Episode 2 – Stratotone, Highly Modified Les Paul, Epoxy Leak, Buzzy Strat, Marketplace Success

This week, I run through what’s on my bench—Stratotone gets a pickup upgrade, Guild X-175 receives a Bigsby, Kala U-Bass has balance issues, and more—plus recent Marketplace success and progress on a few personal projects.

Transcript

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Welcome to episode two of All Guitars Buzz, the weekly guitar-centric podcast that dives into a variety of topics, including guitar repair, building, what's on my bench, guitar news worth mentioning, customer stories, buying, selling, trading, along with existential philosophical ramblings. If this sounds like something you would be into, please stick around. We've had a lot of consignments rolling through the shop this week, uh, but a couple were very interesting. One was a 90s Les Paul with two control plates and a Bigsby. It was a black Les Paul, and this older gentleman brought him in. He said it's just time to let it go. And this thing was heavy. But right away, what struck everybody's interests were the two control plates on the back. Now picture this. There's one control plate exactly where it would be, and then mirroring that on the opposite side towards the upper bout of the guitar, was another one, like a mirror image. So two control plates. What is in the second one? So instantly um got out a screwdriver. I unscrew the first one, the normal one, where we should see uh pots and caps and stuff, and that's what was in there, but it looked funky in there, it looked like other things had been happening to the inside of that cavity. So then we open the second control plate. And what was in there? Nothing, absolutely nothing. However, it was clear now if you look inside the cavity and you look towards the left, and that would be towards um the top of the guitar, like where the neck is, it's like hollow and chambered on the inside and not factory. Okay, I'm trying to describe this guitar. Nothing about this guitar looks factory, at least from the inside. It looks like it had been hogged out. So the guitar, as I mentioned, was freaking heavy, and I think they were trying to make it less heavy. If I had to guess, I'd say it's at least 9.5. If I had to guess, maybe 10. You know, for today's standards, like that's a heavy guitar. And I have a 78 Les Paul custom that has been re-necked. That's a story for a different time, but that thing is heavy. It also has a Bigsby. And so this Les Paul, what was intriguing about it was uh towards the I'll say the strap button uh that's not by the three-way toggle, the one that's on the bottom of the guitar. Now, if you're to look in the cavity towards that strap button, you will see a plug in control cavity one and control cavity two. And if you look on the outside, you know, you can't tell, but it looks like it was crudely plugged. So I'm guessing it's been refinished too. You know, it's had a lot of stuff done to it. What was that plug uh doing there? We were looking and it occurred to me since inside it's been all chambered, uh, that somebody took, I don't know if this is the correct tool to do this, like a lathe and drilled a hole like through the guitar. They did that on both sides. Uh so they were trying to make it lighter and it didn't really work. This is something that I think about when you have a heavy guitar. For example, I put together a parts caster, uh telecaster, and it's been for sale at the shop for a while now, and I see people pick it up, and uh a lot of them will just put it right down, too heavy. It's at nine pounds, it's ash, and uh my co-worker made the body years ago, gave it to another one of my co-workers, and he gave it to me, and then I finally put it together. But it's a relict in all the right ways. It was white, now it looks yellow, it's super cool. I put a half telly guard on there, and there is a Bigsby, of course, but to relieve weight, I did a smuggler's route under the pick guard, and it really didn't do much at all. And I think if a guitar's heavy, you can do certain things here and there, but it's just gonna be heavy. However, to put my theory to the test, I may uh do some more routing on that telly. I think the thing that's stopping it from selling is the weight. Now I'm working on another telly that I made from scratch, and that body is chambered, super light. That's what anybody that's building guitars these days, I think, would shoot for if they're trying to sell it. And so this one was just a bunch of parts, and so I was working with what I had, and so given all that, I think I might go on reverb, and I saw somebody selling a template for a B-bender. I thought it would be cool to uh route out the entire upper bout on the back, if that makes sense. So uh on the lower bout of the telly, there's a smuggler route under the pick guard. On the upper portion, I'm thinking on the back, that and it pretty much the template spans across the entire back that I'm gonna route it out for a B bender that's not there, and I'm gonna cover it with a control plate that's probably gonna match the pick guard material on the front, and that's just an idea I had. It's a smuggler's route at best, and if somebody buys it and down the line they want to put a B bender in it, they can. It's already routed for one. I may or may not do that. I have a lot of work and stuff I'm trying to do, and so I like that telly, and I play out frequently, so if it doesn't sell within the next, I don't know, three, four months, I might just take it back and play it a little. That's the way it goes. So, this older gentleman that brought in that interesting Les Paul also brought in a K late 50s up beat. If