Update on my new Republic

[creolian]

Hello all,

I finally got around to bringing my new guitar to a luthier for a setup and a diagnosis of exactly why my biscuit was off center.

Good news : He thinks it's just a matter of moving the cone over (which he attempted with the strings tensioned. )   I explained that I had changed the strings and tried to get it centered only to have it pull back Lopaddidly off center... he shrugs ? I feel a case of Oh O! coming on...


Bad news: As far as a setup for strictly fingerstyle;  He believes it would need a neck reset (600$) to lower the action and maintain enough break angle.  Oh O!

I get the feeling that he just isn't too interested in working on a reso and I guess the really good news is that he didn't take the job, keep the guitar until Christmas, and do the unthinkably impossible for a reasonable price???  There used to be a luthier here who had a long reputation of doing just that, so  I've at least avoided that heartbreak. This guy has a very good rep so... no harm, no foul.

At this pickle in time, Im thinking of at least pulling the cover and seeing if there's anything obvious pulling the cone off center, the biscuit drilled off center, tailpiece mounted off center and  ( any other ideas or experience much appreciated.)  

I'm also tempted to try and lower the saddle myself as I have the proper tools and have a bit of woodworking experience.  Does anyone have any ideas or experience in adjusting the tail to increase break angle? are there replacement tail pieces  that might work ?

All in all, it's easily playable to the fifth fret with barre chords across all six strings and sounds pretty good as is... I'm planning on sticking with the D'addario Chromes flat wounds as they sound nice and articulate at the bass end and have surprised the couple of people who have played the guitar, including the luthier.   

I really appreciate the help here and have enjoyed going through the archived posts. Hope everyone has a nice weekend and thanks again,
Jeff

[Deleted]

You need to find a new "luthier"... you really need to totally assess the situation as per saddle height, neck, neckstick and truss rod condition, cone and biscuit condition. If the neck really needs a reset of only a few degrees, it is possible to cheat and shave the stick and shim up the mushrooms a bit wuthout removing the neck... but if you have no experience with any of this, its best left to an experienced person. You dont have to be a luthier to fix or adjust a guitar.

[slide496]

I've taken mine apart and sorted a similar issue - but mine was simple - the tailpiece was at an angle and kept pulling the thing a little off center, and on another the biscuit saddle was too close to the edge so I shaved a little off.

If you haven't done it before IMHO best practice to keep the original saddle, and work on a new one just in case.

You could try understringing it to increase the break angle but that's not usually recommended or a short tailpiece I think - someone will correct me if I am wrong there.

Good luck,
H

[pete1951]

If the biscuit can be pushed into the correct place, but is pulled back by the strings, it could well be the same problem as slide496.
The hole is the tail can be 'drifted' across and rescrewed to pull the saddle to the correct place. The block the tailpiece goes into will fall off and you will need to take off the cover. A less elegant way is to slacked the tail, and put a small wedge in one side, this will bring the tail over one way.
PT



You can see that the wedge may need to be smaller than I have drawn it!
This also puts a strain on the tail/p. so not for old or weak t/ps!

[Stevie]

Great idea moving the tailpiece; lateral thinking again (I'll have a pint of that please!). I am always amazed at the ingenuity of this little community (and PeteT in Particular- respect PT).

I removed the tailpiece block on my MMB to make room for a strap peg socket (I also had to cut down the neck stick *inside* the body by about 20mm which was "interesting"!) The TP was 5mm short of the neck stick anyway, so it was only really holding the TP screw. Fellow forumites wrung their hands in despair at the time, but it's still doing fine 9 years later so go figure.

So remove that block (cue cries of armagheddon) and drag the screw hole in the body in the appropriate direction. Fashion a replacement tailpiece block from the necessary 100 years old swamp ash ;<D and you can guess the rest.

Measure twice, cut only once.

Important: tailpiece longevity depends less on a TP block and more upon a snug fit around the end of the body and straight string pull, in equal measure in my opinion. YMMV etc.
Bottom line is that there are many ways to see off a cat.

[Michael Messer]

We all have our ways of doing these things. When I get a guitar and the tailpiece is not centred to the bridge and neck, I file the screw hole in the tailpiece to a horizontal elliptic shape (like an egg) and then the tailpiece can be moved and centred before the screw is tightened.

Shine On
Michael

[creolian]

hi all and thanks for the responses all,

I think Michaels method of elongating the hole in the tailpiece is the simplist way to go to center the biscuit. Harriet's suggestion of under stringing it looks like it would do the trick for the aprox 2mm lowering I want to achieve. Has anyone understrung one of these tailpieces ? I'm thinking a strip of Teflon bushing on the cover to keep the strings from making contact there and a bit of machining of the fan shaped leading edge of the tailpiece to alleviate the strings having to go over the edge... Maybe a piece of rod stock under the tailpiece for a smooth contact spot ?

The hardest thing to do so far has been putting this thing down I stayed up well past two am noodling away last night... running on fumes today !

whatever I end up doing to the guitar, I'll try and take some pictures and document the process. I can't imagine where I'd be with this without the help and knowledge here. Again, thank you all !

Jeff