Guitar Repair and Design - Level 1
Conestoga College
(Stratford Campus)
Next available course begins:
Saturday, January 9th, 2010.
11am to 2pm.
Six - three hour intensive lessons.
Register online now!
(See Conestoga link below)
Dates: Monday, November 2nd – December 7th, 2009 (FULL)
Tuesday, October 27 - December 1, 2009 (FULL)
Duration: 6 weeks
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Place: Northwestern Secondary School
428 Forman Ave. Stratford N5A 7W2
Instructor: Michael McConville
Phone: 519-275-2188
Email: mcconville@wightman.ca
Conestoga Contact : Joyce Irving jrving@conestogac.on.ca
519-748-5220 ext 2200
Synopsis:
This introductory course will provide students with hands-on training in the set-up and repair of acoustic and electric guitars. The repair of cracks and fractures, a detailed study of fretting technique, the fabrication of hand-cut nuts and saddles, basic wiring and pick-up installation will be covered in six 3 hour sessions. Workstations and hand tools will be supplied for the duration of the course. Study with Luthier and Guitar Repair Technician, Michael McConville.
CURRICULUM
WEEK 1
1. Overview of course
- Solid Body Guitar featured weeks 1 & 2
- Acoustic & Classical Guitar featured weeks 3 & 4
- Complete Fret Job on Solid Body Electric weeks 5 & 6
2. Overview of Guitar Family
- Classical and Flamenco
- Steel-String Acoustic
- 12 String Acoustic
- Arch-top Electric
- Solid Body Electric
3. Orientation to work stations and hand tools
4. Safety issues
- Hand and power tools
5. Basic Design and physics of Solid Body Electric
- Pick-up combinations and placement
- Basic switching options
6. Basic truss rod designs, variations and functions
- Guitars without truss rods
7. Setting action and intonation
- Practical overview
WEEK 2
Solid Body Electric
1. Recap of Week 1 – Truss rod adjustments and intonation
2. Practical Application of Week 1
- Truss rod adjustments
- Pick-up adjustments
- “Lay” of the neck
- Setting the action and intonation – physical and atmospheric (seasonal) influences
- Dressing nuts and saddles
- Floating tremelos – bridges
- Balancing “K” value of spring assembly
- String gauge – variations & their effects on intonation & play-ability
- Alternate tunings
- Tailpiece/Bridge combos
WEEK 3
Acoustic Steel String and Classical Guitars
1. Overview of these instruments
- Bracing design
- Bridge design
- Fret profiles
- String gauges & types
2. Discussion and demonstration of setup and intonation
- Fabrication of bone nuts and saddles
- Adjusting focal points on saddles
- Arching saddle to fingerboard radius
- Basic radius template design
3. Cracks and Fractures
- Loose braces
- Quarter sawn cleat & patch fabrication and installation
WEEK 4
1. Practical application of Week 3
- Fret level, crown and polish
- Edge dressing
2. Discussion of Arch-Top Guitars
- Trapeze style tailpieces & stop tailpieces
- Bridge placement and set up
3. Discussion of Twelve String Guitars
- Intonation requirements
- Extra string load considerations
WEEK 5
Demonstration of Complete Fret Job - Solid Body Electric Guitar with Rosewood Fingerboard
Instruction in Fretwork:
- Fret removal
- Truing of finger board
- Preparation for new frets
- Fret wire profile variations
- Alloy variations
WEEK 6
Continuation and Completion of Complete Fret Job for Solid Body Electric
- Refretting
- Dressing and polishing
- Intonation
- Final setup
Conclusion – Discussion – Questions
- Recap of past 6 weeks
- Tooling requirements for home workshop
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Guitar Repair and Design - New! Saturday Course Begins January 2010
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Conestoga "Guitar Repair and Design" ... Monday Nov 2 / 09 Course 7:00 PM -10:00 PM
Dave and Inspector Walt taking a good look at those frets.
Welcome to all the Second Session Fall 09' Tuesday night students Greg R.,Walter, Kyle, Dave ,Chris and Greg F.
Special thanks to all of you who are travelling the distance from Acton,London,Kitchener,Ingersol,St. Marys,Woodstock,Hamilton,Guelph etc.. to Stratford to study with me. I'll be sure to make it worth your while ! ..... let me know how that Gibson SG is treating you Greg .... Gratefully , Michael 
This a solid Koa ( hawaian mahogany ) Uke bridge ( rosewood ) came
off ultra-clean !
Student Papparrazzi "getting the goods" on a bridge re-glue.
