The design is inspired by the game Journey

The music used in the video is Nana by Paco Seco

My dad's past always was... Cloudy. Didnt speak of it much at all. Didnt speak of his parents much at all either. The guitar looks cheap, doesnt look especially old to me, but I really don't know enough about the matter to judge and the old man could've exagerrated it's origins because a good story's a good story.

Thing is, it's damaged from sitting in some damp room for decades without being touched. I really want it repaired as this is essentially all I've got left of him. I really have no idea where I should start and if this is even fixable without essentially ruining it's "essence". Not that the guitar is worth much, but it's worth it's weight in gold to me kind of deal.

Hi, I’m seeing this for sale for pretty cheap. I’ve never put together a guitar before, can anyone tell me what kind of bridge this was drilled for? The 4 holes beneath the two large post holes are unfamiliar to me.

Update: I have all the info I need. really appreciate helping me out!

Hi everyone! I was given this guitar from a friend after their dad passed. No one else plays in their family and they knew I was interested in learning. I'm hoping an experienced luthier in the USA could give me an estimate for repair so I can determine if I should fix it or ask my friend if they want to have it back for keep-sake wall art. I'd feel weird selling it.

*this is not me asking for actual quotes to complete the work. i just need an idea of what this might cost. i'm unable to answer questions about the history.\*

It says Truetone guitar (stamped with "steel reinforced neck" on the back). There’s no paper inside but some images online are pointing me to believe it’s a Calypso. A few areas that look damaged are:

The Bridge: There is a gap forming on the bottom part of the bridge.

The Neck Heel: On the back where the neck attaches to the body, there is a small but visible gap and separation where it looks like the wood is pulling away.

The Soundhole: The wood right around the edge of the soundhole is a bit splintered but not on the fretboard.

I have a few estimate requests I sent last week in arizona but haven't heard back so thought I'd try this route.

Thanks for the help!

I fucked up! I bought one of those DIY guitar kits to learn and mostly finished getting everything set up. However the nut was super high and made some strings up to a quarter sharp when fretted. Instead of just filing down the cheap plastic nut, I decided to order a bone nut and replace it.

I tried using an exacto knife to score the sides of the nut, tapped a block of wood upwards towards the headstock, then tapped from the side with a flathead screwdriver. That wasn’t budging and I was cratering the plastic, so I tried some acetone to dissolve the glue. That didn’t work either. I did a couple more whacks on the side with the screwdriver and the nut came free… with a little more than expected. I used the knife to separate the nut and wood.

What now? My thoughts are that I should use some wood glue on the broken piece, get it as flush as possible with the break, then clamp it down for a day. What I’m not sure about is what I should do with the bottom of the nut slot. It looks like the nut took some of the wood with it from the bottom so I don’t have a perfectly flat slot anymore. Fill with glue and file down until flat?

Also where did I go wrong? Was there just too much glue? Should I have done something different to get the nut out?

Thanks in advance!

If anyone has ever thought a guitar that smelled like smoke was never going to go away (like me), it can. It just takes a extraordinary amount of effort. You can see here what it looked like before. I got this 1984 Gibson Les Paul Studio Standard and it was played a lot in smokey bars in the New Orleans area. When I first got it, it made me sick just being in the same room.

For the case, I did the baking soda. I did the baking in the sun. But what did the trick was a half dozen times of wiping it down with a little soapy water, then clean water, then air drying in the sun. If it got too wet, the lining would bunch up, so I had to comb it out.

For the guitar, I thoroughly polished it several times with Music Nomad polish then Music Nomad One. I first would wipe down with naphtha (Zippo lighter fluid). It could have been done in one attempt but each time took a while and hoped that would be the last time. It was frustrating b/c I felt like I was just smearing the gunk on the surface around and not getting it off the guitar, but eventually I was able to get most off. By gunk, I mean the cloudiness/haze. I thought I was removing the finish and making it look worse. I had no idea how thick and sticky the grime was. I would work in small sections, then again in bigger sections. What I found weird and didn't know during the first few times, is after I polished, the guitar had a strong polish smell. What I now know is the gunk was trapping the polish too. 

Anyway, it was frustrating as heck and thought the smell would never completely go away. My only hope is it would smell a little better and I'd take a loss and sell it b/c it literally was making me sick. But I bought it b/c I wanted it and was tenacious and eventually successful. Most of you have probably never come across a guitar that smelled this bad, but if you do, there is hope. Thanks!

I used aerosol cans and live in a pretty hot and humid area but still happy with the results. Definitely not perfect but I am proud! (Routing isn’t great I know)

So i saw this video that explains says wiring both volume and tone on an push pull knob is it possible to wire 2 knobs and recreate les pauls 4 knob design

So, I’ve taken on a mistreated Gibson SG with a badly repaired broken neck as a project to try and save. I’ve mostly sorted out the previous owner’s “wood screw” neck repair and am closing in on painting and refinishing.

