How I spent my Friday

Well sir, it's been a simply bloody awful week weather wise.
In short, locally, we've had a January blast of winter in November. Cold, high winds, and snow!

Still, we managed to miss the brunt of the Arctic blast which has caused historically high amounts of "lake effect" snow fall in areas to the North, East, West, and especially to the South of us. Poor buggers in Buffalo, New York have been buried in 6-8 feet + (2-3 metres) in just a couple of days! Roof tops are collapsing and the city's mostly paralyzed as I write. And the cruelest part? It's expected to now warm up! Yep, it's all going to melt, and Biblical flooding is expected.

Technically it's still Fall fer Pete's sake! Global warming my arse!  

So, all that is by way of setting up my entrance to work this morning. Having gone through all that crap all week, the weather moderated some, with some sun(!) and milder temperatures. I arrived in better spirits than when I had left on Wednesday. Waiting for me was a gig bag on the floor with some strings hanging out of the zipper. Not usually a good sign.

When I picked it up I felt that there was more than one piece inside. Definitely not a good sign!

I opened it up, and removed this:





Oh deary me, t'was gonna be one of those days. But what else ya gonna do at a repair bench, eh?
The owner's young son had apparently "stepped on it".   I'm getting the story second hand here, so don't axe me how that happened.

The bad news: The headstock is mahogany, so it breaks rea-l goo-od!
The good news: It's mahogany, so it broke cleanly.
The bad news: We're not a full feature repair facility. I have very few facilities and tools available for major or precision work.
The good news: The owner brought it in in a desperation move and is not expecting miracles. Just as well!

It looks a bit nicer in the pictures than in reality. The colour is quite pleasing but it is an inexpensive (cheap) small body plywood G scale "resonator" with a plastic cone and cast aluminum(?) spider. The grill over the top is nice shiny metal however, and looks quite good. Anyone's guess at this point as to how it sounds.

So, at this point I have nothing to lose. I have done similar repairs before but not with the head fully severed. Fortunately, a dry fit shows that the pieces should go back together reasonably well:


I stripped the hardware and slathered on the glue.
With a couple a bits of scrap wood to spread the load, I clamped her up, and wiped off the oozing bits.



And that's how she sits right now. Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll take off the clamp and see how she looks. I think it will be OK as long as I don't get too impatient.

More pix to follow if there is interest.

Isn't that why we have kids, so they can break all our stuff?

God speed, Barry!

Sgt. Vimes wrote:Isn't that why we have kids, so they can break all our stuff?

Mine have ALWAYS been taught to ask before touching anything of mine; guitars, tools or firearms!! Repercussions of not doing so are severe, and generally only need to be experienced once! 

You'll be right, Barry! 

I spent a good couple of hours yesterday - in air conditioned comfort 'cause its SO hot here presently - with a luthier I've just found "sort-of" locally....

I like luthiers.

corsair wrote:...I spent a good couple of hours yesterday - in air conditioned comfort 'cause its SO hot here presently...

I like luthiers.

Hmmm...

I removed the clamp this morning and it looked pretty good!
So, I filled any small crevices with CA, quickly buffed the area with some 2000 grit paper and gave it all a once over with my secret colouring  ingredient*



*Ahem* followed by some cleaner, polish, etc...



I strung her up with a set of 11's and tuned her to open G. No, it won't win any prizes for beauty, but as I said earlier it is a cheap-ish instrument and the owner just wanted to be able to play it again, regardless of appearances. I think he got his wish:

Good job on the guitar repair.

Regarding the weather, reports from your part of the world have made my father very nostalgic. He grew up in Buffalo in the '30s and '40s and remembers the first proper blizzards of the year coinciding with his birthday in early November - seems like not much has changed in 80 years or so. Apparently there's never enough snow in Country Durham (though if memory serves, it was always me who had to clear it anyway).

Thanks Don. It wasn't a major resto, but it means a lot to the owner to have his instrument back. So I'm happy I could help.

I really feel for folks in the Greater Buffalo Area. Apparently the majority of removal resources were sent to Buffalo proper, leaving many unassisted in the outlying suburbs.

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. But in this case your Da ain't missin' nuthin'! Western New York is in the lee of Lake Erie, and when the cold arctic winds start blowing over the warm water it's like a snow cannon aimed at Buffalo.

Happens north and east of us too, anywhere you happen to be in the lee of one of the Great Lakes. Toronto is blessed to be pretty much smack in the centre of it all and far enough away to miss most of it this time of the year. And we in Milton are doubly blessed to be sheltered by the Niagara Escarpment which usually bounces most of the nasty stuff around us. Can't really complain too much this time.

I'm the next state down from NY, had great weather considering.  Poor Buffalo people had caved roofs and all kinds of crazyness.

This thread is wandering, but to complete the nasty weather picture...
Yesterday was a balmy 14°C.
Today rain.
Right now the temperature is plummeting and the winds are clocking in at somewhere around 80 km/h. It was like a bloody hurricane out there about 15 minutes ago.
Tonight/tomorrow? We expect it all to freeze!
(sigh)