January, 2003
Greetings you stringed instrument nuts,
Gonzo here with another installment of the Gazette and this month we are going to discuss guitar necks and frets but first a little update on what has been happenin' around the shop.
Things have been going well with and I have been keeping very busy. I have also been making some extra money gigging. I played in Park City on Sat. night and got to experience the
Sundance Film Festival. Our own little slice of Hollywood!!!
I am little by little stocking more stings and accessories and as I get more money to invest will build more selection. I need to order some custom
sets of strings for a couple of customers so if anybody wants to get any strings or accessories ordered within the next few days give me a call. Anyone that is interested in buying
larger quantities of strings like a box (12 sets) I can give better prices. I always have Martin Phosphor Bronze in bulk for acoustics as well as Ernie Ball for electrics at $3.00 a set all
the time. I am working out a deal to also start carrying bulk bass strings so stay tuned for more on that.
In continuation of my first year of independence and thanks to you my loyal customers I am still giving a 20% discount on all repair work and better on accessories but you need to let
me know you got the newsletter. I first mentioned this in last months letter so you only have until the end of the month to take advantage of this special. I not to long ago was worried
about how I was going to make all my ends meet and I'm now happy to say that Gonzo Guitars is doing better than ever. I am very busy right now and it seems that all my efforts of
leaning to market and getting my antisocial butt out there a little more seems to be working. I ask every new customer where they got my name from and I am amazed at how often
I get referrals from the different music stores that have in house Luthiers, especially Intermountain Guitar and Banjo and the Guitar Czar. I owe both of these stores a huge thanks
so drop in on them sometime and let them know that Gonzo sent you.
Most all of you got notice of my little ol' jam session that I had last month and I just want to say that for many reasons I am very glad to be getting this going. It will be interesting to
see how this develops but at the very least I got to get to know some of you better and got to have some fun playing music. I am going to not worry about the two different levels of
jams right now but am going to have one that anyone who is interested in can come to whatever level as long as we listen and learn from each other. I will also request again that
anyone who comes to that jam lead at least one song, I am realizing that to demand this is just not going to happen. I would like to see an environment where we all teach and learn
from each other. The next jam is going to be…this Friday, Jan. 24th @ 7:00 pm. Remember to call and reserve a spot because space is limited.
A reminder that I am also wanting to get into the buying, selling and consigning of instruments as well. If you have anything that you are looking for or wanting to sell let me know and
we'll see what we can do. Remember to ask me what I have for sale as well. I keep getting folks telling me that they want me to mention that they are looking for players for their
projects but they never seem to get me the information to pass along. Damn musicians! Anyway, remember to get me any information that you want passed along! Also, remember
to send this along to anyone that you might think would enjoy this newsletter and if this has been sent on to you by a friend and you would like to be on the mailing list just send me
an email and I'll put you on. I you would like to be taken off the list, tuff cookies! Just kidding, just let me know and I'll take you right off.
Okay, I made you wait long enough so let's get on to the good stuff. Let's talk Frets and necks!!!
This is an area of guitar repair that time, practice and intuition play major factors in how good you are. I can explain fairly simply how I do this but only time will get you to where you
can do it with expertise. Most fret levels are fairly straight ahead but there are plenty of guitars out there that are temperamental, in fact I had a Mexican Stat just today that ate up
most of my day because it didn't want to play nice.
Most often the guitars that give me problems are USA Strats, Mexican Starts have never given me any troubles before today. My favorite guitars to work on are Ibanez guitars, of all
things. Ibanez's often make me look great. I can set them up almost to where the strings are laying on the frets and they don't buzz. I don't know why they are such great guitars from
that standpoint but through years of working on all kinds of guitars they have time and time again proven to be some of the nicest guitars from a fret and set up standpoint.
As I just stated, USA Strats consistently give me the most problems but I have had other guitars from all makes that are fussy. Don't tell anyone but even one of that I helped a student
of mine make about 10 years ago was fussy and we made that neck better than factories do. We made this neck three ply with quarter-sawn maple. All of the factory electrics are
made with slab cut wood. Quarter-sawn means the wood, if you look at the end grain or at top edge of the neck, goes straight up and down or vertical and slab cut means that the
grain runs sideways or horizontal. The difference here is great as far as the stability of the wood goes. Quarter-sawn wood is the hardest cut to get out of a log. In all actuality it
waists more wood because in order to get it quarter-sawn you have to move the log just right to get the cut you are looking for. Slab cut wood is the easiest and most common
because when most cutters are cutting up logs trying to get the most pieces out of the log as they can. They can't pay attention to the direction of the grain because it would be to
expensive and houses would cost a mint to build. They would be incredibly sturdy homes if they were built with quarter-sawn wood though.
What makes wood warp is that when you have a piece of slab cut wood it is cut so that the wood shrinks the most were the wood will warp and split the most and shrinks the least
where the wood warps and crack the least. This is exactly what you don't want. With quarter-sawn wood it is the exact opposite. Have you ever bought a board that cups on you?
