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Guitar Specialist - Guitar repair and restoration services - Kenny Green Repairs

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The nice thing about working on these is the come apart	Kenny brought by his little Tacoma Papoose. It is pretty much meant as a travel guitar - but in Kenny's hands it is an amazing instrument.	This way I can work on the frets on one bench - and the body on another.
	First we'll take a look at the frets - here are the tools I use to put a nice crown on the frets
	You can see the grooves in the frets - there is a good amount pf fret material here - so replacement is not necessary.
A closer look at those frets - you can see some pretty heavy wear.	first order business is to level the frets. The frets are cut to the lowest point of the lowest pit ...	... and then crowned with a slim taper triangle file.
Here is a look at a crowned fret.	This is what it looks like after polishing.	well crowned and polished frets are a pleasure to play on.
	On to the body ...
Kenny said he though there was a crack in the back but couldn't find it ...Look hard it's almost invisible.		there it is - clean through the body - with no real sound hole to speak of on this little puppy - we are going to have to fix it from the outside.
Pressing gently on the side of the crack - it opens just a bit ...	I'll saturate the area to make it a bit more pliable.	... Lay some glue along the length of the crack ...
... and work it in with my fingers. I like to wear surgeons gloves while doing messy work - it allows me to just pull the gloves off and move to something else without having to stop and clean up.	Here is the crack after a quick wipe - you can see the glue squeeze out.	I'm clamping up with Plexiglas cauls to keep the crack level. The glue won't stick to the cauls.
After the glue was dry, I laid a bead of finish along the length of the crack to seal it.	Here is a neat trick - I need to scrape away the finish - but I don't want the full length of the blade to contact the guitar.	I'll use my modified razor blade to scrape the finish flush.
	I am careful to hold my disposable scraper very level so I don't cut the surrounding finish.
	A mild buffing out and it's as good as new.

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	Here is Kenny's Taylor Twelve String. Did I tell you that Kenny is brutal on guitars. He can play just about anything with strings on it - but he ain't gentle.
Badly pitted frets again	another look at a leveled fret.	And after crowning and polishing.
	Kenny also had a nasty crack in the side of his Taylor
This is a clamp designed by Philip Berna - He is a nuclear physicist originally from France. who better to come up with a really cool clamp.	These are modular so you can combine them for all sorts of neat uses.	Like holding Kenny's Taylor on it's side while I take care of the crack. This way the guitar doesn't move from beginning of the job until completion.
It holds the guitar in just the right position to glue up a crack in a really difficult spot.	I've highlighted the crack so you can see it clearly - it is very tight and doesn't move at all - but it does go right through to the other side.	here is what it looks like after - sorry no during pics - I was busy with the crack and completely forgot to snap a few.

Ken's Dobro in for a re-fret.

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