Yamaki 331s top replacement?

[phavriluk]

Just gorgeous work!

[Stray Feathers]

I switched to the neck to get some gluing done. One corner of the headstock was damaged, I think maybe when my son's aging Golden Retriever was a puppy and chewed on it (so there is some family history in this guitar). I wanted to patch it up a bit and planned to put a filler piece in. I also decided to replace the original tuners which were low quality, but also the bushings were getting loose. So I was going to have screw holes to plug, and the underside of the headstock was going to look pretty patchy. I came to the fairly obvious conclusion that I could do a better job if I put a thin veneer over the flaws. So I used a Safe-T-Planer to remove some material, and thicknessed a piece of mahogany to about .055" I think, less than 1/16", and glued it on. I plugged the two holes I did not cover with the veneer patch, but they will be under tuner screw flanges anyway. I lined the edge of the patch up under where the tuner knob shafts will be (I hope) to make it less obvious. It's now mostly sanded. I'll have to drill out the tuner holes to 10 mm for the Wilkinson tuners I bought for it. Time now for a new rosewood fretboard . . . Bruce W.

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[Stray Feathers]

I drilled out the tuner holes to 25/64" (10mm bits hard to find locally) and the replacement Wilkinson tuners fit fine. They will look tidier than the original tuners. The veneer patch will only show between the two rear tuners. Interesting that I have not noticed until now (fifty-plus years on . . .) that the middle tuners are set in from the edge further, maybe to keep strings lined up better.

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Another interesting discovery was finding that the original fretboard radius was about 9", which I thought was odd for an acoustic. I made the new one 14" (used the wrong edge of the gauge in the photo). Bruce W.

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[Stray Feathers]

I had checked the original scale length and thought it must be 25.34". I knew I was losing a little neck length because of modifying the neck to body joint after the new top. And I was dealing with a zero fret design, which I have never done before, but it gave me a little wiggle room. I went ahead and slotted the fretboard for a 25.34" scale, but could then see that it did not match the original, which seems to be 320mm to the 12th fret, so perhaps a 640mm scale? It was not a problem in the end as the original zero fret had a fair gap between the nut and the zero fret so after some headscratching I made it fit.

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I had to go online to learn more about zero frets, and in the end tried to match the original design, but to fit the different scale length and keep the body join at the fourteenth fret, and all of it modified by neck joint changes. I used a narrower bone nut than the original steel, as it gave me a little more room to work - and I think it will look better, too.

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After all that, I crossed my fingers and glued it up. Bruce W.

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[phavriluk]

Where's the rest of the clamps?

[Diane Kauffmds]

640 scale isn't unusual. I've dealt with every single issue you're coming across. You're doing a good job.