Instrument Repair

Students Ron and Lamar ream their bridge pins to fit, slot the nut and give their guitars a final setup, before stringing them up and playing them for the first time!

A friend gifts me a rusty old jointer! I remove the rust, level the the infeed and outfeed tables, level the fence, set the infeed table coplanar to the outfeed table, and clean the cutterhead.

I take a critical look at the worst guitar I ever built. I point out flaws and discuss strategies for improving and avoiding some of the common mistakes that luthiers make. Mistakes include gappy joinery, inconsistent binding...

Oops, I cracked the soundboard! Watch as I show you how to make this incredibly simple super glue repair. I also talk about cleating repairs, and why and when you would consider using a cleat.

My Canadian friend brought me a Norman guitar with a lifting bridge, a belly bulge, and long run-out splits in the soundboard beginning just forward of the belly bulge. These are all symptoms of the same problem: too much tension at the bridge.

Tools –This is a free video from the “Building an OM Acoustic” Course. Click here for more free video tutorials. In this lesson we will discuss various tools around my shop. This is just to get the gears..

Using Magnets to Repair Side Splits This Martin 000-15 came into my shop with a long split in the sides on the treble side. The owner told me that the guitar was never dropped or bumped into anything. It never experienced any kind of trauma to cause the split. Furthermore, the guitar had been repaired [...]

When a Neck Removal Goes Bad!   To follow up episode #22 When a Bridge Removal Goes Bad, I decided to also write an article on bad neck removals as well. This neck removal was particularly hairy. I won’t get into why this was the case, but you can see the damage to the [...]

Keeping a Luthier’s Notebook A quick-tip on maintaining a notebook to improve your build process, and keep your guitar building shop rolling efficiently! Want more of this? Subscribe below for Weekly Guitar Making Tips from DIY Guitarmaking   Want to really learn more!? Take a class with Eric Schaefer and build your own guitar [...]

The Proper Way to Pull a Fret A back to basics episode, I demonstrate how to remove a fret without getting chipout on the fretboard face, using a set of nippers and a soldering iron.   Questions on this topic or anything else related to acoustic instrument construction? Please e-mail [email protected] with the subject [...]

Nut Slotting: Part 3 In these 3 episodes I delve into nut slotting. I discuss methods for such things as determining string spacing, determining nut slot depth and radius, marking string spacing, filing the slots, shaping the nut and more. This is an excerpt from the online course “Building an OM Acoustic.” Questions on [...]

Nut Slotting: Part 1 In these 3 episodes I delve into nut slotting. I discuss methods for such things as determining string spacing, determining nut slot depth and radius, marking string spacing, filing the slots, shaping the nut and more. This is an excerpt from the online course “Building an OM Acoustic.” Questions on [...]