Sometimes the old ways are the best ways. While we pride ourselves on having some of the latest and greatest tools in the repair toolkit, including our PLEK machine, there are definite advantages to the control that comes from hand tools.Here, Mass Street Luthier Trey Durkin drills holes for banjo spikes with a hand-crank drill. This allows for getting to get to just the right … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Old ways – Best ways
Bringing this Martin 1937 D-18 back to playing shape presented many challenges that needed to be addressed outside the usual neck reset/refret that is standard fare on a vintage guitar. Since the early ’70s this guitar has had upwards of five bridges on and off by other repair shops that had either pulled up or cracked. On top of that it had previously had the … Continue reading Repair Spotlight – Vintage 1937 D-18 Overhaul
Check out Part I and Part II of our Repair Spotlight on Byron Berline’s Martin Herringbone D-28 before diving into Part III below. With the headstock break repaired in Part II it was time to move on replacing the fingerboard and preparing it for a PLEK refret. The heat from the Double Stop Fret Shop fire caused the hide glue, which keeps the fingerboard in … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Vintage Martin Herringbone Headstock Repair – Part III
Check out Part I of our Repair Spotlight on Byron Berline’s Herringbone D-28 before diving into Part II below. When we left off with the repair of our friend Byron Berline’s herringbone D-28 Jim had come up with a plan for removing the veneer and cleaning up the headstock break. This was necessary in order to make a good surface for gluing things up, and … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Vintage Martin Herringbone Headstock Repair – Part II
Matt and Mike up in our repair shop spent the morning yesterday installing a new fret cutter head in our PLEK machine. This is a fairly routine procedure in which the old head is removed and sent back to PLEK for sharpening and a new one is installed, and then meticulously calibrated in order to maintain the accuracy of our PLEK fret dresses. Check out … Continue reading Repair Spotlight – PLEK Machine – Cutter head Calibration
Jim’s been working on the great Byron Berline’s guitars for years. As many of you know Byron’s shop, Double Stop Fret Shop, suffered a devastating fire last year, with many of the instruments destroyed or suffering damage beyond repair. Thankfully this herringbone survived, but did not make it out unscathed. This late ’30s Martin D-28 had previously suffered a break in the headstock which had … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Vintage Martin Herringbone Headstock Repair – Byron Berline – Part I
Here’s an in progress repair spotlight that we’ll hopefully update as the repair process goes along. One third of the store is getting ready for the NAMM show, the other third is prepping for new gear that is in route and the Repair Shop is holding it down upstairs, working to reset the neck on this 1974 Mossman Great Plains. Lots of NAMM posts are … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Mossman Great Plains Neck Reset
Recently Mass Street luthiers Mike and Matt performed a PLEK scan and fret dress live over on Facebook. We had a little bit of a networking lapse at first, but check out the archive of the PLEK livestream including the virtual fret dress and live fret cutting. Looking to have your instrument PLEK’d? Check out our repair shop page for more information about getting in touch. Continue reading PLEK Livestream Archive
If you’ve been up to the shop in the past few months you’ve probably noticed the latest addition in our lutherie toolbox, the Plek Machine. What is a Plek you may ask? For starters, it’s a tool, an extremely accurate tool. Like an MRI or CT Scan of your guitar, the Plek machine scans an instrument’s frets and fingerboard, and presents that data to our trained crew … Continue reading Meet the Plek Machine
We’ll kick this Repair Spotlight off with the disclaimer that not every guitar is a good candidate for a left-hand conversion. Bracing, neck shape, bridges, and saddle slot placement are all considerations that must be made when determining if the process will work well. This ladder braced Waterloo WL-14 however made for the perfect candidate! Just look how happy Mass Street General Manager Mike H … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Waterloo Left Hand Conversion