you've seen these, it's a big uh semi-hollow guitar, it might be all hollow. It has a big white, sparkly pick guard, and it's black. It really reminds me of the Chris Isaac model, but it's not, but it reminds me of, and it has a big Art Deco headstock, and man, that thing is super, super cool. These days I've really tried to limit myself and have some self-control over guitars, and man, that that's a real test because that's right up my alley. I love the old K's and silver tones, and you know, they never play right, but they always have the coolest pickups, and uh yeah, super cool guitars. So, what have I been up to? Well, uh there was a Fender Pro that was rehoused in like a new cab, and I shellacked it, and it turned out really good. What I wound up doing is to prevent the shellac from being too thick and kind of getting clumpy, uh, I cut it with isopropyl alcohol, and when you look that up, it says to use denatured alcohol. All I had was isopropyl, the same stuff you'd have in the house. So I used that. It worked good. It made uh the shellac pretty um, you know, close to kind of water type consistency, maybe slightly thicker. It tends to thicken up as it dries, but I was just careful on how I brushed it on, and I tried to do it even. If you go too much in one spot, it gets a little darker. So, but it turned out fantastic. Everybody was stoked when I brought it in, which made me feel good. So I got that done. Um, I have a funny story about a guitar that I was doing something to that didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Um, but everything's fine. Uh so it's I call it a service men's guitar, and that term originates from when service men or service people were overseas. I'm thinking like uh in the Philippines or elsewhere, and they would have a hankering for a guitar, and they would go to basically like a woodworker, or you know, I could have this story wrong. This is just my understanding. Maybe it's somebody that does this already, but they they commission some skilled person to make them a guitar, and they usually look like fenders, and they use parts that they just have lying around. For example, there was a three-way switch. This was a strat uh looking servicemen's guitar, and uh it had a three-way switch, but when you look inside, um, it is actually a rotary switch that they modified uh to have um like a uh I don't even if if I had it in front if I had it in front of me I could describe it a little better. But anyways, they just use what they have around to make as close as they can to what they're trying to copy a reality. And I've seen a few of them, and this one came in the shop kind of in way beyond repair, and it was gifted to me, and now I'm gonna do something crazy to it because I'm not a strat guy, but I do like Mustangs and offset guitar, so I have a vintage Mustang dynamic vibrato, and I have a high spirit bridge, and so I'm gonna put that on uh the strat style guitar. You should see this neck. I think the neck is made the body's made out of um what looks to be mahogany, and the neck looks like oak, no tress rod. The body's been stripped, but I'm guessing at one point it was black, and the headstock is black. There's a fender decal on there. It looks super cool. This guitar is like it's gonna be really rad. So when it comes to my guitars, never do this to a customer guitar, but for my own stuff, I like to use resin a lot of times to solve problems. So um, you know, I'm basically I'm getting rid of the strat style trim. And so I want to fill that cavity that um that the bridge went into, including the backside where the springs are. And so I glued, I super glued a veneer that covers where the bridge is, and then you flip the guitar over and you see the hole where the bridge was, where the block was, and then you see, you know, the cavity where the springs were. So within there, there's a few holes. There's the holes where the claw attached to, which I plugged, and then there are some holes where the bridge screws went through that attach it to the body. I thought I plugged those, and then the one that I missed came out of nowhere. It was where the ground comes off of the claw and goes into the cavity. And so I did my thing where I thought I short it up with super glue, and then I mixed some brown resin, and I started to fill the cavity. And I've done this before, and it turns out really good when you do it right. And so, but knowing that it has, you know, that it it could leak is um a little nerve-wracking. So, anyways, I poured the resin into the cavity and let it sit. Actually, I didn't let it sit. I immediately got out my torch and I was uh trying to pop the bubbles that were rising to the surface, and uh something looked funny with with the resin. It just was looking, I don't know, funky. And so I lifted the guitar up and it was just pouring out of the of somewhere at this point. I don't know where. And I really got bummed because I could see the top of the guitar had just resin epoxy. I was using total boat, just all over it, and my heart sank a little bit. Um, because I can deal with, you know, um a mistake, but ha having that harden and this guitar was stripped, but it had some sealer coat over the mahogany and and it looked aged and cool, you know, so I was bummed. But I instantly remember, I remember one time I asked uh one of my coworkers, uh, one one of the owners who's you know done that, done this for many years, I asked him, you know, what would we even use acetone for? Because I saw acetone was in the back shop there, and he said, well, it it removes um epoxy, like if you get it, get it on your hands. And I was thinking, oh, I was thinking, yeah, leave it to the