Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love me a 1970s Japanese made guitar! To work on this double neck beast was an absolute blast!
Firstly the old nickel frets were pitted to the extremes and both necks needed a refret, luckily the old ones came out great with small amounts of heat applied to the fretboard and my trusty fret pullers.
I then re-radiused the fretboards to 12" as years of use had completely removed the radius from parts of the neck. For me I love the imperfections on these old Japanese guitars and how they finished the paint roughly over the binding, gives it some character! Unfortunately the necks had expanded in the neck pocket, and were literally stuck in there! I had to work on these whilst still attached so used the fret press for the few frets it could reach and a fretting hammer to seat the rest.
I let the necks rest for a few days, as they'd been through a hell of a lot of work and the owner appreciated and understood the time a project like this needs, so it can be done to the best standard. Next up was filing off the sharp ends and levelling the frets, before crowning and dressing them.
This 1979s beast also had hand cut bone nuts, removing the old ones was tricky as they had been originally inserted and then had binding placed over them. Again I used small amounts of heat before cleaning the slots ready for the new nuts.
Time for the setups! I've gone with Roto 10s on the 6 string and Elixirs for the 12 string, but replaced the 8 gauge for a 9 to help with intonation and tuning issues of such a light string. Definitely one of the best looking 50 year olds I've ever seen... Now she's ready to play Stairway 😁🤘
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