Search found 22 matches

by Michael McBroom
Mon Jul 15, 2019 3:30 am
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting my Ibanez ES-175 Clone
Replies: 6
Views: 5418

Re: Refretting my Ibanez ES-175 Clone

It's been a while since I've updated this repair, so I thought I'd bring y'all up to the present. It's been an ordeal that I'll not soon forget. I bought a few StewMac items, including a 12" radius caul, one of their handy little fret saws for dealing with a fingerboard with binding installed, ...
by Michael McBroom
Mon Jul 08, 2019 6:51 pm
Forum: Jam Session
Topic: Accuracy
Replies: 10
Views: 10732

Re: Accuracy

This is a claim I certainly wouldn't make, even though I use a milling machine with tolerances of 0.001" in my builds. There is one specific operation where I take 0.020" off the front edge of the fingerboard to help with intonation. I am glad to have my milling machine for this one step b...
by Michael McBroom
Mon Jul 08, 2019 3:58 am
Forum: Solid-Body and Chambered or Semi-Solid Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars
Topic: Bending Wood Bindings
Replies: 10
Views: 12466

Re: Bending Wood Bindings

I build classicals plus one steel string acoustic I built for myself that has a Venetian cutaway. Because of my builds, I have used only wood binding on my guitars. I've built guitars from a variety of back/side woods, however, and I find that the species of wood makes a big difference as to any sor...
by Michael McBroom
Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:31 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting my Ibanez ES-175 Clone
Replies: 6
Views: 5418

Re: Refretting my Ibanez ES-175 Clone

Barry and Freeman, thanks for your responses. Freeman, honestly I don't think anyone was trying to make a compound radius, reason being that some of the areas on the fingerboard resemble a 12" radius with too much taken off the edges, which ended up approximating a 9.5" radius. Or that's m...
by Michael McBroom
Sat Jul 06, 2019 1:32 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting my Ibanez ES-175 Clone
Replies: 6
Views: 5418

Re: Refretting my Ibanez ES-175 Clone

I've been building guitars since 2004, and I do all my own work. During this time, I've also done fret jobs on a variety of guitar types, including refretting them. I've just never run across one before that was in such poor shape. Which is why I decided to mention it here at all. You see, my goal i...
by Michael McBroom
Fri Jul 05, 2019 1:55 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting my Ibanez ES-175 Clone
Replies: 6
Views: 5418

Refretting my Ibanez ES-175 Clone

The Guitar is a 1977 Ibanez 2355M, looks like some sort of deluxe Gibson ES-175 with flame maple all over. It's in great cosmetic and electrical condition, except for the fingerboard. The old frets had been filed down so far that only about half the original height was left, and they hadn't even bee...
by Michael McBroom
Sun Jun 23, 2019 3:34 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Re: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

I'm sooooo confused! OK, never mind about my above question. I ordered the LMI binding because they offer free shipping whereas Stewmac wanted to ding me for $10. But will I mess with making nib putty from it? I don't knooooooow!
by Michael McBroom
Sun Jun 23, 2019 1:45 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Re: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

OK, got a hopefully simple question about binding. My guitar's gonna need "cream" binding. StewMac sells "plastic" cream binding and LMI sells cream ABS binding. Is ABS gonna present a problem when trying to liquify it with Acetone? I guess I should probably go with StewMac's sin...
by Michael McBroom
Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:39 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Re: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

Yes, I'm aware of this. Just about everything on an old instrument turns yellow with age. But I'd describe the color of my guitar's binding as slightly off-white. It hasn't yellowed much at all. Well, I have a can of acetone. So I guess I should order an off-white stick of binding and give this bind...
by Michael McBroom
Fri Jun 21, 2019 9:44 am
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Re: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

Mark, I've had some more time to think about your comments. And now, I'm not as convinced as I was before. Reason? Well, it occurs to me that whenever a refret is done, the new frets are pretty much always gonna be taller than the old ones. So it isn't just a matter of deciding on noticeably taller ...
by Michael McBroom
Thu Jun 20, 2019 8:22 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Re: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

