Instrument/Amp/Studio Equip. Repair

Instrument/Amp/Studio Equip. Repair Instrument and amplifier repairs

Modifying a Hammond Model A organ to run without a Leslie or with the new Studio 12.
05/03/2021

Modifying a Hammond Model A organ to run without a Leslie or with the new Studio 12.

Repair and modification of a 1972 Fender Super Reverb. All the tubes except for two were bad and needed to be replaced....
07/09/2018

Repair and modification of a 1972 Fender Super Reverb. All the tubes except for two were bad and needed to be replaced. Tested all electrolytic capacitors and replaced the bad ones. Modified the bias control and power section back to "Blackface" specifications. Now it's a great sounding vintage amp.

Resurrecting a 1973 Fender Silverface Vibrosonic chassis. I thought the chassis had a lot of usable parts but found out ...
12/07/2017

Resurrecting a 1973 Fender Silverface Vibrosonic chassis. I thought the chassis had a lot of usable parts but found out that pretty much all of the pots had to be replaced. Installed new US made transformers. All new k***s, tubes, etc. I also modded the amp back to Blackface specs which includes adjustable bias instead of the balance control. I also modified the amp so that both channels feed the Reverb and Vibrato effects.

A fret job on a 1962 Fender Stratocaster. They were worn down with deep grooves in most of the frets. Standard fret jo...
05/26/2017

A fret job on a 1962 Fender Stratocaster. They were worn down with deep grooves in most of the frets. Standard fret job done with care as to not damage the neck.

This is a 1956 Gibson LG-3 that had multiple problems. The frets were worn down to nothing. The bridge had been replac...
05/26/2017

This is a 1956 Gibson LG-3 that had multiple problems. The frets were worn down to nothing. The bridge had been replaced with a Martin style bridge which was lifting. The intonation was off a bit. Removed the bridge which revealed that the bridge had been replaced multiple times. Previous to the Martin-style bridge, it had a 60's B-25 style adjustable bridge installed which created more holes under the bridge. The bridge-pin holes had been relocated when the Martin-style bridge had been put on. Feeling the underside of the top, it felt like the bridge plate was in two parts. After removing the two pieces I found that the original bridge plate, installed in the factory, was misaligned with the original bridge. The original bridge-pin holes were on the very edge of the bridge plate. Then when the Martin-style bridge was installed another piece of wood was glued in for the relocated bridge-pin holes. A mess! The original bridge was a straight bridge both front and back.
I created from scratch a Gibson reverse style ebony bridge to put on the guitar. I made it wide enough to cover any intonation problems. I drilled bridge pin holes to match the original bridge, which I found out later were a bit off in the factory. Repaired holes in the top with spruce scrap. Removed the bridge plate pieces and made and installed a new bridge plate. Glued on the new bridge. Once the bridge was on I was able to mark the correct location to slot the bridge for the saddle. Slotted the bridge and started putting everything back together. Made need adjustments to the saddle, new frets, etc.

This is an old 1962 Martin 000 acoustic guitar that was brought to me with the bridge coming off. A few years previous ...
05/26/2017

This is an old 1962 Martin 000 acoustic guitar that was brought to me with the bridge coming off. A few years previous the owner had glued the bridge down in the wrong place and in a very amateur fashion. Also the first five frets were badly worn, while all the others seemed fine. The bridge came off pretty easy and revealed that the bridged had been glued to the lacquer finish on the top. It was done like this at the factory! It is usually standard practice to tape off the area for the bridge (or install it first) before spraying the lacquer finish. The bridge was actually in good condition and did not need to be replaced. I sanded off the finish at the bridge location then glued the bridge properly onto the guitar top. While that was drying I was able to remove the five bad frets and replace them with fret wire of a similar size. Filed them to match the original frets. When I put new strings on the guitar I checked fret height and nut slot depth and all looked good. Back to the customer.