um, you know, the old timers to uh you know to get epoxy off. You're just putting acetone, which I'm sure seeps into the skin, you know, wouldn't be good to do it a lot, but I, you know, anyway, so I took the the acetone and I have some in my shop and I never use it. And in this case, it hit me that I should put on some gloves, and I already had a full face mask and respirator on because that's just how I roll. And I got the acetone and I just was wiping it off the top of the guitar, and actually from inside the cavity, I just wanted it all out, you know. And so I put it in my guitar vise and I let it dry, and the next morning a little dribble had run down uh the back of the guitar, which I took a chisel and it actually kind of popped right off, which I was surprised. Um, but the inside, I guess this is kind of like a happy accident. The inside was coated with, you know, a thin coating of uh resin because I I didn't wipe it dry inside the cavity. I I left a little of the residue there. I was more concerned about just getting it off of the body. And so then I thought, what if it's really what if I did was inadvertently seal it? So I thought, is it watertight? I actually got water and I poured it into the cavity, and I lifted the guitar up high and I was waiting to see where water would come out from, and it didn't. So I dumped the water out, I I dried it all up, and it's just been sitting waiting for me to go for the second attempt. So that's gonna be a really cool project. Um my servicemen strat, and I'm hoping the neck doesn't have a truss rod, but it's made out of like oak. So I'm hoping that and and it's it's really a thick, kind of like, you know, it it feels pretty stable, and I'm I'm hoping that everything's all good. But if it's not, then um then that's that then. Moving on, uh, I organized a lot of screws, so I get a lot of uh I keep a lot of just random parts, and my co-workers, they know that I like to save screws and old jacks that they would just throw away. Even customers let me keep some stuff. I don't ask them for it, but I do all say, hey, your old stuff isn't the case, and some of them will say, I you know, I don't want that. Sometimes they'll just even give me a look, and I'll say, Well, well, I'll I'll take it if you don't want it, you know, and they'll say, Yeah, throw it away or keep it, whatever. So over the years, I've got a lot of just parts. I call it the parts department, but one thing that was really bothering me is I had um, you know, one of those uh like dollar store bins, it kind of looks like a shoebox, but plastic. I I don't even think they're a dollar anymore. They might be more like, you know, two or three dollars. But anyways, filled with just random screws. But the interesting thing is all these screws are guitar-related screws for the most part, and so um finally, after years, I thought, well, here's my chance to organize them, and it took me like a week. And Fender has a bigger screw head on their pick guard screws than some other companies, so I had a smaller head for like import. Even when you order from McMaster Car, if you order, if you figure out, you know, roughly what pick guard screws are. I think the head is usually a little smaller. So the fender ones were obvious because they had a big head, but also uh I'm just really a fan of as long as they're not stripped of like the rusted old, you know, I think it's cool to keep those screws for a project. Um and so yeah, I was just organizing those screws, and then uh for uh pickup rings on a less paul, those screws, they're really skinny, and uh, you know, there's like long ones for the rings close to the bridge, and then shorter ones for for the neck pickup rings, and you know, strap button screws and neck screws and uh bridge mounting screws and just all kinds of screws I I organized and you know I'm more of a a visual person, not really um you know, I use numbers when I have to, but when I'm trying to pick something out of a drawer or something, I I prefer to either have a picture or have words. That's just what I prefer. So I'll probably start labeling uh them next. I'll put you know fender pick guard screws and stuff like that. But yeah, I was really stoked just to get something organized. Sometimes it feels good to take some time, even though there's a million other things you could be doing, uh doing something like that that's for years, you know, like I don't know, six years. Just been accumulating that feels pretty good. And uh I've been having a lot of fun on my bench recently, so this is gonna be what's on my bench from last week. Some might bleed into this week, but uh kicked it off with a Martin HD 28. Uh the tag said setup. I didn't write up the tag, so I write up most of my tags, but there are days that I'm not there at the shop that uh repairs come in and they're assigned to me. So in this case was a Martin HD 28. And all it said was setup. And so, you know, this is when you're looking at the guitar and you don't have much to go off of, uh, I really like to try to get into the mindset of the customer, you know, why did he bring this in? You know, and you're just looking at everything basically. So I instantly noticed that there were 13s on there, which is standard for a Martin uh HD28, like a bluegrass machine. But then he was uh he wanted I think twelves or elevens, I think they were twelves, so just the regular gauge wanted those on there. I say regular gauge, but you know, with acoustic strings, the mediums are more like heavies and the lights are more like regulars, etc. Because there is no heavy. So I'd say like, I don't know, 85% of people play 12s, you know, on their acoustic guitar, steel string guitar. So