Because the cheaper guitars are most often made with plywood soundboards, the plys will pull apart with the string load ... this can make for a pretty messy bridge repair . For purposes of illustration ( and lower risk ) it is best to try this job on a cheap guitar before attempting it on "the real thing " ... even though the cheaper guitar bridge is generally more difficult to remove.
The cheaper guitars most often have bridges that are crazy-glued to the finish and are more difficult to remove cleanly than the bridges on "nicer" solid wood guitars which tend to be glued on with wood glue.
This is a Martin guitar bridge that I slipped off "right on the glue line" ( it was lifting slightly ) and re-glued this past week. As you can see, when you blow up the picture for a close look ... there was not so much as a micro-sliver of wood that pulled away from the foot of the bridge OR the top wood !
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Conestoga College : Course Discussion and Student Feedback
Conestoga College : Guitar Repair and Design Course
This approach, with 6 students bringing an average of 5 instruments each - we end up with a broad cross-section of different types of guitars as well as different repairs. With all the various members of the 'Guitar Family' ..... 12 string / solid body electrics / classical / fretless bass / arch-top / flamenco / dobro / left-handed / floating tremolo systems / acoustic-electric systems / etc.. etc... there is layer upon layer of information to cover.
The week long break between lessons gives the students a chance to consider what has been covered in the 3 hour session and to formulate questions for the upcoming class.
Comments from students:
" I have benefited hugely from this course. It has allowed me to learn a lot of skills in a hands on enviroment. Tons of knowledge in a small period of time. Ryan Mc.
" I believe I have a solid foundation for making money with these skills if applied". Dan P.
"Thank you for your graciousness, enthusiasm and encouragement ". Warren H.
"A lot of great information has been shared with us. The hands on aspect helped solidify the information." Amber G.
" I have benefited hugely from this course. It has allowed me to learn a lot of skills in a hands on enviroment. Tons of knowledge in a small period of time. Ryan Mc.
" I believe I have a solid foundation for making money with these skills if applied". Dan P.
"Thank you for your graciousness, enthusiasm and encouragement ". Warren H.
"A lot of great information has been shared with us. The hands on aspect helped solidify the information." Amber G.
"Great guy. Very knowledgable. He really knows his stuff." Bill C.
"Great course and great info! Thanks a lot Michael!" Michael S.
"Always spoke positively about progression in learning." Carlos P.
"I can now do things I wouldn't have even dared to try before". Cody M.
"Teacher was great,course was great. I'd take it again. Looking forward to
future courses." Matt B.
"Everything brought to the table was well planned and demonstrated." Rob D.
"Mike made this course really enjoyable, a great person to learn from." Peter D.
"I can't believe what I've been able to do on my own." Bill C.
"Excellent experience, I would strongly recommend to others." Warren H.
"Obviously you have been through many processes of elimination to come up with the most efficient, simple, yet correct way of doing each repair and to me they seem logical , not mystical. The thing that impressed me most was the way you took what seemed to me to be the complex make-up of the guitar and simplified it to a step-by-step, controlled process that most could follow." Paul H.
"The amount of information and the variety of topics was incredible." Josh D.
"I own a number of guitars and wanted to learn how to do basic repairs. It was very informative; he took the time to show us in great detail." Larry J.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Guitar Repair and Design Course November 2 / 09'
Joyce Irving jirving@conestogac.on.ca to register.
Thank you ... to all of the First Session Fall 09' students .... for driving up to Stratford each week from Niagra Falls, London, Cambridge, Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener to study with me. Congratulations on your completion of GRAD Level 1 ... looking forward to seeing you again in Spring 2010 for Level 2. Your commitment and enthusiasum is a big inspiration !
Amber / Dan / Kevin / Steve / Stephan / Wayne / Nick / Brandon / Ryan /..... special thanks and to Steve and Sam .. my first Father/Son duo and Warren my returning Spring Session student !
GRAD Student party at Darcy's farm ... I'll keep you posted !
GRAD Student party at Darcy's farm ... I'll keep you posted !
StringTech Goes - Green !
StringTech goes Green !!
Scroll down for details
Michael came down from Elora for a Tremelo Bridge install / neck fitting /fret dress and setup.
David ( London ) needed his Taylor " tweaked to perfection " for a solo "wedding gig".
John drove up from London and entrusted his 335 to my care for fret dressing/ tailpiece inserts /input jack re-wiring and set-up. Thanks John ... I always appreciate the work and it is always extra nice to work on beautiful instruments like this one !Thanks to the engineering prowess of Canadian Recycled Plastics ( CRP Stratford ) , ALL plastic components for the TechDeck workstations will now be made with recycled plastic !
