Post by CTGull on Apr 30, 2019 5:18:14 GMT -5
I knew it couldn't last forever. It's been 6 months since I bought a vintage Yamaha. There aren't many I'm looking for, I really don't have room for any more guitars, and my wife will kill me if she finds out!!
BUT!!! I saw an ad for a Yamaha Acoustic Guitar on CraigsList for $350. So I had to look, as I've done probably thousands of other times. It said it must go immediately. So I did my usual thing of asking for the serial number. When he replied with it, I replied saying what I do, sent a link to the average prices on Reverb but CraigsList usually gets about half that, price is related to condition and playability, and I mentioned my forum and website. The tuners aren't original, so I mentioned that.
He seemed desperate to get rid of it. So I mentioned I could take it, fix it, and add it to my collection, but my wife would kill me if she found I bought another guitar, I wouldn't be able to offer much. I asked for some pictures to see how high the action is and the height of the saddle. He didn't know anything about the guitar and sent some random pictures, all at the wrong angle. So I offered $40 and he accepted, glad that it would be going to someone who would fix it up and make it playable again.
We met yesterday after work. I forgot to mention, the guitar is in the town I grew up in, behind the hospital I was born at!! So I knew the area and was interested to see what it looked like since I haven't been back in a few years. I left my valuables at work and hid my bank cards, just in case. But he was a nice guy and we talked a bit. I mentioned I previously lived a few blocks away and went to the local elementary school in 5th thru 8 grade. He also went there. That's a cool connection.
Another thing I forgot to mention is it belonged to his Grandmother. She played it all over the place. It's very possible I may have met or seen her in the years I lived there. Another cool connection.
When I got home (at my normal time) I left the guitar (in it's hard case) in the trunk. I later took the garbage out thru the garage, took the guitar out of my trunk and placed it in the garage. Later I brought it inside. Sneaky...
When I finally brought it inside I did my usual thing of taking lots of pictures. The hard case has abrasions and a little delaminating of the covering, as expected. The guitar is in pretty good shape. A little bit of chipping on edges of the headstock. A few dings in back of the neck, the worst being a deep one on the treble side between the 2nd & 3rd frets. A few small dings on the top. The worst is pick wear in the top, fretboard and sound hole in the typical sweeping pattern, but not terrible. The action is high but the neck relief is also. There almost no saddle exposed.
After taking measurements I tuned it up (all the strings were slightly low), backbowed the neck, and adjusted the truss rod. The truss rod was loose, resulting in the bow being lower on the neck than normal. It took a couple of tries with my backbowing block to find the right spot to get most of the bow out. Even though there is zero neck relief between the 1st & 14th frets, my straight edge hits on the first & last frets, showing there is a little bow where the neck connects to the body, resulting in about .015" neck relief over the whole length.
The nut is a large hand made replacement resulting in the widest string spacing I've ever seen, 1.54" E to E! Unfortunately all the slots are low, so low that after adjusting the neck the low E string is actually sitting on the first fret playing a muted F note.
Even though with ancient 80/20 strings it still sounds like a FG-110, although a bit muted.
In the pocked was a treasure trove of history!!!! A couple of old packs of Martin strings, a Fender thumb pick & finger pick, an old pitch pipe, a modern Crafter electronic tuner, and some cool old picks!! The picks are significant because some of them came from 2 local music stores that I used to go to, but they've been out of business for decades!! Another cool connection!!! And a couple of BRUNO picks that I've never heard of. And there is a small plastic bag with a note (from 2001) to put lanolin on his fingers from Mom, assuming the guy I bought the guitar from tried to learn to play, and a card with I assume his Grandmothers name and their address and the name & model of the guitar. Cool history!!!
There are still mysteries to be unveiled. There is a 1/4" jack in the lower bout connected to an under saddle pickup. The original Yamaha saddle is about 3/32" thick. Under it is some kind of pickup. Haven't gotten that far. There are also slight grooves cut at the ends of the saddle slot to be able to get the saddle and pickup out.
Maybe tonight I'll take the strings off and see what's under the saddle, and see what's inside. Thru the sound hole I could see the date code on both sides next to the typical large number in a circle. And a good size dust bunny!
To be continued!!!
BUT!! I forgot a few pictures!!