The reason for this is because the grain is curved so as it dries the wood shrinks. As the wood shrinks it will cup, bow or split according to the direction of the grain. With quarter-sawn
wood the grain is straight up and down and so it doesn't want to bow or warp. I am putting in this little diagram to try and show what I am babbling on about. As you can see the board
in the bottom left has the most even amount of shrinkage (quarter-sawn) where the top board wants to cup.
The point being that the cut of the wood can make a huge difference in the stability of the neck as well as the body of a guitar as well, especially acoustics. There are also factors such
as "run out" and "figure" that can make a big difference as well. In fact, the reason that the neck that I built with my student is so fussy is because he chose to go with a very flamed
piece of maple, the ebony that he got was also a very lousy piece of ebony and I think that was part of the problem too.
The point is necks and the woods that they are made from, no mater how nice a piece that you think you have, can have characteristics that just make them fussy. To all you folks
that say to your Luthier or the shop you got your expensive guitar at, "I paid X amount of money for this guitar and it shouldn't do this" I say to you, "a lot of the time the more expensive
the piece of wood the more fussy it can be". Flamed woods can cause a lot of problems because what is going on to make the flame is the grain of the wood is wavy and so as the
wood dries there is no telling what that wood is going to do. I remember at one store I worked at we got in this beautiful foam green Strat style Hamer. Top of the line, you know?
It had these cool little trim pots that you could dial in from the back so the guitar would give you a custom sound. I loved that guitar! It also had the most beautiful flamed neck and
after it came in to the store and had time to settle that neck warped like no other I have ever seen, it broke my heart.
If you think about it guitar necks are amazing. You take piece of wood and cut it roughly 3/4" thick and wide at one end and 1 1/4" wide and thick at the other end and about 24"- 26"
long and it has to support someplace between 100 to 170 lbs (depending on type of guitar) of string tension and last for years. That is a lot to ask of any piece of wood and some just
don't wanna.
With USA Strats and don't get me wrong because I love them but they more than any other guitar will want to buzz. It took me years to figure out why but because of the way that a
Stat is built there should be no neck angle (neck angle is exactly what it sounds like, depending on the bridge system you have the neck will need to be at a certain angle). Gibson's
because of their trapeze bridge need a lot of neck angle and Stats and Teles because of their flush mount bridges need to be as flat as possible. After years of working on them, I even
talked to the techs at Fender about this and they knew about this issue and didn't know why, I realized that sometimes there is a little neck angle that can't be adjusted out with their
neck angle screw (comes on higher end stats) and so the fret level needs to emphasize on the lower end of the fingerboard (up by the body).
Enough of your dribble Gonzo, just tell us how to do a fret level! Okay, okay, I just needed to explain a little about necks. What I do first is I tune the guitar to tension in playing
position. This is very important because just laying it on its back will change the string tension and throw off your measurements. I then adjust the truss rod (see past article on truss
rods either in I.A.M.A. rag or at gonzoguitars.com) to get it as straight as I can and retune the guitar. Once it is tuned, I have a few different straight edges (rulers are not accurate
enough) I start with my long straight edge that will span the length of the frets and look for high and low frets and give me an overall image of what the neck is doing. I then go to my
short straight edges that span no more than three frets at a time and look for unevenness. With most fret levels these will do but if I am dealing with a fussy neck I have intermediate
straight edges that give me a different image of what is going on and I have a straight edge with cut outs for the frets so I can look at the fingerboard and see what it is doing.
Sometimes you get necks that have a soft spot in the wood at one place and you need to be able to get a concept of how the wood is dealing with the tension in order to manipulate
it correctly.
Once I have a concept of the frets I unstring the guitar and adjust the truss rod again because now it has no tension and will change. Once I get it as straight as I can without the
strings I check it with my straight edges again. I then get my diamond fret file (you can make a fret fret file out of a $5 Home Depot file as well, I still use the one I made in school
all the time) while being careful not to change the neck with the pressure of my hand, I file the frets until they are all level. I check this with both my eyes and my straight edges.
You can also get some NASA quality fret leveling gigs that work great but tend to be a little spendy, I even have one but I have learnt to use my sense of touch, sight and intuition to
where I feel I don't need to deal with the jig. They are cumbersome and make the job take up a lot more time but if you can afford one they are money well spent. If I get a neck that
really gets unstable under the string pressure I will use it sometimes. What it does is it locks the neck so that it can't move when you take the stings off, reproducing the string tension
and how the neck moves when under string tension. There are times, like I stated before, where the neck is weaker in one spot and wants to move unevenly and this is a good place
to use the jig. You can also over time learn to tell what is going on with the neck and then you emphasize the level in the troubled spots but this is where experience comes in.
Once I have the frets level (checking again with both the long and the short straight edges) I then recrown the frets with my fret rounding files. These are long cup shaped files that
make the fret round again because when you do your fret level it makes them very square. In order for the guitar to play well and in tune (block frets can effect your intonation as well)
I crown the frets to where there is the slightest high point down the center of the fret. This insures that the string will touch the center of the fret and thus play and intonate correctly.
