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The local school district asked me to submit a bid to repair / restring all their Fender acoustics.... Mostly bridges pulled off, or in the process of being pulled off, bellied tops, broken tuning machines and nuts, basic setups, etc. We're talking a minimum of 2 dozen guitars - maybe more.

Having worked 2 weeks for them back in the 90's, I knew they didn't want to spend a lot on repair and would simply buy new stuff. So I bid really high hoping I wouldn't have to....

Allan Bacon and Dave Rickard - you guys listening? Maybe I could farm some out and spread the joy, or we could all meet somewhere with tools and have a work day....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Might be able to help out as long as it doesn't involve crappy old archtops.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

I don't have anything pressing at the moment. We could always meet at my shop. We did some remodeling, so I have a couple of sections of countertop we could spread out for work areas.

Sounds like a great learning experience for me!

I'll let you know!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I say, "Go for it."

Lay in a big supply of medium viscosity cyanoacrylate, toss out the rule books, and paste 'em together. It can be a good time to get a feeling for what you can get away with, working quickly and without regard to future repair potential. Fact is these instruments don't have a regular sort of future.

I've worked on instruments sometimes in batches for local middle school, and it can be quite a challenge to keep up with kids who swat each other with the guitars. Mostly, I bid these jobs at very low rates as a matter of supporting local music programs.

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Cheers,

Frank Ford

FRETS.COM
HomeShopTech
FRETS.NET

This is one of those be careful what we don't ask for.....

So the punitive quote was accepted? If so follow Frank's advice and try to enjoy it.

For me I would be thinking of how this will make lots of snot nosed little kids happy and that would help get me past hating every minute of it.

The more snot nosed kids that learn how to play guitar the better for the craft maybe some of them will grow up to buy upper end guitars. I'll be pushing up daisies by then so it's paying it forward. At lest thats the way I look at it.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Yep. You never know what will flip that switch in a kid. "I remember when I started out on an old beat up Fender acoustic in the (whatever) grade."

Besides, It'll be fun to get together and tag team the beaters.

I even got permission to use the basement if we have inclement weather.

Well, school is out for the holidays, so it will take awhile for them to get back to me...

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I did a job like that many years ago. Cheap student guitars with no cases, they just shoved them in my car anyway they would fit in and I had to make like 3 trips to pick up 30 guitars. It was pretty amusing. Lots of junk but in the end it was a descent paycheck so I would not pass on it.

Well, they called me this morning to come look at them...We did a quick triage, and most will only need stringing and a few tuner replacements - easy stuff that only takes a few minutes. I have 5 with bridges pulling up. I think Frank Ford had a great idea - using cyano glue. I will do that. I should have everything done by Friday, and deliver them.

Another store has a stack of cheapo stuff, I might blow them off until next month. It won't get any more messed up, ya know.

Allan and Dave - thanks for the offer. You never know about the future, I might move some stuff your way just so I can work on my own projects. After all, I have about 10 projects gathering dust that would pay better if I would just complete them.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I make my daughter do all the work on school guitars.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

That's OK. I just got assigned to fab the replacement kitchen cabinet doors....

Well, they are done. What a mess! One very chipped and cracked nut had been glued on with what must have been a whole tube of super glue. I filed off the top, glued on new material, and recut the slots. Everything else went pretty well. Replaced the broken saddles with new Fender replacements, same with nuts.

I bought a bottle of Loctite gel glue for gluing the bridges. Be forewarned - there is only .14 of an ounce in the big $3 bottle. That's enough for 2 bridges, so I had to go buy another bottle. One bridge was pretty flat so I used Titebond on it.

I set up like an assembly line, got the repairs done, then restringing, and finally polish. What really got me was the very nice hardshell cases for these cheapo SA-100 plywood flattops. I hope they keep the nice cases when it comes time to buy new replacement guitars.

Next time, though - I will bid $25 higher per unit, and hope someone else wins the bid. Don't want to do all that work again in 3 days. And now.... it's the weekend. Gotta go buy a taco, and head down to the Starbird show. They asked me to judge the car club displays....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Dang, forgot Starbird was this weekend. Got a new tonfa job I want to get finished before the cold gets here.