The Unintended Project
Posted: Mon May 27, 2019 10:20 pm
Have you ever started to work on a guitar, only to find more and more that needs to be done?
A very good friend of mine gave me an old Norwood "Adjustomatic". I've never heard of them. They're among the huge number of guitars churned out of Chicago back in the 50's. It's about the size of a Harmony Stella.
The "adjustomatic" refers to the neck/action. The action is adjusted by the turn of 2 screws, which tilt the neck. It's an interesting design with one HUGE glaring flaw; the neck was never reinforced. So, over the past 60+ years, the string tension has bent the neck forward. When you put a straight edge on the fretboard, there is more than a 1/8" gap in the center.
First, I thought I could compression fret the board. I actually replaced all of the frets with the widest tang I had, and after allowing the neck to sit for almost a month, it hadn't moved at all. So, I decided to install a truss rod.
Since it had a subpar fretboard, I went ahead and replaced the funky board with a rosewood fretboard that I had on hand. The new fretboard is a long scale, 25.4", and the old board was ~ 24.125". However, the old board was installed quite a distance down the neck. I was able to move the nut a good 3/4" up toward the headstock, keeping the 12th fret at body. I'll replace the old plastic nut with a bone nut.
I routed a channel and installed a truss rod before gluing the board in place. The top was as funky as the neck and fretboard. I had a slope shoulder OM top that I had joined, installed a rosette, but never used. I cut it down for the Norwood, and braced it. The Norwood had a floating bridge with a trapeze, instead of a pinned bridge. I think I'm going to install a pinned bridge in it's place, but I've not made a firm decision. At any rate, I installed a bridge plate so a pinned bridge can go on.
I've just got done doing a tobacco sunburst on a 1940 Washburn restoration. Since i had the dyes out, I dyed a burst on the top of the Norwood.
So, what started out as a guitar that I was going to tweak, has turned into quite a project. It'll be a knock around guitar, not worth much monetarily, but it was a well-meaning gift from a good friend.
I'm in the process of finishing the top.
A very good friend of mine gave me an old Norwood "Adjustomatic". I've never heard of them. They're among the huge number of guitars churned out of Chicago back in the 50's. It's about the size of a Harmony Stella.
The "adjustomatic" refers to the neck/action. The action is adjusted by the turn of 2 screws, which tilt the neck. It's an interesting design with one HUGE glaring flaw; the neck was never reinforced. So, over the past 60+ years, the string tension has bent the neck forward. When you put a straight edge on the fretboard, there is more than a 1/8" gap in the center.
First, I thought I could compression fret the board. I actually replaced all of the frets with the widest tang I had, and after allowing the neck to sit for almost a month, it hadn't moved at all. So, I decided to install a truss rod.
Since it had a subpar fretboard, I went ahead and replaced the funky board with a rosewood fretboard that I had on hand. The new fretboard is a long scale, 25.4", and the old board was ~ 24.125". However, the old board was installed quite a distance down the neck. I was able to move the nut a good 3/4" up toward the headstock, keeping the 12th fret at body. I'll replace the old plastic nut with a bone nut.
I routed a channel and installed a truss rod before gluing the board in place. The top was as funky as the neck and fretboard. I had a slope shoulder OM top that I had joined, installed a rosette, but never used. I cut it down for the Norwood, and braced it. The Norwood had a floating bridge with a trapeze, instead of a pinned bridge. I think I'm going to install a pinned bridge in it's place, but I've not made a firm decision. At any rate, I installed a bridge plate so a pinned bridge can go on.
I've just got done doing a tobacco sunburst on a 1940 Washburn restoration. Since i had the dyes out, I dyed a burst on the top of the Norwood.
So, what started out as a guitar that I was going to tweak, has turned into quite a project. It'll be a knock around guitar, not worth much monetarily, but it was a well-meaning gift from a good friend.
I'm in the process of finishing the top.