I'm just you know evaluating it, I'm measuring the action, and as I'm uh tuning it up, I hear a creak in the nut. And you know, I note that I'm gonna open up that nut slot, lube it, and you know, that'll be one of the things I do. And so, anyways, the setup went good. The customer picked it up and he said, uh, did you work on that those nut slots? And so again, that wasn't in the repair tag at all. But, you know, uh every one of these guitars, it kind of I I like to try to get into the mindset of the customer, even though they're not there, but it's their guitar and it's a part of them. So you just kind of do some detective work and you try to figure it out. And even more so, what I like to do is uh note things that they didn't see, you know. I think that's really important. So yeah, so that Martin was a pretty good one. Um so there was a Charvel, and I posted this on my YouTube Shorts, but it had I replaced the trim bucker with another identical trim bucker. So the customer said, um, and this is kind of a classic thing, and we don't really charge for this, but they say it doesn't sound right. And so then you're taking your own time, and you figure, well, how much time can I spend on trying to diagnose something that they can hear that maybe I can't hear? But with my previous experience as a recording engineer and uh listening critically with my ears, I did notice for some reason, whatever reason, the trim bucker sounded a little like compressed or saggy or just funky. Um I looked under the pick guard, it was fine. So the customer said he would bring in a replacement, and he did, and I replaced it. I made sure the pickups were balanced and he liked it. At least he hasn't been back yet to say that wasn't it. So um yeah, I was pretty confident that I don't know if that pickup was just uh tired or maybe you know I I don't know how they're made in the factory, but each one is probably varies just a little bit, you would imagine. You know, I don't know. And uh the next guitar I had on my bench was uh PRS NF 53, like a telecaster, and it was white and it had the dog hair, it had the grain fill, and it had a top loader bridge. And this guitar was pretty cool for a PRS. I'm not a PRS guy. Um, you know, the joke is that all the doctors and lawyers play PRSs, but the truth of the matter is if I had a recording studio, absolutely I'd probably have a couple PRSs in there because they always play really nice and sound really good. These pickups were um a different shape, uh, and they sounded different. Definitely didn't sound like a telecaster, maybe in the middle, but it sounded more like GNL MFD pickups, just hi-fi sounding. Like the bridge, you could expect, uh, sounded like a bridge pickup, but it did have some chime and high end, and then when you kick it over to the neck, the high end kind you get bass, but the it's chimey. It's you know, that's very GNL for me. Um, so yeah, that was a nice guitar. Customer complained that the low E was buzzing, and it was, and it was one of the guitars that I just took around the world. I made the neck straight and raised the action, and it was still doing it, so then I gave it, you know, way more relief than I would, still did it, and then I gave it, you know, somewhere in between there, which again I would call straight, but probably like, you know, uh borderline straight, like seven thousandths relief in the middle of the neck, something like that, to where it's hard to see with your eye. If you were to sight down it, you you might say that it's straight, but in reality it does have a little relief. So that's what I did. I thought the top loader bridge was so cool. The customer said he actually wasn't sure uh how he felt about it. Um, but I really there's something special about top loader, like all the ball ends are attached to the bridge, and it's like the whole bridge vibrates, and that's kind of the telly thing to me with the uh three saddles is that you got two string, two strings on a saddle, saddle pulling, um, and that vibrates twice as much as if each string was on an individual saddle, and so those are not to mention the pickup is mounted on the bridge plate, you know. So there that's some special stuff about a telecaster. So um, yeah, anyways, it's a cool PRS. I did a bridge re glue on a cala U base. I remember when U basses came out, I I was at NAM, uh, I played one, I play the upright bass as well as guitar, and I was shocked at how good that thing sounded through an amp, these huge rubbery strings, how you know funky but cool at the same time that the instrument felt. And um this U base had steel strings, which I thought was interesting, but uh the main complaint of the customer was that the low E uh wasn't coming through as strong as the rest of the strings. Now, this is a common thing for U bases, and instantly pretty much all acoustic instruments I look at the bridge, and the bridge was starting to lift from the top. And so I told the customer, I said, well, the balance is one thing, we'll see what we could do, but you know, and in my head I'm thinking I might have to shim it or put a dab of super glue just on the base side, call that like a a tone, you know, a tone uh blob or bump of super glue, whatever you want to call it. Uh, you know, I'm thinking that in my head, but I'm I'm thinking that the the more serious thing is the bridge lifting. Now, these aren't extremely expensive uh instruments, so like the cost of repair. So I told them, I'm like, is it worth it to you um to re-glue this bridge? And they said yes. So my priorities shifted from re-gluing the bridge, and then we'll deal with the um pickup. And I actually had another uh piezo element under the saddle