Once I have crowned every fret I polish the frets starting with 600 grit sandpaper then 1200 to 1500 grit sandpaper. Once they are polished I then check with the straight edges again.
At this point with a more fussy neck I may need to hit here and there with the file and then recown and polish but most often it's good to go. I then take #0000 steel wool and polish the
frets and fingerboard. They are polished to a nice shine and the fingerboard is clean of the sandpaper residue I then oil the fingerboard with mineral oil. A lot of people use lemon oil or
other fine oils and they are great but mineral oil is cheep and does a great job. The oil keeps the fingerboard from drying out and giving you problems. I strongly recommend oiling your
fingerboard twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. This is when a guitar will go through the most changes because of the change of season and humidity.
I then resting the guitar and readjust the truss rod and try it out. If it is still buzzing you either have a fussy neck, left frets uneven or made them uneven when you crowned your frets.
This is easy to tell with your straight edges and if the frets are perfect and it still buzzes you have a fussy neck and at that point I would give someone like me call. You could always
keep working with it and see if you can bend the strong minded neck to your mighty will.
Good luck and as always give me a call or shoot me an email if you have any questions and I'm happy to help.
Peace,
Gonzo
December, 2002
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year you stringolingolingolings:
Gonzo here with a holiday issue of the Gonzo Gazette wishing you and yours the very best. I have been working away in my toyshop trying to get all the jobs on my list done before
Christmas but no such luck for this little elf. I have had issue written about a week or more ago but was not able to get to the redraft before Christmas, so this is my belated Christmas
greeting and timely New years greeting. I hope that there was lots of love and friendship for each of you in this season of hope and peace.
I through the help of Gigi Love, Bernie LaForrest and Gigi’s new booking agency “Above the rest Entertainment” played up in Dear Valley about a week ago. I am hoping to get more of
this kind of thing going both for the joy of playing and the extra income. I am very grateful to Gigi and if anyone is looking to find work, be you a musician, magician, vaudevillian or
underwater Beebe stacker, check out Above The Rest Entertainment. At abovetherestentertainment.com or you can call Gigi @ 631-9104. I had a great time playing up at the
Goldener Hirsh and they paid nicely as well. I look forward to doing more and if any of you know of any gigs for a groovy troubadour like myself let me know.
Anyway, onward with Gonzo stuff: Gonzo Guitars Celebrates One Year of Independence!!! That’s right it was early December last year that I left Mars Music and went for it on my
own. It has been a lot of work, successes, mistakes and learning. I am still building and am not where I want to be yet but as I look back I am amazed at how far I have come in one
year! To say thanks for all of the support that I have received over that past year (for many of you years before that) I am having a special on everything this month. If you get this
newsletter all you have to do is let me know when you come in that you are a Gonzo Guitarian and I will give you 20% off on whatever I do or sell you (any work already contracted not
included, sorry). I am truly grateful for all of the encouragement that I have gotten from the community!!! Over the past year there are a lot of you that have taken it upon yourselves to
help spread the word and help Gonzo Guitars become a success. I am always touched when any of you let me know how much my little ol’ guitar shop means to you. I feel privileged
and to have the support that I do so just mention the newsletter and I’ll give as good a deal as I can!
I am not going to write an article this month because the Intermountain Acoustic Music Association could not fit in my article on nuts last month and I don’t want to be juggling two
articles at the same time. The deadline for the I.A.M.A. is the 10th of every month so you will be getting a new issue of the Gonzo Gazette soon, but the Anniversary Special will go
through all of January. You get time off for good behavior from the luthiery article this month but be ready early next month because I will be covering…DUNN…DUNN…DUNN (dramatic
music)…FRET LEVELS! Stay tuned cause if you have liked what I have been writing about so far I think you’ll like the next article. Oh yah, thanks to all of you have given me feedback
on the articles as well. I was starting to wonder if anyone was reading this stuff and I have gotten some very nice comments that have made me glad that I am taking the time to write.
Okay, enough with the mushy thanks. Back to Gonzo stuff, in the last newsletter I talked about putting together a jam. I have thought and talked to a few folks about this and I have
decided what I want to do! I want to have two jams a month here at my house, eventually it may get big enough that I will need to move it someplace else but for now I want them at
my home. One will be a beginner to intermediate type jam where anyone who is interested is welcome, I just need to plan ahead on who is coming because of limited space. This
jam will focus on jam etiquette and learning songs, I would hope that there would be few folks that could help lead songs (it’s not as fun when I’m the only one leading songs). There
will be one requirement; if you are at this jam you must lead at least one song. It does not have to be any kind of complicated or perfect but you need to have one song that you can
lead from start to finish. The rest we’ll cover as we go.
The other jam is going to be more of an intermediate to advanced type of jam. The focus of this jam is to have fun and give lots of room for many different kinds of cooking. There are
no rules on what kind of music has to be played other than acoustic. Who knows at some point I may even get an electric jam going, that could be fun too. First things first, because
of space, again, I need to plan on how many people will fit in my place so we need to communicate. If you find any of this interesting please e-mail me or give me a call. I would like to
maybe do them on a Fri. or Sat. night that I don’t have my daughter. Most Mon. and Wed. would work as well. If you are interested please let me know and I will start putting this
together soon.