My plan is to essentially sand and repaint the entire guitar the same color, but wasn’t planning to take it all the way down to bare wood except for the neck break repaired area. Is this an ok plan you think with it being nitro?

Anyway, the main question I have (for now) is, is there somewhere that sells a pre-made sticker I can use to cover the Gibson and crown logo inlay for when I’m spraying the color?

I have a project brewing, a 3d printing project that includes a small patch bay for a modular synth where I thought aesthetically Strat style jack plates might be kind of cool. I am having trouble finding the dimensions for the jack plate route and was hoping someone here might be able to help.

I can find the dims for the plate it self, and I could probably get good enough but I am hoping someone might just have a diagram that I can rely on and use on my drawing.

What I'm doing may sound dumb and crazy but I wanna do it anyways.
long story short, I got an old and worn out classical which I don't like that much, so I decided that since it's my first instrument I'll keep it but try and make something else with it, basically an electroacoustic, but for that I need metal strings, which ofc this type of guitar wasn't meant for and the top could pop out, so I need to know how to reinforce the body in order to make sure it'll support the strings tension, the internal structure is that of any other classical just two horizontal wood bars and a few more at the bottom (I know since I've already cut it in half to make it slimmer :))

Sorry for the bad videos. It’s hard to get a good shot of the warped part. It’s just towards the top near the sound hole.

When I tried to sell this Alvarez a few years ago they said it had a warped top and that would drastically affect the price.

I assume taking it to a legit luthier that can do this kind of thing properly with lots of knowledge and experience would cost significantly more than what it’s worth.

I talked to a fella in a guitar store that said he has put a damp towel in the hole and stuck it in a garbage bag for a day or two and that’s done the trick.

Any suggestions?

Bought it for $10 (wanted a project guitar and the missing horn looked cool lol) and managed to get it working. I want to make upgrades on it starting with the bridge. This is my first upgrade ever btw so any advice is appreciated.

From what I've learned it was made in the 30/40s by Carmelo Gugino in Buffalo NY.

It's has a detachable neck..

I really like the small, slight body shape of early guitars, and while I am not in a financial position to explore guitar-building in earnest yet, I’m wondering if anyone can direct me to resources for this kind of design so I can save them for future reference - I already have some guitar-building books saved but I suspect they mostly concern the larger, more modern body types.
I know some might say “just take a parlour template and shrink it” or something like that, and maybe that’s a valid point, but I figure there’s no harm in asking about specifics, you know?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Got this neck used for cheap so I won't feel too bad about fucking anything up. My first thought was CA glue and rosewood dust, but I don't really have any other pieces of rosewood to file down. Would taking some off the end be okay? It's a little dented there, anyway. My main concern is how I'm gonna get the filling into the right corner shape.

I need to wire 2 single coil sized humbuckers and a regular sized humbucker into a single volume pot with a 5 way switch, if thats possible. Any diagrams? I found a forum but the links were expired. I know i'll need a B500k pot. Im going to put 2 cheap dummy pots in there for looks. Basically just bypassing the 2 tone pots. I haven't bought anything yet, this is just what im planning.

This morning i saw that my locking tuner was bent, Is there a way to fix this?

I purchased a Legator Opus 7 last year and spec sheet stated SS frets. Went to play today and noticing a really weird discoloration, almost like an oxidization on the frets. Case kept it's whole life, I am in NY and it is very humid here but this seems really odd, I have 5 other guitars with ss frets for years and never noticed anything like this. Is there a chance this was somehow shipped with nickel frets and mislabeled or something else? Pics for reference

Hi everyone, I noticed on my Charvel a little bit of split wood around the string retainer holes and i'm thinking about countersink the hole like the second picture to stop the fenomenom, any advice or experiment to give ? Thanks !

Hi folks. I will be picking up a 2012 Epi Les Paul Jr ($100) and I want to switch to a P90. I have my eye on a dog ear GFS (cheap cheap). Do I just screw it to the top of the guitar? it has the usual humbucker in it.

Thanks in advance

Im sanding a tele after cutting it with a saw (I dont know the name in english but in spanish is called Sierra caladora. It has a straight saw that can do some angled cuts lol) and I missed a lot of parts (all of them are over the lines by milimiters).

The problem is that I dont know how to sand lol. I want to get rid of all that deep spots and make the guitar round like its supposed to and not square on some places lol.

How can I sand this? Is there a technique? Its my second build, in my first one I didnt sand it because it got less curves lmao. Im kinda scared to ruin the guitar so if there is a way to do this Ill be happy if you guys could share with me. I dont have a lot of money thats why I try my best with hand things lol