from another job that I didn't use, and uh we also have you know a bunch of fishman and LR bags, braids in stock, because uh we're a dealer for them. So, anyways, uh getting that bridge off was pretty difficult, and it was the Koa U base, and so when I finally got it off, and I I did use heat, uh the a little heat pad on top, and I loosely secure it with a C clamp. You can't tighten down too much, or you can't get your spatula in in there. So um, so I I got the bridge up and it was a plywood top. Man, that Koa veneer was like freaking, I don't know, ten thousandths, like crazy thin. And the whole thing looks like Koa, you know, so it wasn't high pressure lamb, but like it was uh special kind of apply. But anyways, uh I sanded the uh bridge down flat on the belt sander, and this is all just standard stuff with bridge re glue, and then you make sure and sand the spot real good where the bridge is gonna glue back on, and of course you score the outline of the bridge. Um if you know how to do this, then you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, anyways, uh there's nothing like gluing wood to wood, because a lot of time there's finish, they'll glue the bridge on top of finish. That's a big reason for why bridges lift lift up. Not the only reason, happens on Martin's all the time. But anyways, once that bridge was glued down, I reinstalled the pickup and the balance was fine. And I asked my uh my coworker buddy over there, I said, uh, hey, like the balance, it's back, and he said, Yeah, it's because the bridge bridge was kind of twisted and tilting when it was lifting and it wasn't making full contact. And I thought, oh yeah, that makes sense. So that was the caller. I uh did a setup on an Epiphone Crestwood Custom 66 walnut that went pretty smooth. I really like those pickups on that guitar. Um I did a uh I'm still working on it. It's a Harmony Stratatone, and I'm replacing the original pickup with a Lawler uh gold foil, mustache gold foil, and this guitar has a lot of issues. Um, the customer I'm do doing it for, super cool guy, repeat customer, and um I've done a lot of cool guitars for him, and we kind of share the same tastes when it comes to guitars. Love these old silver tones, K's, and old arch tops, and that kind of a thing. And so um, yeah, the neck has a lot of relief and no truss rod. I think it's all poplar guitar, and so um has a few high frets, so I'm dealing with that. I got the pickup in, I had to modify the pick guard um because the pickup was running into the pick guard and installed the new jack. There was no ground wire, there was never a ground wire there, so I added one, and yeah, I'm thinking I might finish that one uh tomorrow. I did a guild arch top. It is a 175 Manhattan, an X175 Manhattan, excuse me. It's a big old arch top for my buddy Joe, and uh it didn't come with a Bigsby, but we put one on, and not any Bigsby, a guild Bigsby. If you haven't seen those, they look super rad, and that turned out good. I had to plug a bunch of holes that were drilled for the many tail pieces that had been on there throughout its life. It's from the 70s, this one. And he had flats on it. Man, that thing sounded bright with the flats. You couldn't tell that there were flats on there, which is my dream because I love the feel of flats. I don't like how muddy they make a lot of the guitars I've put them on. A lot of people do like that, that's why they play them, especially jazz folks. But uh that guitar, oh man. Then I worked on a Kramer base with one of those aluminum necks it was in for electronics work, and um I did restring it and did a little setup work on it as well. I used to have one of those, not the exact model that I was working on, but I did have a Kramer base back in the day, and uh mine was super cool. It almost had looked like those pancake style pickups, and it they was embossed and it said cramer, and I remember the aluminum was always cold, and that was the same with this base. It's kind of cool. No truss rod, but it does have like a neck cant kind of adjustment. Um, but yeah, super cool blast from the past. And um that was what was on my bench last week and some of this week. Some funny customer stories for you. Ooh, it's that time. Um, there was this gentleman, and he brought his electro classical in for electronics work, not only electronics work, but a rush job. And so what we did for him is uh we spent a long time actually diagnosing and trying to fix, I think it was like a weird hum, like 60 cycle buzz, something ha happening there, you know, and so we uh fixed it for him next day turnaround. How do you like that? How do you like them apples? And uh the guy that fixed it wasn't there, but I uh got the guitar for him and was uh checking him out, you know, so to speak. And um I said, How do you like it? And he said, Oh, it's buzzing. And he wasn't talking about uh an electronical buzz, he was talking about like fret buzz. And I told him, you know, I always play the this is the thing, you gotta play your cards cool, you know, you gotta be nice. Um and uh so I'm telling the story, but you you could p just pit picture me uh just being really, you know, uh accommodating. And so that's just the the nature of this business. And so um I I checked it out and I said, okay, well it's uh yeah, it's you got some fret buzz, and I don't think he knew that I knew, but I know. I said, you know, this guitar wasn't in for any kind of setup work. In fact, we didn't do anything, these are even the same strings. Um but we did fix that buzzing, uh, that electrical buzz for you, and not only that, but we turned it around super quick. And he was like, oh yeah, he was like, no, it's it's it's