The reason that I want to do this is for one the obvious marketing of Gonzo Guitars but so much more than that is that I have wanted to find a jam around town that I could enjoy and I
have not been able to. The Wed. night bluegrass jam is cool but it is to unidirectional (3notice the big college word, that means I’m smart) for me. I love many types of music and
want to find people to play with that do as well, I have also played with many folks that are great to play with but are not aware when they are playing over others. I want to build a
jam that is based on a strong musical base with lots of room for people to learn and cut loose. This will be an exercise in learning for everyone including me. When people listen to
each other when playing, magic can happen. Let’s make some magic!
One other cool thing before I let you go is I am talking to a customer right now about building a pair of very cool guitars. The acoustic is looking to be a jumbo most likely made of Sitka
Spruce and either Honderous Mahogany or Koa. He wants a planets and night sky motif. The other guitar will be an electric with the same motif. We have not gotten into the woods
and design on that one yet. It is not a certainty until the money is down but I think this is a serious customer. If it works out I will try to get photos up on my web site of the process.
Could be fun!!!
I truly wish you all the best during these holidays and a sincere prayer of blessings on all of you and yours in the New Year. Please join in hope and prayer in whatever it is you pray to
for peace in the next year!!!
Respectfully yours,
Gonzo
November, 2002
Greetings from Gonzoland,
This month we talk about guitar nuts in our monthly article and I’ll talk about some of the other things that have been happening around the shop. I know that you just got a newsletter
from me a few weeks ago but my article is also published in the I.A.M.A. Magazine each month and the deadline for that rag is the 10th of each month and I want to sinc up the two
because it’s the right thing to do!
I.A.M.A. Membership
I just got back from the I.A.M.A. Board Meeting and I want to talk about this for just a minute. I know that many of you do not listen to the varying types of acoustic music happening in
this town so you are excused. Those of you that have gone to any of the I.A.M.A. jams or concerts I want to talk about the organization for a minute.
This organization is all about trying to create a place for various types of acoustic music. There is the local concert series, the monthly national artist series and the bluegrass festival
that I just found out is going to be a three day festival this year and being moved to a new location and should be much more like the festivals that we travel hundreds of miles to see.
In order for this organization to survive we need more memberships!!! I know you don’t want to be preached to and I’ll keep it short but this organization is responsible for a lot of great
music!!! This community would suffer a huge loss if this organization were not here, between KRCL and I.A.M.A. I was introduced to most of the music that I listen to.
It costs $20 for an annual membership and you get the magazine delivered to your home. You also get great discounts at stores like Orion Music, Acoustic Music, Intermountain
Guitar and Banjo and of course Gonzo Guitars as well as others. You can easily get your money back in the perks of the membership. but I know the reason that you want to join is
because of the need for members. It takes a lot of money for the magazine, all of the concerts, advertising and the bluegrass festival. Plus if you get involved you can have a say in
what kind of acoustic music scene we have. So, I will stop with the lecture because I know that I have stimulated your yearnings to be a part of something that contributes to your
community so just log onto the I.A.M.A. web page and check it out at www.iamaweb.org, just tell them Gonzo sent you.
Okay, okay I’m off my soap box and I promise I won’t do that very often…if you’re good!
On to this months article:
This month we are taking a little break on the intense information after last months intonation ramblings. This month we are going to be looking at the next step in the set up process.
I must start by saying that in the set-up process, the intonation is the last step after the nut is cut or adjusted. I covered it with saddles last month because it is easiest to explain the
two together. So, the four-step process of doing a set-up is:
1. Truss rod adjustment
2. Saddle height adjustment (or new one)
3. Nut height adjustment (or new one)
4. Intonation
I will on electric guitars, adjust the magnetic pickup height before I intonate the saddles because a pickup that is too close will defiantly interfere with the intonation. I’ll cover that when
I talk about pickups.
GUITAR NUTS: What makes them so tuff!
The reason that I titled this article this is because in my days as a Luthier, I have had more customers scoff at my price on nuts than any other job I do. I had a customer this week
that wanted to know why it cost what it cost. The reason is because to do it right you have a very small margin of error and it takes time. The nut is a crossroads of the string (and it’s
direction) with the direction of the neck. The strings also need to flow through the nut so that there is no binding of the strings as you stretch the string so it will slide back to tune.
A poorly cut nut can be part of the problem when a guitar has a hard time playing in tune. It can especially make a guitar harder to tune. You know when you tune your guitar and you
get that little pop as you tighten you tuner? That is you string getting bound up in your nut slot.
The angle on the top of the nut should match the headstock angle, the wound strings should not sit more than half way in the slot and the plain can be just flush. I like to make my
plain strings sit half way if I can, but this gives you almost no margin of error. If your guitar has the strings buried below the nut your nut could stand to be worked on.
