iLuthier

Here’s a cool tip that was sent to us by Frank Edgewater of Iowa, for when you need to work from the inside of an acoustic guitar.

First, grab a small hand mirror – small enough to fit through the soundhole – and chop off the handle, leaving a small 1″ nubbin on it. Glue a short wooden “arm” on the nubbin at a right angle to the mirror or even screw a bolt to it if you wanted to do that instead. This makes it easier to “retrieve” the mirror once you’ve finished working on the guitar.

Then just drop the mirror into the body and away you go. The light from your flexi-torch, LED or whatever will reflect off the mirror and illuminate the inside far better than just the light source itself. It’ll also show you – without having to maneuver too much – exactly what you need to see on the underside of the top so your repairs will get done easier and quicker.

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Instead of taping off frets with masking tape during fret dressing – a practice which is quite time consuming – use a thin metal strip cut from a soda can using an X-acto or utility knife and then put some fret sized slots in it. It’s a lot more durable than tape and an empty soda can is usually always readily available.

To use your “soda shim”, one hand holds the shim over the fret while you dress it with your file held in the other hand. Your index finger on your shim hand can act as a guide for the file as you dress.

Also, if you can find one around at your local art or craft suppliers you can use a draftsmans “eraser shield”, or some other thin shim style stock, but a soda can is usually pretty easy to find.

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Not so much “the rage” any more but if you ever need to scallop a fretboard here are some tips:

1:- Use a small convex violinmaker’s plane to rough out the work. Try to find one – or make one yourself – which is about 3/8″ wide (9mm) as this will be the most versatile size and get you right up to the 15th or 16th fret. You’ll find it’s quicker and a lot safer than using a small gouge as well.

2:- When you can no longer use the plane switch to a rat-tail file to finish the rest, as well as clean up the plane marks. Once you’ve don that then use a small scraper or sandpaper to finish the job. Sandpaper glued to wooden dowels can give you a nice selection of clean up “files”.

3:- If you’re going to refret then don’t take the frets out until after you’ve finished the scalloping, otherwise the wood around the fret will be unsupported and more prone to chipping out.

4:- If the fingerboard is inlayed then remove the inlays first so that you don’t plane or file through them. Pearl and abalone are also very hard on your plane blades. If the fingerboard is laden with inlay then think twice about taking the job on. It might be more work than it’s worth.

5:- Think about making the scallop deeper just behind the fret as this is where it’s mostly needed, after all. You can go deeper but 3/32″ deep is sufficient for most jobs.

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