quick. Yeah, he he said, but this, you know, I I'm I'm noticing this buzz now, and you know, you kinda if if I didn't know, and I have been in the situation where I've been out of the loop, and when you're out of the loop, you don't know really what it was. It's unusual that we do that we turn something around that quick anyways. So it it would have been, you know, I would have just been scratching my head, but um, but anyways, so I told told him the deal that uh you know that we were kind of backed up and if he wanted uh to leave it for a setup, we'd be more than happy to set up the guitar, and it would be X amount, and it'd be, you know, around uh two weeks or something like that. And uh he said, Oh no, no, uh, you know, I I need the guitar, I'll I'll just you know deal with it, you know, basically. And then uh, you know, I was feeling kind of chatty, and I said, you know, I said, where how long do you gotta play for? Or what's what's the gig? You know, why the fast turnaround kind of? And he's like, Oh, I'm playing this place, and uh, yeah, it's a few hours, and um, yeah, it just I can't have my guitar sound funny and stuff, which I can relate to. So I was telling him about, and I actually have a YouTube video about this guitar, it's called Acoustasonic, uh supersonic, or something like that, but it's basically a telecaster that uh has a Taylor expression system and a Graph Tech Ghost uh bridge, so it is um both acoustic and electric. And I was telling him that I play that's what I play sometimes for my gigs that I have to play just solo for hours, and and he said, Oh no, at the place I'm playing, I I I could never play a telecaster. I was like, Okay, all right. Um well, thanks for coming. Thanks for cool story, bro. And so uh yeah, that was one customer story for you. There was another one. This customer, I didn't work on the base, but it was a custom jazz base, and uh my coworker uh set it up, and it was from what he told me later on, it was kind of a it was not, you know, the best built custom base that a a lot of these custom jobs are like that, but but anyways, uh so he brought it back, and you can kind of tell when customers bring something back if like they're upset. And sometimes I don't know if he was like trying to be tough because he thought that I was gonna dismiss him, um, you know, like putting on a a front cut kind of or if um or if I saw it right the first time and he he really was genuinely like mad, you know. So one or the other, but he said my electronics isn't working on this base, and I brought it in for a setup, and when I brought it in, the electronics were working fine. So this is one you hear from time to time. It was fine before I brought it in, and you know, rarely, I'm talking, I don't know, a couple times a year. We like I said, I deal with so many people every single day that you know that's it's hardly worth mentioning, but it does happen sometimes. And again, you could either be in the loop or not in the loop. And uh all my coworkers are were pretty tight, and so that's a good feeling, good feeling of camaraderie. You know, we're all on the same team trying to do this job. Um, one of the the old timers, one of the own owners used to say that we're the pit crew, and I always thought that that was that was super cool because we we are. We're trying to do something quick and get it turned around and back out the door so musicians can play their shows, you know, or record or whatever they're gonna do. You know, that we're trying to make it the best we can for them with the time that we got, basically. So uh I approached the customer and I said, um I said, okay, well, um, you know, we wouldn't have uh touched, you know, the electronics at all, but let me take it to my bench and you know check it out. And so I took it to my bench, plugged it in, it was fine. And this is something you should all always do because as a guitar tech, guitar repair person, luthier, whatever you want to call it, um uh you know, the classic thing is it's doing it in the practice room, it's doing it at home. Then when I take it to my bench, it's not doing it. And I know this. So I wasn't gonna let, you know, it I wasn't gonna hand it back to him and say, it's fine. That probably would have really upset him based on, you know, uh how I thought he looked when he came in. And he it it was fine. I'm I'm just good at pick picking up on things because I've been doing this for a while. So anyways, I jiggle you grab the jack by the um the metal like sleeve part, or not the jack, you grab the cord, the cable, right like uh where it it plugs in. Well, picture it plugged in, and you grab that metal piece and you start to wiggle it around. And what that's doing is you're actually working the jack on the inside, and then it it was cutting in and out. So I took the control plate off, and I noticed the first thing I noticed that it was wired funky. There was all kinds of uh funky things which is on par what my coworker told me that it was a weird, you know, it didn't set up easy and it has its problems, like the inside electronics was the same way as well. And the um the the lead, the hot from the jack was soldered to a push-pull pot right next to it, and the wire was very short, like it was almost tight. And so then I started poking around the jack, and it was one of these plastic jacks, it just disintegrated, completely disintegrated. And so I I not only was it a cheap jack on a custom-built guitar, I I don't know why you would do that, not only was it uh a funky wiring, when you pulled up on the push-pull, I think it defeated the uh tone pot altogether and just passed right through it. I think that's what it was trying to do. But