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Old 03-31-2018, 03:38 AM
Vanx Vanx is offline
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Default J45 various health question!

Hello everyone, I’ve got some different questions for you today!
One regarding setup (I had my luthier fit some Colosi pieces), and another one about some finish? cracks I saw after a bad drop on the floor.

1) I already know how to (and how it should) fit a new saddle and pins, but as I can’t file a new nut, I brought Colosi’s bone Pins, saddle and nut to a luthier to fit everything at once.

And now I wish I did personally the saddle ! Eheh
I would like you to check the photos I attached, mainly because the new saddle isn’t leaning forward, and it doesn’t get out when flipping the guitar, but it has some lateral movement, about 1/0,5 mm, and when I changed the strings I pushed it to the treble side, so the B string is centered on the compensated slot.
Is this acceptable? I don’t really know why he did this, it should be an easy job (the saddle was pre shaped) and now instead of playing in focusing on all of these thing.

I further sanded the pins an checked the fit, now they are flush but some bridge holes seem crooked from the factory..




2) the nut.. I hoped he knew the razor blade trick to pre cut the lacquer to not chip it when swapping the nut.. it chipped a little bit on the treble side, but maybe it was inevitable ?
A part from this, I knew that the strings should be half exposed, but I also found mixed photos of Gibson nuts, some got them exposed other got them recessed, the luthier, as you can see, left them a little bit recessed as he said he doesn’t wanted to sand it too much from the top. From what you can see, what do you think? The guitar is pretty soft now on the first positions and in tune, I did the pinch sound test and the slots height seems fine, better than the factory tusq for sure. The only thing is that on the G string when I tune sometime I hear a “ping”, and maybe I should put some graphite on all the slots, do you advise this? Or it could sink into the bone?


Overall the guitar plays and sounds fine, maybe the high E is a little lower in volume, mellower than the Tusq pieces I had, but I think it is related to the saddle height that now is 2.7/1.5 at the 12 fret. I want to underline that he was procrastinating, so this job plus some frets reglue and fretboard re-leveling costed around 200€ and I waited 2 months without my guitar!!!




3)2 yrs ago my mom dropped the guitar on the floor....(parquet) as I left it on the sofa my bad.. when I picked it up it was a little out of tune, got two big round chips on the top back of the headstock (bare wood! And I chose to leave them like this to remember the accident!). I don’t know how but the headstock didn’t snap!!!!!

I checked the guitar through the years, and the cracks didn’t move as I can remember.
The guitar got one serrate crack right where one of the headstock wings is, and it seems to be following the glued joint, could it be a finish crack? Maybe the wood absorbed the impact and moved on that spot.

She also got some line cracks around the neck joint area, one on the guitar top, and other on the joint itself. They are really small, and I was wondering at this point if they are just finish cracks, maybe I was lucky and the force of the impact was absorbed without structural damage.



Sorry for the length of the message, but I would like to finally clear my mind up and this is the only way! I hope you will help me understand.
Thanks in advance guys

Last edited by Vanx; 10-17-2020 at 09:53 AM.
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Old 03-31-2018, 05:39 AM
frankhond frankhond is offline
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The saddle should be snug in the slot (snug so it stays when upside down but no snugger). Also the bottom should be perfectly flat and perpendicular for maximum contact. The little space on the side doesn’t matter unless it bothers you cosmetically.
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Old 03-31-2018, 06:02 AM
Vanx Vanx is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankhond View Post
The saddle should be snug in the slot (snug so it stays when upside down but no snugger). Also the bottom should be perfectly flat and perpendicular for maximum contact. The little space on the side doesn’t matter unless it bothers you cosmetically.
Thanks, yes it is perfectly flat I checked.
It does a little click sound then pressing down, the previous saddles where the same if I remember right, maybe it's the slot, anyway it is easy to pick up with fingers but it doesn't "swim" in the slot! Regarding the cosmetic issue, unfortunately those pieces were pretty costly as I payed a lot for the shipping, so I can't bring back the bone dust and re-glue it!

If it isn't an issue I'll have to live with that, I was just trying to find a motivation because I don't really know how it is possible to over-sand the piece if checking the fit step by step.
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Old 04-02-2018, 09:33 AM
arie arie is offline
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FWIW,

-your nut slots are too deep. assuming you have the correct string height over the first fret? sop is to trim off the excess. rule of thumb for slot depth is just past half the string diameter for the basses, flush for the trebles.

-your bridge pins are nearly bottomed out yet there is a fair amount of slop in the pin holes as seen from the inside. there is potential for future issues here. the pins are pretty long too.

Last edited by arie; 04-02-2018 at 10:10 AM.
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Old 04-02-2018, 10:59 AM
Vanx Vanx is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arie View Post
FWIW,

-your nut slots are too deep. assuming you have the correct string height over the first fret? sop is to trim off the excess. rule of thumb for slot depth is just past half the string diameter for the basses, flush for the trebles.

-your bridge pins are nearly bottomed out yet there is a fair amount of slop in the pin holes as seen from the inside. there is potential for future issues here. the pins are pretty long too.
Thank you for giving your point.
Yeah that’s what I knew it should be done, do you think I can shave it by myself with sandpaper? It now has a pretty sharp edge on top as you can see, I think it would soften when shaving it up (of course without de-gluing it from the guitar!)


I get your point about the pins, but I really can’t understand why they are fitting like this, I attach a photo of the old plastic pins fit, as you can see it is similar, the hole isn’t filled underneath.

Anyone that can kindly check their j45 to help me out deciding if I should use oversized pins? They are the 2A size though!!!

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Old 04-13-2018, 01:48 AM
Vanx Vanx is offline
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what do you think guys about my last post??
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