Manchester Guitar Tech
This guitar is a long-term test guitar for a UK magazine. It was dropped on its face, suffering some damage from the plain strings to frets 17 and 18. A couple of higher frets were also lightly marked but this was damage which would dress out easily. As you can see below, the damage wasn’t bad …
… you don’t see one for ages then two come along at once! Although I used to own one of the original PE-1000 guitars and wish I’d never parted with it, I can’t ever recall seeing one of the blue Gerry Cott signatures before. In the space of two weeks however, I have worked on …
When refretting this 1967 Gretsch Firebird, I noticed two small holes in the 14th fret slot and another two in the 2nd fret slot. I’ve never seen these before but imagine that they are for locating pins to ensure correct positioning of the fretboard when it’s being glued to the neck? There is not much …
This vintage Gibson J-50 played great but the lower frets were getting worn and needed attention. The original frets were wide and low, and if I dressed them, it would have resulted in very little height indeed. I agreed with the guitar’s owner that a partial refret was the best option. I replaced the first …
Last week I refretted this maple board Stratocaster with huge wire – 0.057″ high. I removed the old frets, left the finish intact and laid the new frets onto the strips bare wood that were exposed. I used Sintoms fretwire which was an absolute pleasure to work with. It held the slot tightly and the …
This Japanese Fender Precision Bass has been the mainstay of the bassist from The Australian Pink Floyd Show for about ten years. Due to it being used for the same songs show after show, a couple of major grooves were worn in frets two and three. I therefore performed a partial refret, carefully removing the …
This Australian-built Maton Supreme 777 is getting on for 50 years old and has seen some action! It came to me needing a refret, a new nut and a general fettle. The Bigsby vibrato was in a sorry state and needed rebuilding with a new arm and spring. The pickups had been cut off at some …
I have just refretted this maple board Telecaster. At the request of the customer I left the fretboard lacquer intact as it was virtually undamaged. I had hoped to get away without changing the nut but the 1st string slot was too low. The old nut tapped out easily enough and I cleaned up the …
The Squier Vista Series Jagmaster is one of my favourite guitars. The Squier Vista series was made in Japan to very high standards and comprised around 4 models. If you are going to do this remember that rosewood dust can be an irritant so wear a dust mask when sanding and cutting it. This Jagmaster …