What are they made of?
These are made of the same materials as the saddles and I still feel the same about them so if you want to read about this contact me and I’ll send you the article. I will say this
though, I had a customer this week, a classical player who has a very bright nicely handcrafted instrument. It’s a little too bright for his liking and we decided to try Corrian or Micarda
for his nut and saddle, we are hopping that the softer material will soften the tone of the instrument. I will get back to you and let you know how it works but for those of you that want
soften the edge of your instrument try these softer synthetic materials. You can also put a soft wood shim glued and shaped to the bottom of the saddle and that will help wooden up
the tone. I do this on a lot of piezo pickups to make them sound a little more natural. You need to remove the thickness of the shim from the saddle to keep the saddle height at
proper specs.
How do you check the nut?
The first thing is to look at it. The strings should be 1/8” from the edge of the nut and the strings should be spaced evenly with straight lines. Most of all it should not buzz. It is very
easy to tell if a buzz is the nut or the frets, if it’s the nut the string will buzz only in the open position. Fret buzz will usually be a group or area of frets that is buzzing. When you fret
between the second and third frets there should be about .002” to .004” space between the top of first fret and bottom of string. Any more space than that and the nut slots need to be
filed and any less, you most likely need to cut a new one. You can fill in the slots with bone dust and super glue but I always tell people that this is a temporary fix and will pay the
cost of a new nut quick. Plus it’s often a drag when it gives, your at a jam and it lets loose and you got that damn buzz again.
Is it really that hard to cut a nut, I’ve got some files at home?
With the right tools and patience and anyone can be taught to cut a nut. I started this paragraph with “With the right tools” and I preface that to do this or any luthiery you need the
right tools. You need a good accurate 6” ruler, you would want feeler gauges if you are just starting and you need straight edges. Not rulers, you need milled straight edges because
you need to know when something is flat and when it’s not. You don’t have nut files you can use a mouse-tail file but I strongly recommend getting nut files. It is very hard to cut good
slots with a mouse-tail file but when I was in school they made us cut them with a mouse-tail to develop our skill so it can be done. I’ll talk more about tools at some other point as well.
To cut one well takes time both in the moment and accumulated over time. You start with cleaning all debris off the nut shelf that would get in the way of good contact of saddle and
shelf. You then get a nut blank, most often just a block rectangular shape. There are some preshaped nuts but for the most part I like just a block blank. Most of the preshaped
blanks need to be reworked anyway so the shaping is more of a hindrance. The Martin and the Fender nut blanks can be useful but the Martin blank is too rounded for my liking. I like
to have sharper angles on my nuts so you first fit the width of the nut to the shelf and you need to at this point match the angle of the nut shelf. They are very often different than 90
degrees. Once you have the width you then fit the length and this means matching whatever flare there is on the edges of the neck. The nut needs to match the contours of the neck
in order to flow with the guitar. If I can feel any kind of ridge between the neck and the nut it needs to be fit better.
Once the nut has been fit to the shelf you then figure out and mark the nut height. How I do this is I get my 6” ruler and set it on the second fret and lay it across the edge of the
nut and I make a mark. Keep in mind that the string needs to sit half way in the finished slot. I then mark the same on the other side, this is a little hard to hold at first. Once I
have my edges marked I get my handy dandy radius gauges, another tool that is important in doing this line of work. I find the radius of the fingerboard at the nut and, with as fine a l
ine as I can, connect the two points marked. I then put the nut on the shelf, with my 6’ ruler as the guide to match the angle of the headstock. Somewhat…
I want that string to stay in the slot from the front edge to the back edge and it is very easy to mess the nut up in trying to match the headstock angle. How I do it is I lay my ruler
across the outside edge of the nut touching the height mark on the front edge and set the ruler on third tuner post (the D and G). If I had any industry secrets this would be one of
them because I learned that after cutting a lot of nuts. This gives the nut enough of an angle to keep the string in the slot but matches the headstock angle enough to both flow with
the lines of the guitar and have a nut that allows the string to slide through without binding. Once I have the sides marked I mark the back with the proper radius and take the blank
to the tool room and grind to the lines. Be careful, this is another place that it is easy to burn through a $5 blank. When you grind you want to leave enough room to polish out sand
marks.
When I have the height where I want it to be I mark my nut slots. I first mark a line at 1/8” from each edge, on a bass I go 3/16” and 12-stings and Mandolins are a different article.
Once I have my outside marks I mark the A, D, G and B string distances with a dividing caliper. Many people use nut spacing template and they work but I like to use a caliper
because it let’s me do every nut custom to it’s length. They also leave a little dimple that gets filed away but allows you to make more consistent lines. I make my lines and file my
slots with the appropriate nut file and check the depth as I cut the slot with a feeler gauge that is long enough to reach the nut slot and the second fret. When I lay the feeler gauge
in the slot and the other end across the fret I keep filing until I have about .002”, different guitars will allow you different final adjustments depending on the guitar and it’s neck angle.
