2 repairs, 1 job

A Fender CN-210 SCE Natural and a Yamaha AEX 500 N were brought to me together; The owner desired a lower action on both, re-stringing with Hannabach light tension strings, and the fitting of new nickel-coloured Schaller Lyra tuners -- same on both guitars.
Although the action and tuners on the Yamaha as they were, were quite good, the Fender had an almost unplayable action and unsatisfactory tuners.
So I first adjusted the action by loosening the truss-rod pull. On the Yamaha this was enough.
On the Fender, I had to lower the plastic bridge a little bit, and together with some truss-rod adjustment this was OK.
To fit both guitars with the Schallers, I had to fill the drill holes for the tiny screws that held the old tuners in place. This was done by clipping toothpicks to a fit, glueing them in with a run-of-the-mill powerglue, and sanding the protruding bits flush with the headstock. New drillholes were slightly prepared with a 1,5mm drill on my Dremel rotation tool.
The new low tension strings and tuners will help the owner play with a little more ease, like he wanted.

Renewing a Spanish Classical

A long-time friend brought me his second-hand Vicente Sanchis (Valencia) guitar to renew.

The fingerboard had some bad, deep wear-and-tear marks on it. I filled it up with nitro cellulose resin, mixed with some dark wood sanding dust.

I refreshed the frets and polished the hardwear, cleaned the guitar and fitted it with some Savarez strings.

The most interesting bit of this repair was probably what was inside of the guitar case; some very old "capodasters", packets of unused strings, and a Spanish train ticket (probably to Valencia?) stating "95 pesetas" on it... The guitar obviously has a bit of history and has come a long way!

Most importantly, it's light, plays brilliantly (almost Flamenco-guitar-like) and has a very descent sound for a semi-handcrafted, semi-assembly line guitar!

repair on a semi-acoustic nylon string guitar

A Fender CN-210 SCE was brought to me because the D-string had some string buzz. The problem was located at the top bridge or nut, where the string didn't fit properly into the slots. So I removed the strings, filed a better slot into the nut and fitted the guitar with new d4addario EJ46C hard-tension composite strings (owner's choice).

I had an old Admira Spanish classical guitar, with bad fretwork and a weathered bridge. For some time now, I wondered how a fretless classical guitar would play and sound. So I removed the frets, replaced them by some white veneer (maple) that I planed level with the existing fretboard. I cleaned up and lowered the bridge to suit the action (yet to be finished). Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

CA002 finished

The cajon that I built in a few days is finished. (photos available soon, my camera is out for the moment).

I conducted some different stringing experiments; after two trials with a set of guitar strings (2 wound, 1 plain) and one trial with a snare drum mat, I will now start building a nicer, slimmer, lighter version with the traditional system of three unwound guitar strings cutting through the two high corners of the 'tabla' (sound board). This cajon, CA003, will be a real, playable and polished instrument.

(CA001 is an unfinished box that I've had standing around for some time - it was too heavy so I started on CA002 instead)

More photos of the cajon CA002

Side project: cajon CA002

For some time now I've wanted to construct a CAJON, a South-American percussion instrument also much used in flamenco and gypsy music. It's a fairly easy instrument, in that it's in fact merely a "box" on which you sit. The space between your legs is the "head". Hitting it near the upward edge gives a sharp, short sound with attack, hitting it nearer the middle of the board gives more of a bass sound, hollower and longer. A few strings are strung inside the box, so that when you hit the head it leaves a short singing of clattering strings (like the snare drum of a modern drum kit).

Many different ways of construction and stringing are available on the internet, but there's no standard so some freedom is acceptable. So I started out three days ago with my own design and today it's all but finished. Here are some photos, a description of how I did it is coming up.