And it's arrival, Not without
incident
Damage to shipping box,
about a 3" gouge
No damage to case at all
The pieces were all the way
to the top of the case.
Im floating in some thin cyano,right at the edge to work my way across.
Pressing the first area and I'll hit it with the accelerator
First piece down
Add in two back pieces at once
Fill the void with Thick cyano
then
grind it smooth with a small
burr.
Insert the last two binding pieces
Grind the inside smooth
Smooth and stain the binding
Same for the inside
Whew! , I feel better!
Now back to the rest of the
story.
Disassembly
Now she will go off to the Plating Service and I will look into the rest of the resto.
Fret leveling
Crowning
Fixing what appears to be fractures from the last refretting
Cleaning Noel's ol' "Iguana
skin" from around frets with naptha.
Sanding the repair area
Blackened inlays to refill gravings
Polishing frets while that dries
Rim Scraping and ReLacquer
Removing the Star for proper fitting
The Star was lifting in several
place so I chose to remove it to get the routings cleaned of all intrusive
materials.
I used light heat to soften
the pyralin just a bit and began a slow gentle prising that took over an
hour to perform.
In a hurry?? Dont try this!
As I attempt to scrape off this
urethane finish,I
would like to state for the record that I do not like to work this hard
to remove a finish.
Its great for reasons that Lacquer
is not,but Lacquer is great for reasons that urethane isn't.
That's all I have to say about
that,except it will be refinished in traditional Lacquer!
Also some of the adhesive that
was squirted under the star to try and seal it was silicone.
Way bad choice, for future refinishs.You
can see it as I peel it out.
Fully sanded
One coat of sanding sealer
O.K. Noel, Here we go
I have deepened the relieved
area to compensate for the wood removal from the prior refinish
This star is .020 taller than
the old cutout and is also concave on two legs of the star so i will heat
it to 100 degrees and gently bend it with my fingers until it cools.
Then I laid in a thick cyanoacrylate
for the bonding as i am still apprehensive about silicone release from
the last attempted repair even though i am 90 percent sure I have it evacuated.
Then, I taped it from the tip
to the waist squeezing the excess in front of it.
I did this one leg at a time
gluing, then taping.
100 degree heat was again applied
to quicken the now sealed periphery.
Now,the bonding is complete and
appears to be a success so I will trim the little bit of "flashing" that
is part pyralin, part cyano.
It really went in well.
Then a coat of golden oak to
fade in the colors.
Observe, the light spots in
the lower left arm.
That is where either a belt
buckle wore thru ,or the previous sanding of this resonator before I started
it.
All of you "Artist" owners should
take note that this is a "veneer", not a solid sheet of flamed maple..
It is much better than before and with a dark walnut fade on the outside to come and then 8 coats of clear we should have a nice "save" on this piece.
As you can see the yellow is done,and now the star area must be cleared of all color and any high spots will show, and must be scraped.
All cleared and leveled
Now this is the color scheme
I want to use.
I have the contrast high, to
show the colors which will be faded in by light sanding and will have an
"airbrush look" about it.
Reassembly
Now that plating has returned,
I shall get cracking again,so the "boss" can have this baby back home in
Vermont!
I have all of the lacquer on
it and the rim assembly together with new plating and gold hooksets.
Final polishing on the resonator
Well,the one thing I forgot was
the filing of the old holes where the old Grovers were.
They had already been replaced,
but the holes remained.
I forgot that they had been
changed so I removed the finish on the back of the peghead and filled them
with a black epoxy.
Now I've sanded them smooth
and will re apply the finish.
Just a minor set back!
She has very good downforce on
a 5/8 bridge with a medium high action.
I will ask the boss what type
of action he prefers and set it accordingly.
I think a 9/16 3 footed Farquhar
or Emerson Bridge would be the ticket but not being plectrum "Savvy"
I will do the best I can and let Noel "tweak" it from there.
To me, it has alot of power
and is quite "crisp" in tone but it's the ears of the player that will
determine the final word .