Every once in a while I get to play guitar with the SFCC band for a weekend. It is one of the things I love to do most in this world – I wish I could do it all of the time. One weekend I needed to play acoustic for a couple of songs and then electric for the rest. The experience revealed a need I had never considered as I hardly ever need to play electric and acoustic in the same set.

I currently use the Line6 HD500 for my delay, reverb, compressor, noise gate and any modulation effects. The HD500 also has a built-in guitar tuner that works just fine for my needs… until I needed to tune my acoustic guitar on-the-fly between songs.

Being a luthier and former touring guitar tech, I had no problem quickly unplugging my electric guitar’s cable and popping it into my acoustic (after ensuring it was muted at FOH of course!). I tuned up quickly using the HD500 and switched the cables back. It worked, but it was cumbersome and it was hard to hide all of that activity from the audience.

During the week that followed, I thought a lot about that situation. I decided I wanted a basic foot pedal that would allow me to use a single tuner for multiple guitars while still sending the guitars’ signals to their respective destinations. So both my electric and acoustics would both route through this pedal; the electric would still got to the HD500 and the acoustic into a direct box.

The idea hit me in the shower one day (not literally, that would be awkward…) and I sketched out the basic schematic in the fog on the shower door.

I wanted at least two inputs as it is normal for me to play with two electric guitars. I do not change a lot, but no respectable guitar tech would perform without a backup. And the entire purpose of the project was to be able to add an acoustic to the rig, so we’re up to three inputs. I included a backup input (why not!) and that is how I arbitrarily decided to have four 1/4 inch Switchcraft inputs (ABCD).

The switcher also needed two discrete outputs; one for my electric rig and one for the acoustic (XY).

And finally, there it needed a “tuner out” for, wait for it, the guitar tuner.

So after a little white-boarding, the schematics here is what I put together:

• 4 inputs (ABCD)
  • Inputs A & B route to output X.
  • Inputs C&D have toggle switches that will route the signal to either output X or Y.
  • 3 stomp switch to select inputs.
    • A switch for toggling between the A & B inputs.
    • A switch for activating the C input (and disabling A &B).
    • A switch for activation the D input (and disabling A, B & C inputs).
• 2 discrete outputs (XY)
  • X routes to my electric guitar rig.
  • Y routes to my acoustic’s direct box.
• 1 tuner output
  • A stomp switch activates the tuner output.
  • The stomp switch mutes both X&Y outputs.
• Super bright, blue LED’s that will burn a hole in your retina.
  • LED’s are on an isolated circuit from the audio signals.
  • LEDs are powered by a 9volt battery or external power supply.
• Two-tone paint (just because…)

This 1984 Martin D-3532 came into the shop with some loose braces. Check out the illustration and photos to see how many braces have lost their hold on reality… or at least the soundboard.

During the initial inspection, we found that the guitar strings have worn the bridge plate down so much that they are beginning to wear through the wood. Left unattended, they will eventually wear all the way through to the top of the guitar’s soundboard (not a simple or inexpensive repair). There are a couple
ways to take care of it.

Option 1: Replace the worn bridge plate.
This involves heating up the current bridge plate and carefully removing it. Then making a new bridge plate and glue it into place.

Option 2: Install a bridge plate patch.
This involves making a custom patch that is glued directly on top of the bridge plate over the worn string holes. New string holes are drill once the glue cures. The strings will then rest on this new patch (and not the existing worn plate). I typically suggest this option for less expensive guitars.

This Martin however is a good candidate for replacing the bridge plate. And since it already has a lot of loose braces that need to be re-glued, replacing it with a stronger bridge plate and fresh glue is the safest option.

While checking my messages this other day I found that I had missed a call from my friend Wes at Guitar Center. The message said that they had received a USA Les Paul that had been damaged in shipping. Apparently the neck had popped out of its joint.

I have been keeping an eye out for a decent “project guitar” and this one fit the bill.

Once I was able to take a closer look I found it was the best case scenario for neck joint damage. At first glance it appeared there just was not enough glue to hold the neck in place. Once I got the neck off, it was a bit more than just the lack of glue (although that was a problem.) The neck tenon (the part of the neck under the fretboard that is custom fitted and glued into the neck cavity on the body of the guitar) had been shaved too thin. No amount of glue was going to hold this neck for long.

