Vintage 1969 - 71 Gibson ES 150 ( Joe Pass )

Dave dropped this ES 150

off for some fret work /

setup / compensated nut.

He mentioned that the fellow he purchased it from

had bought it from Joe Pass ( RIP )!

Apparently Joe had signed it, these pictures ( below ) were in the case.

After some second thoughts the fellow

 had decided to have the signature taken off ...

I would have left it signed myself .

The tilted angle of the headstock ( below )  is a little extreme .. but a lot of the work on these early guitars was done by hand. I would imagine that whoever disc-sanded the face of the headstock had a bit of a " list to the port ".

But the neck itself was not twisted.

 

That's a Gretsch on the other workstation

that was in for some similar work.

  

This was a tricky fret dress on the ES 150.

I've decided to post this for the Level 2 students

and experienced Luthiers / Techs

 to show how I handle this type of job.

Because of the multiple discrepancies in the lay of this neck,

 it needed to be spot dressed in a few different places.

The rubber blocks allowed me to string up the neck with tension,

 balance the load on the truss rod,

simulating the actual lay of the neck under natural string tension.

http://mcconvilleguitars.blogspot.ca/p/stringtechs-techdeck-workstation.html

The TechDeck's pivoting neck assembly

 really does the job

to support and restrict the flex of the neck 

while the fret levelling is done on this very tricky fret dress.

During the whole procedure

 the instrument is held firmly against

the leather padded rails of the adjustable body platform,

preventing the guitar from slipping,

shifting or wobbling around while your working. 

The space between the rails allows room for the

arched form of the back to be fully supported.

The body is cinched down very firmly with the leather straps,

 without an danger of crushing or mashing the arch into a flat surface.    

I then checked for high spots with a 6" and 12" straight edge,

and slipped a ( very straight ) 6" single cut mill file under the strings

to "spot dress" dress all the high points, that were

 spread randomly, along the length of the fingerboard.

Ron Anderson, the TechDeck machinist, had picked up the

" black magic marker " tip from a post that

somebody had put up on the Telecaster forum.

This came in handy for this particular job.

After marking the fret crowns with the

black magic marker,

and doing the initial light dress with the 6" mill file

... all of the various high points lit right up.

Once all the high spots were taken care of ,

this was followed up by the

regular re-crowning and polishing steps.  

This is what they looked like ( above )  after final buff.

The inlays were masked off during the recrowning and polishing.

This is a nifty little vice that Bob Toft ( Level 2 student )

located at Busy Bee .... $20 !

Just go out and buy one right now while they're still available !

 Thanks Bob ... for finding and sharing this little puppy

 ... the best one I've seen yet... anywhere for any price!

The lacquer was carefully scraped off both ends of the nut before removal ....

to avoid any chipping of the neck finish.

Got the nut out nice and cleanly.

First stage of tusq nut blank.

Second stage of compensated blank.

Transfer of string spacing.

For TechDeckers and students  .... 

this is how I strap the guitars down

 for working / or changing / machine heads / 

or reaming out the headstock etc...

This puts the headstock in the centre of my chest while working.

Final compensated nut .... very subtle ...
 at a glance you would think it was the original.