It is very important to have your truss rod and saddle height set before you adjust the nut because if you adjust you nut and then the truss rod, your nut slots are now off. Very
likely you have cut your nut too low and now need to cut a new one.
Once I have my slots cut I final contour and sand the nut so that the string sits half in and half out of the nut. I do a few personal contours that a lot of Luthiers do one way or another
that makes the nut distinctly theirs. I like to round my nuts at the corners to look somewhat how violin nuts look. When done the new nut is both as efficient as possible and pretty.
This job takes me somewhere between and hour and an hour and a half when you cut your first one it would not be at all unusual for it to take at least a half day and possibly a whole
day.
The tools that I talk about can all be found at Stewart McDonald’s Guitar shop supply at 1-800-848-2273 or stewmac.com. There is also a book my Dan Erlewine titled, “Guitar Player
Repair Guide” that is the one book that anyone who is interested in Luthiery needs. There are also other Luthiery suppliers like “Luthier’s Mercantile” that can be found in many guitar
magazines, searched on the web or contact me.
I went on a walk today and a friend asked me why I am willing to so openly tell what has taken so much time to acquire. I said that I was willing because for one, I want people to
understand why I charge $55 for a new nut and that it has taken 13 years this fall to learn what I have learned, it takes more than a few articles to make a Luthier. This profession takes
a lot of time and issues it’s secrets very slowly but is well worth the patience. My next issue will talk about fret levels and frets can be explained very simply but are an aspect of
Luthiery that takes years to perfect.
As always, if you have any questions contact me and if you are interested in personal instruction I want to put a class together.
Around the shop,
If you have been in the shop lately you may have met my nephew Sipi, who has been coming over after school to help around the shop and do a bit of learning. He’s a great kid and is
very exited to learn about guitars. Cedar, my daughter, is doing great in school and is also a great amount of help in the house. My dogs Koko and Washechu are cute but worthless...
but I love’em. We are plugging away at trying to make Gonzo Guitars stronger and it is happening but it’s slow. This last year has been an education of a lifetime, learning to run a
business is so much more than just working the trade that you have learned! I have worked for over 11 years as a Luthier and two years in school before that but I don’t know if I have
ever been challenged as much as I have this last year. No complaints, just a reflection. This early part of December will be one year that I have survived off of Gonzo full time away
from any other music stores. I’m still learning lots and building the stock as I can and with your support Gonzo Guitars is turning into a top notch, full service repair and accessories
shop.
If you haven’t visited yet check out my web page at gonzoguitars.com, it is still coming together but has some cool stuff to check out. All of my warranty companies, some local artists
and links to all of their web pages. I have some repair photos and an archive of my different articles as well as a few other things. So, check it out.
One last thing before I let you go. I want to talk a little about what I hope Gonzo Guitars becomes, a point of connection for musicians. For those of you that know me know that I have
a side to my personality that is very social, social in personality but social in conscience as well. Part of what I want Gonzo Guitars to be is a place where musicians can share and
gather information. I had a couple of customers talk to me last week about looking for new band members. One is the band, “Logan’s Well”, which is going to be looking for a new
fiddle player. They do a progressive Celtic style of music, which by the way, I have discs of theirs for sale. The other has not gotten back to me with the information yet so I will give
more information as I get it. The point is that I would like to be a source of information for local musicians. If you have instruments for sale, if you are looking for a new band member
or just someone to jam with I would like to try and help.
One last thing and I promise I will let you go. I went to a jam a while back and it made me think about how I have been trying to find a jam that quenches my thirst for playing. I play
folk, folk/rock and bluegrass and would like to try and put a jam together that is interested in opening things up but is focused on listening and giving everyone room to go. I was
thinking about how to do this and I would like to try and experiment.
I would like to ask for players that are intermediate to advanced that are interested in learning something new, would like to try and build a progressive acoustic jam and feel that the
whole is more important than the individual. I would take an acoustic or electric bass and hope for a nice balance of instrumentation. I would hope to have people that are interested
in learning some new tunes and not be afraid to open up for some instrumental interplay. If this sounds interesting to you I would like to try for a Monday or Wednesday evening at
my home/shop. If you are interested please call or e-mail me and we will set something up.
I don’t mean to exclude anyone and I would love to try having some open jams here at some point as well but I have been trying to find a certain type of jam for some time and it just
doesn’t seem to be out there so I am going to try and build it. I also have the least amount of open space since I was in college.
I’m sorry to be so long winded, I was afraid that I wouldn’t have anything to say but I always seem to have more than enough! I hope you enjoy the newsletter and please remember to
send it on to anyone that you think might appreciate it. If you received this from a friend and would like to be subscribed just e-mail me and I’ll put you on the list. Until next time
remember to be nice to each other and as my good friend Jim always tells me, “Gonzo, get away from that hammer, you know you don’t know nothin’ ‘bout power tools!”
Peace,
Gonzo
October, 2002
This month, October '02... we talk about the saddle and saddle compensation, so hold on.
