In 1977, I was doing guitar repair in Big Rapids, Michigan, and my services included picking up and delivering repair instruments for several stores. One was Schafer Music, in Mount Pleasant; every couple of weeks, I’d stop to grab whatever they had for repair and hang out with owner Jerry Schafer. He and his wife, Bethel, had seven children and the entire family played instruments.

1) Jerry’s band had many iterations over the years, but a mainstay included his good friend, Ron Flaugher (left), Ron’s wife, Gerda, on drums, Jerry (and his ’63 Gibson EMS-1235), and Bethel on bass.

2) On one visit, Jerry asked if I could make a semi-hollow doubleneck for him, saying he wanted something that sounded better, acoustically, than his 1235. I jumped at the chance, and designed something that paid homage to two legendary Gibsons – the F-style “Loar” mandolin and the ES-335. Five months later, I was tuning it up for delivery. I was thrilled with the results, but Jerry was even more so, and played the heck out of it for many years.

3) I hadn’t seen the “Guitolin” for 47 years before Jerry’s son, Dan, a professional musician in Nashville, sent a photo, knowing I’d appreciate an update. To my surprise, the top had been oversprayed with a nicely executed sunburst. Seeing it gave me the urge to build another, and I asked Dan if he would loan it for measurements, so I wouldn’t have to start from scratch. He was gracious enough to send it, and I discovered it had undergone other changes, some of which I did not like. It didn’t take long to decide we had to put “Jerry” back in order.

4) The Tune-O-Matic bridge had been replaced with a piezo pickup that required larger holes for its anchors. That was bad enough, but the worst thing about the mod was it raised string action, and the bridge couldn’t be lowered because of the wires running underneath.

5) I was thrilled to remove its poor-quality/loose-fitting anchors.

6) My shopmate, T.K. Kelly, made new anchors from solid brass. He knurled the outside and threaded it internally to 8-32. Here, the anchor is being screwed onto the post (held gently in the drill chuck). Tune-O-Matic bridges have always been mounted on 6-32 threaded posts with threaded thumbwheels for adjustment. For our shop-made instruments and guitars that aren’t old/collectible, we make our own posts and thumbwheels that are threaded 8-32 (the next size up). The thicker posts and thumbwheels are hand-machined to tighter tolerances, which make for noticeably better coupling and tone transfer. I started doing this on my Albert King Flying V replicas, and I really like the results.

7) With the post still in the closed chuck, the anchor was pressed into the body with a bit of hide glue applied to it. The knurling accepts the glue in its recesses, making for a stronger connection in the wood and further aiding tone transfer.

8) To make new thumbwheels, T.K. knurled a piece of steel rod to match the new bridge, which is a Pigtail tune-o-matic in aged nickel. After drilling and tapping the 8-32 thread, he cut the thumbwheels.

9) The new bridge studs and thumbwheels are ready. In part two of this project, we’ll show the tricky process of making the bridge’s holes larger to accept the new posts.

10) Also in part two, we’ll address this jungle of electronics.

11) When Jerry passed away in 2016, his family had the Guitolin’s image engraved on the back of his headstone.

Dan Erlewine has been repairing guitars for more than 50 years. The author of three books, dozens of magazine articles, he has also produced instructional videotapes and DVDs on guitar repair. From 1986 through his retirement in late 2019, Erlewine was part of the R&D team, and company liaison for Stewart-MacDonald’s Guitar Shop Supply. Today, he operates a repair shop in Athens, Ohio, as well as building replicas of the guitars he made for Albert King and Jerry Garcia in 1972. This column has appeared in VG since March, 2004. You can contact him at danerlewine@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared in VG’s November 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.