Special thanks to " Conceptual Impact Design " ..... the Design/Engineering firm from Waterloo Ontario .... for an amazing feat of engineering !
Thank you Scott /Trong/ Thuy/ John ( all 4 are Conestoga College ..... Graphic Design / Engineering / Robotics ... Alumni ) and Art .. our one-man-army production manager !
" Think Global ... buy local "
Small ..... really is the new big !
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
McConville Rosewood Jumbo Cutaway
This guitar was co-designed by Philip Patterson ( one of my former music students )
This was a shot that I had almost deleted. After taking a second look, I thought ... hmmm ? .... I think I like that !
For those of you who aren't up on your " Ancient Hebrew " ..... the gold leaf lettering is a quote from the 18th Psalm .... hence the model name .... Psalm 18
Monday, September 7, 2009
In a Luthiers Workshop ... multi - tasking is an everyday affair
Fitting the neck with an off-set dovetail. Cutting the dovetail off centre for this cutaway Jumbo .... puts the male dovetail in the centre of the head block for more stability.
This is my version of a compensated nut ... cut from a bone blank.
This was the day the new StringTech "TechDeck" arrived. I was ' One Happy Camper ' that day!! Been using it every day since.
Even the bowl back instruments, like this Ovation can be handled firmly and safely without the use of dangerous clamps or vices.
If you scroll down , you'll see how the TechDeck handled David's upright bass for the fingerboard levelling, nut filing and set-up.
This is a Ricky 4001 Re-Fret with Dunlop 6105 fretwire.
I finished up this Re-Fret today ( also Dunlop 6105 ) on this 73' Strat.
Joey's Mex Jazz De-Fret
.025" Brass inserts are used to fill the saw kerf after removal of the frets. This restores the rigidity that is lost when frets are removed from a fingerboard.... much more effective ( and cleaner ) than trying to fill the kerf with up epoxy!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
National Tri-Cone , Taylor 12-String
Rick Taylor dropped this guitar off for a pickup install after indicating that he was ready to drive to Michigan USA to get this job done because after checking with the "12th Fret" and a couple of other places within a comfortable driving distance of home ( Bayfield ) he had failed to find anyone who had done this installation. After hearing this, I took a few dozen photos of the job-in-progress and decided to post this tutorial / pictorial for the "12th Fret" and the "Guitar Repair Community" as well as my "Guitar Repair and Design Course" students ( past and future ) .
You can check out Rick Taylor at http://www.ricktaylormusic.com/
The following photos are a step by step pictorial / tutorial for the installation of the Highlander pickup system for the Tri-Cone National steel.This is a fairly involved installation, so if you are thinking about doing this job and have any questions ... zip me an email .. I'll be happy to walk you through it !
The clearance between the "chrome clip" ( see previous picture) and the pickup ..... " WITH THE STRINGS TUNED TO CONCERT PITCH " .... needs to be between 1/16" and 3/32".This is the single most critical part of this install.
Taylor 12 String bone nut detail
This 12 String guitar now plays easier than most six string guitars !
Action after neck re-setThis is a nice guitar that sat virtually un-played for 10 years.
Taylor 12 String compensated bone saddle detail
Removed neck before clean up .
Top surface cleaned up and ready for neck + fingerboard extension.
The relieved neck heel ( face ) and cleaned up fingerboard.
Taylor neck re-set
Neck and top surface ready for re-attachment.
Lowest possible treble side action before re-set
Lowest possible bass side action before re-set.
Saddle bottomed out and action still un-playably high.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Gibson L-50 Restoration and Kent Armstrong pickup retro-fit
Thankyou Will P. for entrusting this instrument to my care . I consider it a great privilage to have worked on so many wonderful guitars over the last 38 years ... I never take it for granted.
My interest is not in 'Vintage Guitar Dealing'
I will occasionally , upon request of the buyer or seller, act as a liaison to broker a fair deal for both parties but my main interest is the instruments themselves .... and bringing them up to their maximum potential as fully functional instruments. It is always very gratifying to breathe new life into an old instrument that has sat dormant for so many years.
After a complete refret/new fingerboard binding / Ivory nut / top crack spliced /side repaired /
and ' retro-fit ' Kent Armstrong floating bridge pickup with volume and tone controls ; rest assured that this guitar will be played more than it ever was !
and ' retro-fit ' Kent Armstrong floating bridge pickup with volume and tone controls ; rest assured that this guitar will be played more than it ever was !
