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A guy brought this guitar in yesterday. His grandma gave it to him and it sat for a long time. He said it used to be playable and now it isn't. A quick look shows a badly installed nut, badly installed tall saddle (now leaning forward at about 25 degrees), a lot of relief in the neck, and a ski jump happening at the body join. He also mentioned wanting a pickup installed, but the logistics of wiring and any preamp/battery bag appear problematic. Any of you gurus have any wisdom for me?

[url]http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/Larry_Presnall/library/?view=recent/url]

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Link no workee.

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

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

There ya go Chris! I'm a dunderhead!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Ya, call the dude up, tell him to come get his ax and when he does, give him Heshes number.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Now, I shoulda thought of that!

Since we're talking'....Hesh????

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Ya! Hesh!. He likes fixin things.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Yea, the guitar in the photo looks fine without any sign of damage. Someone could have easily posted it on ebay.

There are a million reasons why guitars have ungodly high action, but nobody can tell from the picture. At first I thought someone smashed a hole in the guitar. Could be a bad tailpiece... but I think if the tail piece caused high actions the string wouldn't have made much sound at all, because the break angle would be so shallow that the saddle ends up muting the string. Check to see if the neck joint is sound, sometimes the high action is caused by a bad neck joint, which requires a neck reset (undo the old joint, and redo them)

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Also very common to have loose neck joints due to doweled construction. I have seen one guitar with one inch (that's right, one whole inch) of action at the 12th fret because of the loose neck joint. Might work well as a lap steel.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

It's an Alverez Artist series. I haven't seen this one before I own an Artist Alverez and is OK, plays nice but is certainly only mid level guitar but with that unique design I bet there were not a lot made......

As for pick-ups, K and K makes good products with external pre-amps but getting pads applies to the bridge plate and getting the endpin jack installed might be some work alright!

Shane

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Canada

Shane, my thoughts exactly! The UST type would go, but with no preamp would probably disappoint the guy if he didn't use an external preamp of some kind. The guitar has value to him because it's family, but I have too much on my plate to become too involved with it. The neck joint is solid and as has been observed above, the action issue isn't a usual reset - the tall saddle was to get the action 'higher'. Anyhoo, I'd just never encountered this particular model and wanted some background before I spoke to the owner again. Thanks all!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com