Hello sport fans, it’s me the mad Luthier again. I know some of you were waiting for the new Gonzo Newsletter last month and found yourself disappointed especially after the last
issues tingling article on truss rods. I have a good excuse, honest. I have been, with the help of some great friends, Gonzo Guitars Plummer, Landscape Architect, Manual Laborer,
Furnace Repairman, Car Mechanic, Office Manager, Landscape Designer, Shipping Dept. and last but not least, Luthier. Oh, I’ve also been learning some finish carpentry, in my spare
time. I have also learned a lot!!! Thanks to all of you that have helped me in any way, which also includes you loyal customers!!!
I’m sorry that I had to make a big “to-do” out of my past few months but I have wanted to get this newsletter out and haven’t had time. In this months issue I am going to talk about
saddles and intonation, so hold on. I am also going to be talking about some of the changes that have happening in Gonzo Land and how we can build a network through Gonzo for
musicians. Last but not least I want to talk about a couple of local musicians that I personally enjoy listening to them live and to there discs and want to bring notice to any of you
that may not know there music. (See, some of the networking that I was talking about).
To start let talk guitars...
Monthly Discussion: Saddles and Intonation, what are they really?
This is a lot of information in very few words so as usual let me know if you have any questions.
The saddle is the second adjustment made after the truss rod adjustment and is traditionally made of cow bone. Some have even used elephant ivory (this is illegal unless you have
some serious documentation these days) and some even use wooly mammoth ivory. These tend to be the most expensive blanks. There is also graphite, Micarta and Corrion.
Graphite is a wonderful material other than tone (to my ear). It wears amazingly well, and self lubricates. I also hate working with the black, white bone is much easier to mark fine
lines and get more exact. There is also Micarta and Corrion, which are synthetic materials. They were actually created as counter top material but because of how consistent the
material is many guitar builders, especially factories, love them. They tend to be a little softer than bone but bone can have hard and soft spots.
Just a while back I had a customer bring in a guitar that had a compensated saddle that I cut about a year ago and it must have had a soft spot because on the “G” string (the weakest
string because of the thin core) blew a chunk of the saddle out. I have never had that happen before and I’m sure it is because that bone had a soft spot that couldn’t deal with the
pressure. You can even see the soft spots if you look at a saddle blank in the light.
Even though bone is inconsistent it is still my favorite material. I like it better than Micarta and Carrion because the synthetics tend to be a little soft for my liking. I like the saddle to
be as brittle as possible because the harder the material the better the signal transfers. I’ll take a soft spot here or there to get the hardness of bone. This is mostly personal choice
but I will say that on a compensated saddle you have to remove too much material from the saddle and it will indent more than my liking with the synthetics.
How do you find the placement of the saddle anyway? This is a very good thing to know and you can use this to even evaluate a guitar that you want to buy and see how well in tune
you can get it to play. To measure the distance for the saddle you go from the edge of the nut with a straight edge. It must be right were the nut ends and the fingerboard begins and
you measure to the middle of the twelfth fret, mark it and move the straight edge end that was at the nut to the center of the 12th fret and were you pencil mark is, is the spot for you
high E. For the Low E you add 1/8”. The reason that you add the 1/8” is because you need to compensate for the lower strings.
What is compensation of the saddle anyway? Well, in theory a scale length (the length of the string from nut to saddle) should be 25 11/32” for Martins, 24 ¾ for Gibson’s, 25” for Paul
Reed Smith’s and 251/2” for Fenders but in the real world you have to deal with a little thing call physics or as I like to call it “reality”. Depending on the scale length, mass (string
gauge and material makeup) and tension it will determine the intonation or length x mass x tension = intonation. I know you are at this point going, ‘he’s gone” but hang in there this
looks more confusing than it really is. In the real world what all this means is that depending on the gauge of strings and the tension you tune your guitar to will determine how much
you have to adjust your saddle. The larger the mass of the string the less flexible it is and so the less it will vibrate at the ends. That space needs to be made up for by allowing extra
space for the larger mass strings. For instance when you strike a string it vibrates a lot in the middle and very little at the ends. Well the bigger the string the less it vibrates on the
ends and thus the more compensation it needs to play in tune. That is why you move the bass string 1/8” back from the high E that is how much dead string you have on the bass
side.
What I just talked about is saddle placement and there is a general compensation that is done there but a compensated saddle is different. When I compensate an acoustic saddle I
start by cutting a new saddle. I get the height, thickness, width and even radius done (which I talk about more in a min) and instead of round top of saddle over I leave it square. I use
a spare peace of guitar string and fit it under the string and move it back and forth until I find the spot that the string will play in tune when I check the intonation. To check the
intonation I fret the 12th fret or octave, make sure it is in tune and then hit the octave harmonic. Depending on if the harmonic is flat or sharp to the fretted 12th, I will either move the
intonation point on the saddle forward or back. When they are in tune with each other I know that I have found the point of intonation. I do this with every string and mark the point of
intonation and then carve away the unneeded material.
