Post by CTGull on Dec 30, 2018 21:18:24 GMT -5
I've talked to hundreds of people about vintage Yamaha FG's in the past couple of years. One of them lives my my home state of Connecticut. We've exchanged a few guitars. He's donated a guitar to be fixed and donated to the local middle schools, I gave him some non-Yamaha project guitars (he fixes them also) and recently he donated a 1975 Yamaha FG-75-1, to be fixed and donated to the local middle schools. It was his first guitar, bought in 1976. It was also his first neck reset. As most first neck resets go, he had a few problems. Because the guitar was a bit dinged and scratched, he sanded all the finish off except for the top. He must have applied something, it doesn't look like raw wood, but it isn't much. It looks kind of cool, actually. I like the matte finish.
Since the previous model, the FG-75, is ladder braced, I expected the same in the FG-75-1. It isn't!! It's X braced!! As a result, the FG-75-1 doesn't sound boxy like the FG-75. It sounds pretty good. So good that I had to find one for myself to be able to compare to my favorite FG-110. I'll get to that eventually.
But this guitar has a few problems. The end of the heel is rounded over (typical of a first neck reset) and there's a heel gap. It was also convert to a bolt on. The problem there is the lower stud pulled out and the heel broke.
I removed the single nut and found the neck was loose but wouldn't release. A bit of wiggling released the glue at the top of the heel. Since the lower stud had pulled out I figured I could epoxy in a threaded insert. I also flooded the face of the heel with water thin super glue to get into the cracks and help hold it together. Later I discovered a crack at the base of the heel, a chunk of the heel must have broken off. I flooded the crack with water thin super glue a few times, hoping it will hold. The chunk had been previously glued also. As typical with most neck resets, removing material off the heel eventually results in the heel hitting the back of the neck pocket. This guitar is no exception. this is what was causing most of the heel gap. I used my 1" belt sander to remove 1/16" off the heel face.
With the threaded insert installed, but the epoxy hardening, I moved on to the neck reset. After a bunch of measuring, sanding, checking, measuring, sanding, checking, etc., I got the neck close and put it aside for the epoxy to fully harden. I'll screw it together and string it up tomorrow and see how close it is. I left the new bone saddle .03" high, just in case.
FG-251 & FG-110E in the background.
Since the previous model, the FG-75, is ladder braced, I expected the same in the FG-75-1. It isn't!! It's X braced!! As a result, the FG-75-1 doesn't sound boxy like the FG-75. It sounds pretty good. So good that I had to find one for myself to be able to compare to my favorite FG-110. I'll get to that eventually.
But this guitar has a few problems. The end of the heel is rounded over (typical of a first neck reset) and there's a heel gap. It was also convert to a bolt on. The problem there is the lower stud pulled out and the heel broke.
I removed the single nut and found the neck was loose but wouldn't release. A bit of wiggling released the glue at the top of the heel. Since the lower stud had pulled out I figured I could epoxy in a threaded insert. I also flooded the face of the heel with water thin super glue to get into the cracks and help hold it together. Later I discovered a crack at the base of the heel, a chunk of the heel must have broken off. I flooded the crack with water thin super glue a few times, hoping it will hold. The chunk had been previously glued also. As typical with most neck resets, removing material off the heel eventually results in the heel hitting the back of the neck pocket. This guitar is no exception. this is what was causing most of the heel gap. I used my 1" belt sander to remove 1/16" off the heel face.
With the threaded insert installed, but the epoxy hardening, I moved on to the neck reset. After a bunch of measuring, sanding, checking, measuring, sanding, checking, etc., I got the neck close and put it aside for the epoxy to fully harden. I'll screw it together and string it up tomorrow and see how close it is. I left the new bone saddle .03" high, just in case.
FG-251 & FG-110E in the background.