um the the lead was so short that I told the customer, I said, this is very common. What happens is the pot will get uh well, actually, I didn't show him, I told him first, and he he looked at me like he didn't b believe what I was saying, and then I showed him, and then he believed me. But uh the when pots get loose and they start to turn freely, they can yank on cables. And in this case, I think that's exactly what happened, is it is it yanked on the jack and kind of like broke the plastic casing. And of course, when we work on stuff, we tighten it up. But if he had brought it in and he knew that one of the knobs was loose, like that when I said that, it's like everything clicked and his demeanor completely changed. And he he went from being on the defensive to like very like oh, you know, kind of a thing. And anyway, that's why it it really pays to be patient and nice with folks, because I want to do the best I can. And if I didn't recognize this customer, and so if he's still getting to know us, like he's gotta know, like, not only do we warranty our work uh for 30 days, but like our our labor, but we're gonna help you out, man. That's that's why we're here. We'd never just stick you and say, Oh, well, it well, yeah, it was fine, dude. So it must have been something you did. I mean, you know, I I could imagine some. uh shops might be uh like that but um but yeah anyways uh and then another one came in it came back i should say um filing these under customer stories but it was a stratocaster that was buzzing oh my gosh stratocaster buzzing uh stop everybody stop what they're doing so I didn't work on this one uh but I was the one dealing with the customer and he said it was buzzing and so um there were he had nine gauge strings on the strat and so you know ev everything looked fine all the techs at our shop they really know what they're doing and when I use the terms like um going around the world with the guitar I'm saying you know making the neck too straight and putting the action where it's at seeing what that does giving it too much relief you know and seeing what it does and finding um the limits of the guitar based on what the frets are doing and the curvature of the neck not the radius but if it has a twist in it how how much relief is on not one side not just the bass but also the treble we're taking into account like everything plus our own personal experience as guitar players because everybody at my shop like plays guitar you know and we uh we we really put ourselves in into the repair so everything else was fine you know and it was a little buzzy if you hit it hard and that's the thing you know all guitars buzz in that sense that if you hit it enough uh with enough you know uh force it's gonna buzz you can think of a jump rope to kind of give an analogy um or the one I like is I tell customers I'm gonna be like well you asked me to get it low so just picture uh your car you take it to a shop and have them turn it into a low rider you can't go over speed bumps at you know 45 anymore you just can't so I even tell customers that play light gauge strings that are are hitting it kind of hard uh that they might might even want to get a lighter pick and just kind of like watch their attack and then of course you remind them that it's an electric guitar and so through some research um I've kind of I discovered this term called micro buzz and I don't know if it's a a term that's out there but I kind of look at it as the kind of all guitars buzz kind of a a term kind of you know and that comes with a lot of caveats but if it's electric guitar and especially a stratocaster with nines with low action if it's buzzing a little bit not buzzing through the amp maybe buzzing acoustically then you know I mean that really wouldn't bother me but you're working for the customer. So anyways I raise the action because everything else was fine. And uh then um I hear one of our guitar teachers talking to the customer and I guess he takes lessons uh I didn't know this and uh then the teacher told him to put tens on it so then not so I raised it and now he's gonna put tens on it and uh that pretty much just not all the time but you know sometimes it can negate the the money he just spent on the setup because we set it up for nines you know and so um usually you can go up and down a gauge kind of no problem but because I just raised it you know you can if you have a slinky light gauge you can get away with having a little higher action because they're so light but if you put tens on and the action's high and then gets higher you you see where where I'm going with this so um I I don't know if if he'll be back but you know maybe buzz is what he was focusing on versus comfort but that's always something that uh you have to talk about the customer with are you okay with little acoustic buzz on an electric guitar? And when I say that some some people look at me like dude it's an electric guitar I I don't care and others look at buzz on an electric guitar like it's uh fret buzz I should say like it's you know a thing that it shouldn't be doing and we'll always tell customers because I think a lot of times and I could be wrong but if you're a new guitar player and you watch a lot of YouTube and talk about the acoustic tonalities and you hear folks say like I'll I'll always uh I I won't plug a guitar in right away I I want to hear it you know acoustic uh talking about an electric guitar and all that kind of a thing and um you know I don't know just depends on the use case I talked a customer out out of a setup the other day he had a new master built epiphone that he said he got this is an acoustic guitar that he got for a hundred bucks