The very low saddle with lifting grooves at the ends of the slot.
The large hand made nut.
The replacement Grover tuners.
BUT!!! I saw an ad for a Yamaha Acoustic Guitar on CraigsList for $350. So I had to look, as I've done probably thousands of other times. It said it must go immediately. So I did my usual thing of asking for the serial number. When he replied with it, I replied saying what I do, sent a link to the average prices on Reverb but CraigsList usually gets about half that, price is related to condition and playability, and I mentioned my forum and website. The tuners aren't original, so I mentioned that.
He seemed desperate to get rid of it. So I mentioned I could take it, fix it, and add it to my collection, but my wife would kill me if she found I bought another guitar, I wouldn't be able to offer much. I asked for some pictures to see how high the action is and the height of the saddle. He didn't know anything about the guitar and sent some random pictures, all at the wrong angle. So I offered $40 and he accepted, glad that it would be going to someone who would fix it up and make it playable again.
We met yesterday after work. I forgot to mention, the guitar is in the town I grew up in, behind the hospital I was born at!! So I knew the area and was interested to see what it looked like since I haven't been back in a few years. I left my valuables at work and hid my bank cards, just in case. But he was a nice guy and we talked a bit. I mentioned I previously lived a few blocks away and went to the local elementary school in 5th thru 8 grade. He also went there. That's a cool connection.
Another thing I forgot to mention is it belonged to his Grandmother. She played it all over the place. It's very possible I may have met or seen her in the years I lived there. Another cool connection.
When I got home (at my normal time) I left the guitar (in it's hard case) in the trunk. I later took the garbage out thru the garage, took the guitar out of my trunk and placed it in the garage. Later I brought it inside. Sneaky...
When I finally brought it inside I did my usual thing of taking lots of pictures. The hard case has abrasions and a little delaminating of the covering, as expected. The guitar is in pretty good shape. A little bit of chipping on edges of the headstock. A few dings in back of the neck, the worst being a deep one on the treble side between the 2nd & 3rd frets. A few small dings on the top. The worst is pick wear in the top, fretboard and sound hole in the typical sweeping pattern, but not terrible. The action is high but the neck relief is also. There almost no saddle exposed.
After taking measurements I tuned it up (all the strings were slightly low), backbowed the neck, and adjusted the truss rod. The truss rod was loose, resulting in the bow being lower on the neck than normal. It took a couple of tries with my backbowing block to find the right spot to get most of the bow out. Even though there is zero neck relief between the 1st & 14th frets, my straight edge hits on the first & last frets, showing there is a little bow where the neck connects to the body, resulting in about .015" neck relief over the whole length.
The nut is a large hand made replacement resulting in the widest string spacing I've ever seen, 1.54" E to E! Unfortunately all the slots are low, so low that after adjusting the neck the low E string is actually sitting on the first fret playing a muted F note.
Even though with ancient 80/20 strings it still sounds like a FG-110, although a bit muted.
In the pocked was a treasure trove of history!!!! A couple of old packs of Martin strings, a Fender thumb pick & finger pick, an old pitch pipe, a modern Crafter electronic tuner, and some cool old picks!! The picks are significant because some of them came from 2 local music stores that I used to go to, but they've been out of business for decades!! Another cool connection!!! And a couple of BRUNO picks that I've never heard of. And there is a small plastic bag with a note (from 2001) to put lanolin on his fingers from Mom, assuming the guy I bought the guitar from tried to learn to play, and a card with I assume his Grandmothers name and their address and the name & model of the guitar. Cool history!!!
There are still mysteries to be unveiled. There is a 1/4" jack in the lower bout connected to an under saddle pickup. The original Yamaha saddle is about 3/32" thick. Under it is some kind of pickup. Haven't gotten that far. There are also slight grooves cut at the ends of the saddle slot to be able to get the saddle and pickup out.
Maybe tonight I'll take the strings off and see what's under the saddle, and see what's inside. Thru the sound hole I could see the date code on both sides next to the typical large number in a circle. And a good size dust bunny!
To be continued!!!
BUT!! I forgot a few pictures!!
The very low saddle with lifting grooves at the ends of the slot.
The large hand made nut.
The replacement Grover tuners.
