Hello everyone,
Like most of us, I had some time one day and decided to check out Guitar Center (Sacramento) just to mess around. Played a few things, nothing too special, although the new Breedlove Oregon Series was quite nice. But then I saw this beat up old Yamaha, tucked away in the used section. I love Yamaha guitars, and oddly enough I've never owned an FG.
Not going to lie though, this guitar had seen better days. Crazy high action, slight bow in the neck, super tight string spacing at the nut. Bet buckle rash, scraps and dents, and a small dent that cracked the side in the lower bout. But it sounded great. Loud, dry warm tone, deep bass, bright highs, kind of like a brash D-18. Not bad especially for the price! I know we can't say prices here, but it was in the double digits.
So I bought it as a project guitar.
First I took off the old strings and cleaned up the body. Cleaned and oiled the fretboard and bridge, wiping off the grit and grime on the body, and vacuuming the dust out of it. There was a lot of dust... You couldn't really read the label it was so covered in dust. I wasn't even sure it was a red label until I cleaned it up.
Then I put new strings on and adjusted the truss rod to get rid of the bow in the neck. The action was still high, so I shaved down the saddle (turns out it's bone! Because it definitely stunk when I sanded it down...) that lowered the action at the higher frets, but the action at the nut was still too high and string spacing was way to tight. To fix the nut, I measured out the dimensions of the old nut, ordered a new one that matched the size, but had wider string spacing. I bought a black tusq one, cause that just seemed to look cool. Pretty simple switch, except the old nut was glued on so I had to use a scalpel, rubbing alcohol, a screwdriver and a hammer (for tapping) to remove it without damaging anything else. And then when the new nut arrived it was for a left handed guitar... So I got out my needle files and reslotted the nut. I didn't want to take the time to return it.
Now the only thing I haven't fixed is the tuner rattling and some slight pick guard lifting. It's still got it's original Yamaha stamped open back tuners, and one or two of the pegs really rattles when played hard. Anyone know a fix for this? Or will I have to just replace them? I don't want to though cause I like the way they look. And the pickguard appeares to have shrunk over time and now a little bit lifted. Any suggestions about this?
Overall though it's a great guitar and a fun project. It's LOUD and has "character." Plus I'm a fan of Elliott Smith and he used to play one, so that's always a plus
Now for pictures:
