This includes checking and/or adjusting the truss rod in the neck if it has one, to make the neck shape optimal for playability. Then the “action” or string height, first at the bridge end, then finally at the nut. We check and tighten any loose hardware such as tuning machines and wipe off the guitar looking for any cracks or other problems.

The wide lower bout of a guitar shrinks and expands with changes in humidity. The bridge is glued to this shifting surface and sometimes it becomes loose. We heat the bridge with a silicone electric blanket and remove it. The two surfaces are restored and the bridge is glued and clamped in place for at least 24 hours before restringing.

This process involves straightening the neck with truss rod, securing any high or loose frets, then leveling and removing worn fret tops with an abrasive block, crowing the frets with a half round file, and finally polishing them back to a high gloss.

Braces can come loose for a variety of reasons. Sometimes cracks in a shrinking top pull away partially from a brace. Sometimes a case which is squeezed on an airplane can allow the ends of the back braces to pop loose. We use mostly hot hide glue for this type of repair along with fish glue for areas needing more working time.

Some binding shrinks over time and often pulls away from different parts of an instrument. Shrinking fretboards can make the ends of the frets pop the binding loose and sometimes crack it as well. Celluloid binding decays after decades and can damage other parts of the instrument. We often repair loose binding on older instruments.

Sometimes neck joints fail and need to be repaired. More often, the geometry of any instrument slowly changes such that the action becomes too high with none of the set up adjustments able to remedy the problem. In this case, we can take the neck off an instrument and reset the neck angle to renew its playability. We remove the fret over the dovetail joint, drill a small hole and pump steam in to the joint until softens. The end of the fingerboard is heated with an electric silicone blanket and loosened from the top, then the neck can be pressed out of the body using a jig. Often a tapered shim matching the fingerboard end is added underneath the body end of the fingerboard to maintain a level playing surface over the body.