blades.  After resizing the pickup routes and screwing everything in, it looked pretty cool.  I dig the stealth vibe.

The manufacturer's wiring diagram was a sketchy at best, but from what I could determine, all 3 pickups on the 12 string side were to be summed together at a volume control on the 12 string side of the pickguard before being sent to a tone control on the 6 string side.  This led me to the discovery of 2 issues.  The first and most concerning, was that there would be no way to choose an individual pickup.  To be honest, I haven't had a lot of experience with 3 pickup configured 12 strings, (has anyone?) so I wasn't sure if having all 3 pickups on at once would be normal.  I decided that they should be switchable, and after some discussion with Michael, reconfigured the control layout.  The 12 string pickups are switched via a 3 way mini toggle at the original 12 string volume knob location, then sent to a volume knob on the 6 string side of the pickguard where it shares a master tone control with the 6 string neck.  The 6 string pickups are selected at a traditional 5 way switch, go through a volume, and on to the master tone.

The connection between the two control cavities was a scant 1/8" hole.  Not only was it grossly undersized for even the OEM supplied wire, but wiring through this hole would mean that you would have to unsolder the connection between the two sides every time you needed to service or change the electronics!

After talking things through with Michael, I decided that routing a channel between the sides would be the best solution.  In truth, when it was time to mount the pickguard to the body, I wished I had routed the whole thing.

All of the upgraded components were more robust that their OEM counterparts, leading to more space issues within the control cavity.  I was able to squeeze in 2 Alpha volume controls, but the tail end of the route lacked the room for anything but the OEM tone control.  Regrettable, but unfortunately, necessary.  The new Switchcraft 5 way switch also posed a problem.  This time, depth was the issue.  You know you're having a bad day in the shop when you have to get the router back out after everything has already been wired!

After the wiring process was complete, it was time to move on to the final set up.  I started running into problems right away with the neck angle of the 6 string.  The neck pocket was routed deeper as it ran away from the body causing the strings to fret out above the 9th fret.  Almost 3/16 of an inch of shimming was necessary to correct the problem.  To add to the difficulty of establishing a playable instrument, several of the frets were improperly set and needed to be hammered down.

The neck pocket for the 12 string was much better, but a lack of foresight in the headstock design failed to apply enough downward pressure at the nut for the two center courses of strings. I hate to think of how much worse this problem could have been with out the 2 hole Wilkinsons.  To correct the problem, I filed the nut slots down as far as I dared and hoped for the best.  I'm going to suggest that Michael have me install a Floyd Rose Retainer Bar behind the nut to help keep the strings in place.

Once I worked out all of the kinks, the Camo Caster turned out like this:

 

Look closely at the picture above.  The cracking and caving in of the body behind the 6 string bridge was almost unnoticeable when I began working on this guitar.  I cant say for sure if this is just a weak spot in the wood, or if it's a reaction to the chemical process the body went through.  Either way, I have some concerns about the longevity of this body.

 

Despite the problems, Michael is happy with the way the Camo Caster turned out, and it certainly wasn't just another guitar project for me.  Thanks for reading!  Now go play something!

Mr. Black Eterna Shimmering Reverb Review

FINALLY:  THE ETERNA!

My Review of the Mr. Black Eterna Shimmering Reverb.

I've avoided reverb for years.  I guess it's always reminded me of that processed and isolated sound of the 80's, but I have been craving a little more space around my sound as of late and after some thoroughly enjoyable "research", I settled on the Mr. Black Eterna Shimmering Reverb.  The video review can speak for itself, (or not... Sorry about the narrative.  I recorded everything with my iPhone) but the Eterna starts where most reverbs end and goes bigger and more ethereal from there. This ain't no spring tank!  I was cautioned by a user that the shimmer function is best used in small doses, and I understand his concern.  The shimmer brings in organ-esque upper harmonics that take over the sound pretty quickly as you dial them in.  I personally like that function.  It's almost like having a pedal for GIANT reverb tones and a super cool faux organ simulator.  Check out the video for more tones and info.  Enjoy!

Bass Precision

Tracking Down a Buzzing A String

 

On the bench today, we've got a contemporary U.S. made Fender P-Bass. Local Grand Rapids musician, Tim Hamm, contacted me earlier in the week about tracking down a buzz he was noticing on his A string.

Getting the right action, relief, and intonation on a bass is tricky.  Bigger strings need a greater distance to travel in their vibrating ellipses above the fingerboard and the 34" scale imbues a greater amount of stress on both the neck wood and truss rod, so I immediately assumed the bass just needed a set up.  It was after Tim affirmed that he heard the unpleasant overtones when the string was played unfretted that I began to think the nut might be the one getting it's buzz on.