An old Standel Imperial amp head came into the shop. It's one of the hybrid models with potted modules in the preamp an...
05/26/2017

An old Standel Imperial amp head came into the shop. It's one of the hybrid models with potted modules in the preamp and a tube power amp section. These are hard because the potted modules are different than the schematic available online. First, I found that the power supply had major incorrect modifications. Replaced capacitors and rewired correctly. Once that was fixed I was able to find that the Normal channel was working fine but the Vibrato channel was not. That problem was isolated to the Vibrato module. I had to slowly grind away the potting and compare it to the later schematic. I had to change transistor, capacitor and resistor values to make everything work properly. In the process I found the power tubes needed to be replaced and the phase inverter tube was the wrong value. Replaced the two-prong power cord with a regular three prong version. Put in an speaker impedance switch. Everything working then shipped off back to the owner.

Cleaned all the rust off the tuners. Had to rethread the one post and install a proper screw. Cleaned the nut. With s...
11/01/2014

Cleaned all the rust off the tuners. Had to rethread the one post and install a proper screw. Cleaned the nut. With strings on E, A, and D strings were buzzing on first fret after truss rod adjustment. Put Crazy Glue in the slots to build them up high enough to stop the buzzing. Cleaned the rust and other crud off the pickups. Some of the pickup adjust screws were rusted in place and had to leave them as-is. Cleaned rust off the bridge and got the roller pieces so they could rotate along the shaft properly. Cleaned the rust off the tailpiece. Cleaned the pots and the 1/4" jack. And done.

This is a minimalist repair of a 1962 Gretch Double Anniversary 6117. Rain leaked into the place where this guitar was ...
11/01/2014

This is a minimalist repair of a 1962 Gretch Double Anniversary 6117. Rain leaked into the place where this guitar was stored. There's nothing I can do about the fogging in the finish without a total refinish job. The client has minimal money so this is a labor-only job. Strings rusted off. Bridge is frozen with rust and pickups are rusted up as well. The pots and jack are in bad shape. The nut is covered with rust from the strings that rotted out. The tuners are rusted and one of them has some funky screw that doesn't even fit. Frets are badly worn but I have to leave them alone.

This is a restoration project of a '67 Gretsch 6118 Double Anniversary. This had been stripped previously and the bindi...
08/14/2014

This is a restoration project of a '67 Gretsch 6118 Double Anniversary. This had been stripped previously and the binding was deteorating. It had been decided previously to replace the rather anemic sounding HiLoTrons with the DeArmond Dynasonics. There is a previous picture of me glueing up the replacing binding on the body. I had to strip off the remains of the old binding and then create a replica by glueing strips together for the white-with-thin-black combination. The binding was glued in, then trimmed to fit the guitar. One of the hard parts is reproducing the two tone green that was originally on the guitar. Thanks to the people at ReRanch, I was able to get the correct colors. Sprayed the Smoke Green top and Cadillac Green back, sides, neck, and headstock. Then it was clear lacquer over all of that. Let it all harden for a couple weeks then buff out the body. Reinstalling the pots and switches is hard because I have to fish something down the hole and attach it to the pot/switch then pull it back up through the hole and secure it with its hardware before it falls back into the body. Then it's reattaching all the hardware. Sticky sandpaper is attached to the body where the bridge goes and the rosewood bridge bottom is sanded down to follow the curve of the body. Then make a new nut, string it up, and start making the needed action adjustments. And now the guitar is back to what it looked like originally, except for the pickups.

Here are a couple Oktava MC012 microphones that I modded for someone. Mods included resistor changes and FET/capacitor ...
07/28/2014

Here are a couple Oktava MC012 microphones that I modded for someone. Mods included resistor changes and FET/capacitor upgrade. After the mods, the mic turns from just an okay mic to an excellent sounding mic that sounds great on drum overheads, guitars, etc.

These are two Nady tube microphones that I modded to be U47 clones. One uses an EF14 tube, which is very close to the o...
07/26/2014

These are two Nady tube microphones that I modded to be U47 clones. One uses an EF14 tube, which is very close to the original, and the other uses and EF800, which is in the same general tube family. Pretty hard stuffing the EF14 in the short body, much easier with the EF800. The one with the EF14 has an M7 capsule made by BeesNeez, while the other has a K47 clone capsule made by Equinox. The original U47 circuit was recreated and the power supply was modified for the proper voltages needed. Installed the U47 style transformer made by Cinemag. Finished off with a hammered grey paint job on the bodies. Great sounding miss with interesting sound differences due to the component choices.

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