I know this is a very short explanation so if this does not make sense just get in touch with me and I can explain it more. In a nut shell, the saddle is twice the distance of the nut to
the 12th fret, octave or the center of the scale and add 1/8” to bass side and this gives you a relative intonation. To truly intonate the saddle you create a high point on the saddle and
zero in the point of intonation.
How do you find the correct saddle height? Say you bring in a guitar and you want me to lower the action because it hurts your little mitts when you play. Well, the first thing that I do
is I tune it up to pitch, this is very important! Anytime you check a guitar it must first be in tune and then it must be checked in the playing position. Just moving it out of playing
position is enough to give you a misreading. Once you do this you fret the first fret, again to remove the nut from throwing of the measurement and you measure from the top of the
12th fret (Octave) to the bottom of the string. The measurements should be 3/32” on bass side and 1/16” or on the treble side. Say that we have a reading of 1/8” on the bass and
3/32” on the treble side. 1/8” is the same as 4/32”, which is 1/32” too high so you need to remove 2/32” or 1/16” from the bass side and 2/32” or 1/16” from the treble side as well.
What’s that, it was only 1/32” so why are we removing twice that from the saddle? The reason is because we are measuring from the 12th fret which is the half way point so what ever
you are off at the 12th needs to be doubled at the saddle (the full scale length). I hope this makes sense because I know it can be a little confusing but just a little.
Once you know the saddle height how do you radius the saddle? Once you have figured out the saddle height of both the low and high E’s you go in with your handy dandy
radius gauges and match to the radius of the fingerboard to make distances uniform. Most acoustics are 12’ to 14’ radius’, electrics can be anywhere to 7 ¼’ to 20’ radius
and some electrics will also have a compound radius, i.e. 12’ radius at the nut and 20’ radius at the body joint. The point of this is to make it easier to play tricky up high where
it is harder to get to.
Well sports fans, I hope that you’re not reading this for the third time saying to yourself, “ What the heck is he talking about”? I know that measurements can be confusing to
read so again, any questions just contact me and I’m happy to help explain anything that I can. My e-mail is gonzo@gonzoguitars.com and my phone is 975-1950. Also
remember I would like to get some questions that I can write about. One last thing, if you are interested in taking a class on set up please let me know, I would like to put that
together.
New Gonzo Directions!!!
I with the help of the help of a few great friends have been doing some major changes to Gonzo. We are getting parking!!! We tore out a big slab of concrete, moved my shed leveled
the ground in the back and even put some grass for the dogs. We will be laying down some rocks and we still need to have the concrete hauled off but we have better parking. I am
starting to carry more strings. I now have a nice selection of acoustic strings and will be putting together an electric string order some time this week. I also carry polish, capo’s
and humidifiers. I will be getting picks at some time in the future also.
I have a few guitars to sell of various levels, and am interested in buying instruments that I can turn around and sell. I also have some customers that are interested in selling a few
nice instruments. One customer is interested in selling a wonderful little vintage Washburn parlor guitar. It needs a neck reset and he would rather put the money into the kind of
guitar that he would like so this could be a nice deal for someone. Another customer is looking to get rid of a Gibson Firebird. Near perfect condition, only played twelve hours.
I also have a customer that has an active system for Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass. These are nice pickups. Ask about Custom Pickguards! I mean any photo you want
put on any pickguard type you want. For an amazing price! If you are interested, call or e-mail me. I would like to be able to provide musicians with a connection to each other
as I build a relationship with you. I would just ask a finder’s fee from the part of the seller so if you have anything to sell let me know.
I would like to do a monthly cyber clipboard or more if needed. This would be easy to put out, I would just have you write your ad and e-mail it to me. Cut and paste and we have
a cool clipboard! I also have some nice new CD displays donated by a good friend and customer and so I have four CD display slots for local artists trying to sell their discs. If
you are interested give me a call, I would like to have a shop copy to play so that customers can hear your grooves. It also has to be something that that I can enjoy listening to.
Anyway, I’ve been busy and this is getting long so I just want to talk about the first two artists that I have for sale. First Dave Hahn, a super guy and has an amazing way of
networking so that everyone is in a win, win situation. He has a wonderful disc of original songs, I play this in the shop often. The title is very eloquently titled, “Second
Generation ReMasters” but where he cut time in thinking of a title he put in writing these songs. Dave sings some beautiful stuff, as is his acoustic guitar work.
Dylan Shorer, one of the editors for Acoustic Guitar Magazine also has a disc for sale. Acoustic Guitar… you know this guy has got to be good! He is, and this disc is wonderful.
The name of his band was Logan’s Well and the name of the disc is Thunder Perfect Mind and if you like Progressive Acoustic Music with a Celtic twist this will knock your socks
off. Dylan is one of the best players I have ever had the pleasure of watching and listening too and I am lucky enough to call him a friend too. Just ask to put these or other discs
that I will have when you’re over.
I have also rearranged my shop a little but I’ll leave something for next time. I hope all is well with everyone and I will look forward to next time. Remember to be nice to each other
and I’m sending an attachment that some sort of truth. I hope it doesn’t offend.
Peace,
Gonzo
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