Oh well, Mark, as long as you do a good job, and deliver to the player a guitar he wants, that's all one can expect. I have a newer Ibanez also -- an AG85, which is also a jazz guitar, but has a smaller box, something like the George Benson models. It's a 2004 model and I've owned it for about six y...
by Michael McBroom
Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:02 am
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Re: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

Barry, this Ibanez 2355M might not be worth as much as the equivalent Gibson, but to Ibanez aficionados, it is most definitely collectible. I'll bet that if you were to ask these collectors whether the nibs should be preserved, they'll say absolutely.
ibanez_2355m_0a.jpg
ibanez_2355m_2a.jpg
by Michael McBroom
Wed Jun 19, 2019 11:18 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Re: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

.032 is not terribly low for guitars like this. I don't believe the original wire was much more than .036. Its a feel that is appreciated by some including myself but not by others. I'm one of the "others." I prefer tall frets, especially if I'm playing with heavier strings that I intend ...
by Michael McBroom
Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:25 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Re: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

Hah! That blog article was a hoot! And I guess it helped put things in perspective. Yes, I wanted to keep originality, if at all possible. But since the consensus seems to be that even experienced repair techs aren't willing to take on this repair, I guess I should just let the nibs go then. I have ...
by Michael McBroom
Tue Jun 18, 2019 5:37 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding
Replies: 27
Views: 16661

Refretting a Guitar with "Contoured" Binding

I'm not sure what this style of binding is called. It's the binding you see on almost all Gibsons where the binding is contoured so it matches up with the frets, has that little bulge that matches each fret, and sits above the rest of the binding. The guitar is a 1977 Ibanez 2355M, one of Ibanez's &...
by Michael McBroom
Thu Nov 28, 2013 7:43 am
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: California reset to a thinline Ibanez AE405TV pondered
Replies: 6
Views: 5141

Re: California reset to a thinline Ibanez AE405TV pondered

A turnbuckle requires 2 threaded rods--one with normal, right-hand threads, the other with left-hand threads so that when you spin the turnbuckle the rods will either be pulled together or pushed apart. Yeah, this is what I was remembering -- it has to have one left-hand threaded rod to work. I was...
by Michael McBroom
Wed Nov 27, 2013 6:57 am
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: California reset to a thinline Ibanez AE405TV pondered
Replies: 6
Views: 5141

Re: California reset to a thinline Ibanez AE405TV pondered

Thanks for your response, Chuck. Strange, I don't even recall reading Michael's post. My eyes must have jumped over it without even taking it in. Yes, I guess I must reluctantly agree with yours and Michael's analyses. It's a shame -- this is actually a sweet sounding guitar. I absolutely refuse to ...
by Michael McBroom
Mon Nov 25, 2013 5:29 am
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: California reset to a thinline Ibanez AE405TV pondered
Replies: 6
Views: 5141

California reset to a thinline Ibanez AE405TV pondered

Folks, About a year ago or so I posted a question about how to proceed with a neck reset with this guitar, an Ibanez AE405TV. Here's a link to that thread, which includes pics of the guitar: http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1539&p=13825&hilit=ibanez+ae405tv#p13825 I have bee...
by Michael McBroom
Thu Nov 01, 2012 2:27 am
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Ibanez AE405TV -- Neck Reset or . . . ?
Replies: 7
Views: 7315

Re: Ibanez AE405TV -- Neck Reset or . . . ?

Well, thanks for the advice, guys. Actually, after giving the guitar a closer examination and giving it some more thought, I've come up with an idea very close to Jeffrey's -- about cutting off the neck and converting it to a bolt-on. And for pretty much the same reasons, although I was unaware of t...
by Michael McBroom
Sun Oct 28, 2012 9:50 pm
Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
Topic: Aria A558 Classical Bridge replacement
Replies: 12
Views: 10502

Re: Aria A558 Classical Bridge replacement

Michael McBroom wrote:I recommend that you try building your own saddle.
Whoops, I meant "bridge," not saddle.

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