Russell Guitar Repair

04/21/2026

04/16/2026

ROTD: Replacing a broken truss rod in this ES-335TD. After removing the fingerboard and the maple strip covering the original rod, I replace the broken rod with the new one you see here. The maple strip next to the rod has a curved bottom matching the truss channel in the neck. Once installed, the strip will force the new rod into a curved shape that will straighten the neck when the truss nut is tightened.

10/13/2025

Check out our friend Brad davis and friends at Love and War in Plano next month. . .He is an elite musician and downright good dude!

Brad Davis & the Shredheadz | Shiner Sunday Series

10/08/2025

ROTD: Headstock breaks are a common problem with mahogany necks, and occasionally they are too severe to glue back together. In those cases we graft the headstock to the neck using a new piece of mahogany. Over the years crafting these mating blocks has evolved from a time consuming eyeball-til-it-looks-right job to one using better and sturdier jigs that hold the severed headstock during the fitting and gluing process. And with that belabored intro I present the head grafting jig 2.0, featuring a ball socket clamp that allows easy adjustment to the headstock orientation, attached to a sturdy aluminum square tube clamped securely to the neck.

09/01/2025

ROTD: This mass of wires is a "Jimmy Page" harness going into a Gibson 335. The four push-pull pots provide a combination of different tones: independent coil tapping, phase and parallel/series wiring, with this particular harness being modded with Gibson's 50's era tone pot wiring for a built-in treble bleed. The linear layout and abundance of zip-ties help with the always fun installation into the hollow body. The custom made aluminum wiring jig secures the components in place while bolted to the board below and can rotate 360 degrees for easy access to all sides of the harness during the wiring process.

08/14/2025

ROTD: Crisscross applesauce— creating equal downward and side forces to “seamlessly” re-glue a top to the side involves a combination of different clamps (and/or tape) layered around and on top of each other.

08/05/2025

ROTD: Despite best efforts to protect my bench covering, even marine-grade vinyl suffers from drops of glue, errant blades, drill bits, etc. and needs to be replaced once in a while.

07/18/2025

ROTD: Caption this photo:

07/11/2025

ROTD: Repairing a cracked switch cavity on this Dean Flying-V. The triangular caul creates two parallel clamping surfaces so the clamp won’t slide off, while the longer orange clamp keeps the caul itself from sliding out of position. The vertical metal clamp keeps the crack flush along the back.

07/10/2025

ROTD: Repairing someone’s DIY binding repair on a Guild acoustic guitar. The other side that I cleaned up already, was actually worse.

06/25/2025

ROTD: The neck block on this old patrician hollow body was completely separated from the top, back, and sides, which made taking the neck off really tricky. Even trickier was figuring out how to clamp it all back together. By pushing the neck block all the way into the body I was able to install a long bolt through the neck block via the bass side f-hole. After wrangling the neck block/bolt back into the correct position (don’t ask me how), I was able to use a bolt to clamp the sides to the neck block, while the quick clamps secured the top and back. The other clamps took care of the back separating from the sides and a split top.