Post by CTGull on Jun 13, 2016 19:49:05 GMT -5
Another thread from the old forum, from May 11, 2015.
Another great CraigsList find! A woman put it up for $75. Phone number only so I called and found she knows nothing about guitars and couldn't understand what I wanted her to check. She took a few pics for me and it looked really good. So I agreed to a 1 hour+ drive to check it out. As I was getting final directions by text she said she had lots of people interested and did some research. She couldn't let it go for $75, she upped it to $150. That kind of pissed me off. I cooled down for a few minutes and texted back I'd take it. There's no sense arguing, the next guy in line would get it.
It's nearly mint for 33 years old, only a few small dings. The action was actually too low and about as close to no saddle sticking out of the bridge as I've ever seen, 1/16" to 1/32". The strings were absolutely dead with the core of the D broken and the string hanging by the wrap.
Because the saddle is so extremely low I masked the top and sanded about .04" off of the already thin .25" thick bridge. Yea, I altered the bridge on a classic old Yamaha, but I'd rather see more clearance between the strings and the bridge, then add string ramps. After oiling it and the cleaned fretboard it turned out looking great.
I put Ernie Ball Aluminum Bronze Medium-Light strings on it, the same as my 1977 FG-350W. It has a very loud powerful sound, much like the other old Yamaha dreads. As much bass as the 350W without the rosewood overtones. The saddle string spacing of the old Yamaha's are very close, I think this one is a little under 2", not the greatest for fingerpicking. We'll see if I decide to keep it. I slotted the saddle on my 350W to widen the string spacing to 2-1/8", but the strings are so low on the 340II already. I'll leave it as is and make a decision in the future.
Another great CraigsList find! A woman put it up for $75. Phone number only so I called and found she knows nothing about guitars and couldn't understand what I wanted her to check. She took a few pics for me and it looked really good. So I agreed to a 1 hour+ drive to check it out. As I was getting final directions by text she said she had lots of people interested and did some research. She couldn't let it go for $75, she upped it to $150. That kind of pissed me off. I cooled down for a few minutes and texted back I'd take it. There's no sense arguing, the next guy in line would get it.
It's nearly mint for 33 years old, only a few small dings. The action was actually too low and about as close to no saddle sticking out of the bridge as I've ever seen, 1/16" to 1/32". The strings were absolutely dead with the core of the D broken and the string hanging by the wrap.
Because the saddle is so extremely low I masked the top and sanded about .04" off of the already thin .25" thick bridge. Yea, I altered the bridge on a classic old Yamaha, but I'd rather see more clearance between the strings and the bridge, then add string ramps. After oiling it and the cleaned fretboard it turned out looking great.
I put Ernie Ball Aluminum Bronze Medium-Light strings on it, the same as my 1977 FG-350W. It has a very loud powerful sound, much like the other old Yamaha dreads. As much bass as the 350W without the rosewood overtones. The saddle string spacing of the old Yamaha's are very close, I think this one is a little under 2", not the greatest for fingerpicking. We'll see if I decide to keep it. I slotted the saddle on my 350W to widen the string spacing to 2-1/8", but the strings are so low on the 340II already. I'll leave it as is and make a decision in the future.