with the case what a deal and he said he wanted it set up and what did I think and I got out my string action gauge and my calipers and it was about you know the action was about uh either ninety or a hundred thousandths on the bass and maybe maybe like eighty on the treble and you know if you wanted it to come down uh you know more you could but I I was because he wanted to put some light strings on there he even said eights he said eights nines I said no I said not an acoustic guitar no I said you could put tens extra light but if we're gonna drop the action it's gonna be slinky and you're gonna lose tone and is that what you want to do is your left hand hurting you know you try to why and I think at the end of the day he just wanted he got it for cheap he was wondering if there was something wrong with it what could I do to make it better and I told him I you know we're super honest I said there's nothing wrong with this guitar I'd just play it uh I gave him custom lights because there was 12s on there I said try 11s and uh if if you feel like you want it specifically set up for the 11s like it doesn't feel right bring it back and we can do the setup and he said all right so yeah those are my customer stories and uh time for some marketplace fun I sold a couple things on marketplace oh man what an achievement um I sold a couple old amp chassis I had lying around I sold uh a broken oscilloscope I'm super upfront with people I said you know it doesn't work and um the people that bought those things for me this one guy he uh uh totally brings these oscilloscopes back to life recaps them recalibrates them and that's kind of an interesting plus about Marketplace is like you meet people the people that bought the amp chassis they said that they are hobbyists and they build amps kind of cool to know those people right just in case I I mean that's kind of cool uh so yeah sold a few things on Marketplace and I got a couple solid offers on some stuff I um that uh Fender Coronado uh I dropped from now this is I don't think the case is original I'm not sure if I talked about this on the last episode it's just the body and it was routed out for wide range pickups and it's been stripped but I have the hardware and when you look up the tailpiece it it has like a rosewood it kind of looks like um the Epiphone Cresswood uh tailpiece that has the E in it except this has an F, a rosewood uh inlay on the tailpiece that has an F for fender. Super freaking cool. The original bridge which looks like a Mustang Mustang bridge but it's floating on these two like uh uh like surface mount little discs rare super rare bridge so I'm and the original wiring harness like you know and these folks on marketplace don't don't know how into this stuff that I am but um I'm just trying to avoid shipping it I'm sure I'd get 500 for it on reverb but um but anyways uh I dropped it from eight to five and I keep getting offered around three and even with really making uh the pictures on my listing like I've gotten more detailed and I think it's really helped me sell some stuff. Like honestly I'll even screenshot uh a reverb listing for the same thing that's sold not what they're asking but what it's sold for and I'll put that in the gallery like I want people to know I know what I have like don't try to lowball me you know you know what I'm saying so I did that on the Coronado but it still doesn't stop some people from offering me you know 300 which gosh man if you really think about it 300 for a 60s fender body uh and you know I looked up the bridge goes for around I don't know 120 150 I think the tailpiece might be two two fifty you know and it comes with a a retro looking case from the era not a fender case not that I know of but um in other news I'm selling my uh Vega late 40s early 50s duotron with hard shell case and um in one of the YouTube videos I've uploaded the pass in the past I've restored one of these for a customer that's before I owned one and this body shape is a little different but um it is a Vega Duotron arch top it has the coolest on the tail piece it has a volume tone and like a boost lever style knob super cool uh guitar the reason why I'm selling it is um I just haven't bonded with it and sometimes you know when you have a lot of guitars and you're not bonding with one in particular um yeah I don't know I guess it's just it's just time to let somebody else enjoy it and uh I got other things that I'm planning to list on Marketplace been doing a lot of uh surfing and perusing there's a lot of cool stuff in LA I'm over here in San Diego but if you widen the search you can really see there's a there's a Gaia tone uh I don't know it's like a reverb something and it's like a cabin head and it's solid state but it looks so freaking cool I love old solid state kind of rare amps I think he wants 800 which is pretty good um you could probably kick him down to seven maybe maybe 675 maybe and tice him with some trades but uh yeah that was really cool there's uh really cool drill press a couple cool drill presses uh a rock well and um gosh what's what's the other one not a bridgeport uh I don't know I'm I'm getting tired here so I think I'm gonna call it and I'm gonna keep on next week for some cool uh stories about what's on my bench and uh I'll just kind of keep it rolling. If you guys enjoyed what you heard please check out my uh YouTube channel Hillington Guitars where I'm about to drop a video of a Martin um an X Series Martin high pressure lamb that was completely destroyed that I brought back to life and it has a very interesting story with it and so uh with that I'm gonna leave you all until next week. See you next time. Later. See ya