Check out the following video.  You can hear the A buzzing away until I apply some pressure to it behind the nut. It's a pretty simple test you can do yourself if you're trying to track down some unwanted vibrations.

After test playing the bass, I was about 90% certain the trouble was in the nut, but once I slackened the strings and pulled them aside I could actually see what was happening.  Tim had switched from D'Addarios to DR Black Diamonds, and lucky for me, the black coating left an imprint, visually demonstrating how each string was making contact in the nut slot.  It's a little hard to see in the photo, but the E, D, and G strings all showed a nice solid line in each slot, indicating good contact.  The A, however, left 3 distinct points of contact on the sides and bottom of the slot.  A tone killer for sure.

Once I saw this, I set about reshaping the slot with my nut files.  Since cutting the slot too wide or too deep would necessitate an entirely new nut, I sneaked up on this one by degrees.  After a couple of tries, I had it.  No more zzzzzzzzzzzz on the open A.

I also noticed that the bass had an excessive amount of neck relief.  Check out this picture of the 12th fret area when I set my old 32" level across the frets.  Keep in mind that the level is resting on the crown of the first and last frets here.  Major back bow.  Upper fret access would definitely be uncomfortable at this string height.

A good way to understand neck relief, truss rod adjustment, and playing action is to imagine a fishing rod that's been reeled all the way up so that the hook is caught on the last eyelet.  When pulled taught, the line (the strings) creates a bow in the rod (the neck.)  The tighter you reel in the line, the more the rod bows and the greater the distance between the line and the rod. On a guitar or bass, this is the neck relief, otherwise described as the action of the neck.  Tightening the truss rod helps counteract this tension mechanically, by bowing the rod into the opposite position.  Unfortunately, time and tension almost always win in the case of a 34" scale bass, and the rod eventually begins to weaken, leading to a permanent back bow and eventual unplayability. 

A technique I learned a few years ago "pre-loads" an up bow (negative relief) into the rod when it isn't under tension.  When the strings are tuned back up, the truss rod gets pulled back to straight, and the action can be adjusted much lower.  I recommend it for every single bass and apply it to my basses at every string change.

This is exactly what Tim's P-Bass needed, and after I was done, the playability was greatly improved!

Here's couple more pics from the repair session:

 

I did notice something unusual about the treble side fret ends.  Check out the pic.  It almost looks like there was tear out when the fret slots were cut and the voids were filled with some sort of epoxy.  I've never seen anything like this before.

 

I suppose a lesser company would have just left the gaps, but then again, why was there tear out in the first place?  If anyone else has run across this, please let me know.

Bridging the SG

Installing a WrapAround Tailpiece on an SG 

On the bench today we have a DIY (almost) bolt neck SG clone belonging to Mike from the band, Romance for Ransom. He's planning on doing most of the work himself, but chose wisely to have a pro install the bridge. Here's how it looked before I got started:

 

SG's always  have a special place in my heart because I was a huge Angus Young fan when I was a kid and still haven't heard anyone heavier than Tony Iommi, so I had pretty high hopes when I saw the antique natural finish on Mike's axe.  Here's hoping it turns out like this when he's done:

 

When I flipped it over to remove the strap button, I noticed something was a little off with the neck set.  If you check out the left picture, you can see that the bass side screw isn't completely set like the treble side screw on the right.  All four screws seemed to be tight and since resetting the neck wasn't something I had been contracted to do, I left well enough alone.  Bolt neck construction is certainly easier than set neck, but it still takes a little practice and finesse to get everything just right.

 

Despite the depth issues, the neck was aligned properly with the body, and after masking off the top I used a straight edge to make some reference marks on the body. (Tough to do with one hand!)

Now it's time to mark a line parallel to the nut.  On a 22 fret guitar with a 24.75" scale, Stew Mac's fret calculator says drill the holes at 24.81 inches from the nut.  I measured it out with my straight edge, laid it out along the neck, and came up with this:

 

From there, it was just a matter of finding center and then carefully marking out the 82 mm centers for the posts.  

 

Here's a shot of my spacing dry run.  Dig that grain on that Spruce Topped 2x6!! (lol)

Can't tell you how much my new lighted optivisor helps out in these kinds of close tolerance situations.  Now... all marked out and ready to drill.

Very happy with lack of chipping on these holes.  Masking tape helps, but nothing beats a good sharp bit!

The tricky thing about installing a bridge from scratch is that the posts which accept the height adjustment screws are both tapered and knurled so that they fit snug and can't back themselves out.  These are drilled just big enough to receive the thinner section, but the rest of the insert needs a little persuasion.

No customer wants to hear that you needed to use a 22 oz. hammer on their guitar, but with a few gentle taps, the studs fit nice and tight.

 

Once these are set, it's all down hill from here.  Just slide the bridge in place and tighten things down.  Looks pretty sharp!