Dreaded Guitar Envy

[Big.Al]

Thanks for the responses! Just to clarify, I've only had the Yairi since July. (35 years ago I could hardly afford a pack of strings, let alone a Yairi.) I actually bought it pretty cheap, as a project, hoping it would could be made playable enough to be a beater guitar . . . but it came out a lot better than I expected. When I bought it, the neck heel was cracked, the frets were worn, the action was terrible, the bridge plate was in rough shape, and somebody had tried to touch up all the dings by slobbering clear nail polish all over it. If I have an emotional bond to this one, it's because I put quite a few hours into making it whole again. Yes, I do enjoy it a LOT more than any other guitar I've owned up until now and I only have a couple hundred bucks tied up in the whole thing, case and all. I plan to hang onto this one.

The neck angle is marginal though . . . and I'm told that resetting it is not something that can be done very well on old Yairi's . . . an epoxy neck joint or something like that. I shaved and ramped the bridge and lowered the saddle as low as I dared, replaced some frets, installed new tuners, shimmed the nut and added a brass PlateMate. I repaired and reinforced the neck. I cleaned off the nail polish and drop-filled a few of the bigger dings with CA. The action is just about perfect right now, but I might be looking at needing a replacement guitar in a few years if the action rises again . . . but who knows? It might be stable now and it might outlast me.