Seeing as this guitar already had a hole drilled in the side .. after some consultation with the customer, we decided to reinforce the hole with a cross grain patch and utilize it for our input jack .
This a quarter-sawn cross-grain patch , to prevent the top from splitting any further.
The Kent Armstrong floating pickup is mounted on the aftermarket replacement pickguard.
This shot is here ... because she just looks so darn pretty layin' there !
Complete Re-Fret + Ivory nut and new binding.
Those brass thumbwheel adjustment discs were buffed out and lightly lubed ... they now turn as smooth as silk under full string load !
This is what it looked like when it arrived
This is the jig I made up to cut out the mess with a 60 Degree 'V' bit.
Another shot of the bash ... pretty nasty.
Ready for the patch
New binding bass side.
Original plastic nut
Finished side repair
Gluing inlay pieces
New binding bass side.
Original plastic nut
Finished side repair
Gluing inlay pieces
Setting up for inlay re-glue.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Gibson Hummingbird Bridge Replacement
Bruce Kirkaldy sent this one up from San Diego California last month for some restoration work.
Thanks Bruce for giving me the opportunity to bring this old gem back to life !
I have a strong hunch that this Ol' Girl sat in the case with that broken bridge for a good 30+ years.
I added the rosewood bridge pins figurin' it was about time to dress the Grand Old Gal up and take her out to the ball.
This press-fit sandwich of bone and rosewood replaces the original bolts and fasteners.I left the brass body inserts in the top so that if someone wanted to put the original adjustable contraption back in .... be my guest !
This press fit replacement delivers the string force directly to the sound board surface, more like a typical ' Martin ' style bridge
What does that mean for the sound ? ......... Well it pretty well means a lot more of everything !
More bass more treble more projection more sustain more volume and a lot more stability!
Fret level /re-crown /buff on those upper frets
How long do ya figure THOSE strings have been on there?
Get a load of this case !
Go on ... blow up the picture and take a good look .
If you look closely at the bone and rosewood sandwich insert .... you will see that I have decreased the pitch of the angle from treble to bass in order to tweak the intonation more precisely.
I did NOT through cut the channel like the original bridge. I decided to leave a floor of rosewood at the bottom of the slot for a little more stability.
After the bridge was glued on I connected the dots with a 1/4" router bit to form the wide channel for the fasteners and insert.
The first two holes I drilled before I started to cut and carve the 7" x 1 1/2" x 1/2" block of rosewood .... were the centering holes for the threaded brass body inserts.
Monday, November 10, 2008
McConville Dreadnought DMC -18
The Voice of Authority
Thick sweet treble and plenty of punch for single line or rhythm playing Full Depth Body ( 4 25/32" ) to deliver that big thumpin' Dreadnought bottom end. Hand rubbed nitrocellulose Satin Lacquer
Quartersawn Aged ( 7 years ) Black Walnut back and sides Trimmed with Curly Maple binding and dyed Holly purfling AAA Seasoned (7 Years ) Sitka Spruce soundboard 30' Radius - Soundboard 24' Radius -Back
Black Walnut Burl Rosette
Quilted Honduras Mahogany Pickguard ( soft curly maple underlay )
Ebony Bridge + Bridge Pins
25 3/8" Scale Length
14" Fingerboard Radius
Dunlop 6105 ( Medium width -Jumbo height ) Frets
Loads of left hand fretting traction for all those pull-offs,hammer-ons and fingerboard gymnastics!!
Nut String spacing -1 13/32"
Nut Width -1 21/32"
Bridge pin string spacing -2 3/16"
Monday, October 20, 2008
'On the home stretch' with the latest McConville Dreadnought
Rosewood Headstock Overlay with hand-drawn Sterling-Silver wire Trim
The back of the headstock also has a rosewood overlay ( .030" ) 
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
1936 Gibson Nick Lucas
This is an instrument that I ended up shipping to Oxford after brokering an exchange between a customer of mine from Woodstock and a Gentleman from Oxford who saw the instrument here on my site and had expressed an interest in purchasing it from my customer.
After a refret, some minor some bridge work, new Ivory nut and a setup; I packaged it up and shipped it off to England.
My sincere thanks goes out to both Peter and Bernd for entrusting me to mediate a fair deal for both parties on this magnificent piece !
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
Repairing Remi Boucher's Classical .. Soundboard cracks and fret work
I first met Remi when he was a young teenager. His technique and passion was staggering. I always knew that he would go on to re-define what was possible to do on the guitar. He still remains ( 30 years later ) "the force to be reckoned with" in the classical guitar world.Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Thursday, August 2, 2007
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