Broken Truss Rod on Epiphone EJ200

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by mirwa

So many people these days in our field use catalogs to acquire their parts, the skills of a luthier, are fast dis-appearing

Originally Posted by BT55

Regretfully just like other artisans Luthiers are disappearing.

Here's the flip side of that argument.

I started making and repairing guitars in 1978. At that time, in all of North America, there was only one (1) full-time publicly-accessible school dedicated to making guitars: there was no school that I was aware of that taught repair work. At that time, I could count on two hands the number of luthiers in my area (Southern Ontario), most of whom were apprentices of Larrivee.

Fast-forward to now. There are numerous schools within a few hour's drive of me that teach guitar making and repairing. There are at least a hundred across North America, with new ones springing up frequently. There are dozens of guitar makers within a few hour's drive from me. Within the same vicinity, there are countless people who repair guitars, though, admittedly, relatively few are really good at it.

While I agree that "mastery" takes a lot of time and effort, there are now way, way more people in the industry than previously. Not all of them are "great", by any means, but even if a small fraction are, that's a lot more of them than there used to be. One has to search them out to find them.

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by B. Howard

I do this repair often. The original truss rods are a weak design and often fail if used to add relief. The new rod will be better than the one that was in there.
Cost is around $350 with finish work. This depends a bit on actual finish color. Contact me if you still need someone.

That is pretty cheap, does that include fretwork / refret or fret level and setup

Steve

[zamboknee]

WAY OVERDUE UPDATE: I found a local guy who did the repair for about $150. Sounds great, plays great. A little visual damage but nothing that gets in the way so, overall, I'm happy!
Thanks for the offer B. Howard and everyone else who chimed in.

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by zamboknee

WAY OVERDUE UPDATE: I found a local guy who did the repair for about $150. Sounds great, plays great. A little visual damage but nothing that gets in the way so, overall, I'm happy!.

That is a fantastic price, damage happens all the time from removing and refitting fingerboards, the art of our trade comes from touching up said damage.

Example after refitting board and before any finish work

[mark1800]

Just an aside, I managed this job myself wih no prior luthier experience.

HOWEVER: The fingerboard came free very easily, the frets all stayed where the should, and I happened to have a good luthier friend on hand to email back and forth...and I still screwed up the first glue attempt. Oops. Don't use Gorilla glue! Turns out white PVA school glue does the job just fine! 2 years on no complaints.

Not sure why alignment holes are so necessary when there's the nut to show you where to go ... but then again my fingerboard seemed to have an obvious groove it fit back into. Amateur luthiers unite!

[John Arnold]

The nut positions it lengthwise, but you also need something to center it side to side. I learned long ago that drilling for two half inch brads before removing the neck is cheap insurance. You don't even have to remove two frets on rosewood or ebony boards. Just drill the tiny holes right next to the fret. Once you remove the brad (made easy by rubbing it with soap or wax) and fill the hole with a sliver of matching wood, it disappears.