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Dan Erlewine
VG Q&A: Parlor Mystery
Plus, a Pro’s List of Repair Glues
My neighbor has an old parlor guitar that he asked me to clean up after years in storage. Inside the sound hole it reads “The American No. 5” and there is no other identifying script. The bridge is a pyramid-type. We’re curious about its age and manufacturer; I’m guessing Lyon and Healy from the 1920s.
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux, Part 2
Full House: Transcendent Jazz Masterpiece
In the November issue, we started to refurbish a doubleneck mandolin/guitar I made for Jerry Schafer in 1977. It needed a new wiring harness, tuners, binding repair, new frets, and a good setup. With teammates Ceil Thompson and Gene Imbody sharing the load, we continued the work. 1) Gene – our go-to guy for tough
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux
A Return to Glory for “Jerry”
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,
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Dan Erlewine
Round-Up Range
Rolling on a Post-Pandemic Project
Five years ago, I started making a Tele-style guitar inspired by the Gretsch Roundup. When Covid hit, I was up to my ears in repair work and lost my shop help, so I was forced to put the project aside. But the time is now right to complete the build. 1) My creation has a
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Fixing an Upright’s Downfall
Jumbo Job
In a professional repair shop, neck re-sets are a common part of restoring a guitar’s playability, especially with old acoustics; instruments stored long-term under full string tension and/or in less-than-ideal heat and humidity suffer the consequences. On a neck, the damage manifests in a bow that makes the guitar unplayable and can’t be remedied with
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: A ’57 Strat Goes Under the Knife
Battle-Scarred
B.K. Vaught recently walked into my shop with a vintage Strat that had been modified and refinished. While its changes represented a bit of American history, the guitar deserved to be restored. B.K. got it in the spring of 2022, while helping sort the estate of an uncle who had passed away. Among his belongings
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: A 1955 Gibson Touch-up
Team Effort.
To keep work flowing in my shop, repairs often become a group effort. Recently, Gene Imbody, T.K. Kelly, Paul Schmittauer, and I worked to repair a beautiful ’55 Les Paul Special and GA-30 amp belonging to Jake Curtis, who inherited the set from his grandfather, Vernon Benschoter. They’re both in very good condition, and Jake
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Finding An Old Friend, Part 2
What Goes Around…
In the September, issue I told the story of the ’58 ES-335 I sold to my friend, Al, for $225 in 1966. Al passed away earlier this year and left the guitar to me. He’d modified its electronics, so I’m restoring them, and I’ll complete the job with my repair buddy, Gene Imbody. A master of
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Finding An Old Friend
What Goes Around…
I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I learned to play guitar during the folk boom that, for me, started with the Kingston Trio in 1959; their music led me to all the great folk and blues musicians that came before them. In ’63, I started playing electric guitar in bands and for the
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Reviving a ’56 Duo-Jet, Part Two
Ugly, But An Oldy
In the March issue, I introduced you to my apprentice, Blake Burkholder, and the restoration he was doing to a ’56 Duo-Jet. Blake, who operates Peach Ridge Guitars, in West Virginia, called this a “big-boy repair” because it was a complex job. Complex is right! Last time, we showed the poor repair work that had