I glued some mahogany shims into place on the sides of the neck tenon. After letting it sit in the clamps overnight, I shaped the tenon (with new shims) using a chisel and file into a snug and perfect fit. Before applying glue, I did a test clamp making sure the neck angles were correct (they were). I then applied the glue and re-clamped everything allowing it to sit for a couple of days while it cures.

After taking the clamps off of the neck, the next step would be to touch up the finish. However, I was extremely anxious to find out if I had a “the bomb” or just a dud. So I went ahead and threw some strings on it and did a quick set up. An hour went by in a blink- it didn’t suck.

This PRS CE-24 came into the shop with a dead volume potentiometer. After discussing it with the client we decided to replace all of the electronics (all less than superb components) with high quality Switchcraft and CTS components from RS Guitarworks located in Winchester, KY. I’ve known about these guys for a while, but this was this first time to try their products.

I was particularly intrigued by these components listed on their website:

500K RS Short-Shaft SuperPot®– We designed these pots in conjunction with CTS. Used for the volume controls in the kit, these pots have a custom taper that gives you a noticeable difference between each number on your volume control. You can finally roll your volume down to 2 or 1 and not loose any clarity, even in the neck position!! Mil-spec construction and a smoother resistor path make this the best pot to ever be used in the guitar.

RS .022 GuitarCap®– The GuitarCap® is the first and only capacitor designed specifically for the guitar. This part is the only capacitor in the world that meets our stringent quality-control standards, not only because of its construction, but because of how great it sounds in the tone circuit (more info on their site.)

The RS Guitarworks parts are not cheap. The Premium Modern PRS® Style Upgrade Kit that we ordered costs $69.45 plus shipping. While the kit does include CTS and Switchcarft parts and their $15 custom made capacitor for the tone knob, you are still paying a premium compared to similar components from Stewart-McDonald, Luthiers Mercantile or Allparts.

After installing the components, I can say that there is a significant increase of quality tone in the guitar. The taper on both the volume and tone knobs is very smooth with very little dramatic drop-off. And that $15 capacitor is rather nice sounding, too. Even with all of the high-end rolled off, there was still some nice presence to the tone that makes it very warm without being mushy. It’s not for everyone or for every guitar. But the buttery roll-off of the volume and tone pots are quite evident and adds precision to these controls that you don’t often find in guitar electronics.

Would we buy their components again? Bottom line: Yes.

On a side note with this particular project, we noticed that while the electronics cavity had been coated with shielding paint, however, the inside of the backplate was not coated in anyway. So we added some shielding tape and ensured that the tape connected with the guitar’s ground.

This acoustic has recently made it into regular rotation during its owner’s gigs. While it’s a fine guitar with some very nice burl ash back and sides, he wanted to improve the overall tone and sustain. So we replaced the plastic nut, saddle and bridge pins with custom made bone. The reason I use bone is because it a much denser material than plastic and transfers vibration much more efficiently. The more vibration that is transferred from the strings to the soundboard, the more rich tone and sustain the guitar will have.

I started with a bone blank, took measurements with a micrometer, then had at it with a belt sander, various files, sandpaper and ended with a polishing wheel.

For the saddle, the existing saddle slot in the bridge had a less than level bottom and the walls were a bit uneven. So I decided to widen the slot by about 1/64 of an inch to correct these imperfections. I then cut and shaped the saddle to perfectly fit the new slot dimensions.

Next up were seating the new bridge pins. They had a bit larger radius than the factory plastic pins. Nothing that a quick 2 or 3 turns with a reamer couldn’t fix.

For the nut, once it was cut, shaped polished and glued into place I needed to add the string slots. To determine the exact placement of the slots requires some precise measurements and some basic math. Sounds easy, but being dyslexic, I like to triple-check the numbers before making the first cuts with the files.

This Epi DOT came in for a basic setup and a simple neck repair.

There was about a 3 inch long crack along the fretboard that needs some TLC.

It was a simple crack that was easily repaired with som cam-clamps and wood glued. After the repair was complete we performed a thorough set-up. The fretboard was extremely dry so we hydrated it with some synthetic wood oil.