Thanks to Flash Flood Print Studios!
Happy Birthday GTS!
It was a year ago today that Steve, Brad, and Jess opened their new home for guitar service in the Kendall-Whittier neighborhood. Guitar Technical Services is doing great! The guys would like to thank everyone who has supported us, including old friends and customers, as well as new. We would also like to thank Ron Edwards and Ed Sharrer for their help and their efforts to develop Kendall-Whittier.
"Together....again....." Justin and his Buck Owens Harmony
This is Justin. He brought in an old Harmony-made Buck Owens American. These were sold in Sear's in the late 60's and early 70's. When this guitar came through the doors it was in poor shape. It had loose back braces, cracked and deteriorated headstock overlay, loose pickguard with a bad glue job and screw holes, and was just generally funky. Here are some before and after shots to show the American's transformation.
The left picture was taken by Justin before coming to the shop. By the time we saw the guitar, the overlay had completely cracked and crumbled away.
On the right you see a brand new overlay which Justin was lucky enough to find online. Some of these are available on Ebay, which honestly is an amazing find. This is a clear plastic that has been back-painted so that the graphics will not scratch off. We cleaned up the headstock and applied the overlay, instantly sprucing up this instrument.
This isn't pretty. Old crusty glue was making the surface under the pickguard uneven, and a few paint chips have been pulled away with the old pickguard. We leveled the surfaced and applied some touch up paint, since those spots would show through the new pickguard material.
Above is the new pick guard in place with the old resting below. Notice the screw holes. Justin made our lives easier, once again, by sourcing some great celluloid tortoise pickguard. We took the new blank, traced and oversized it to cover some damage to the finish that was outside of the original boundary and applied it with adhesive made for this purpose.
Left is the finished pickguard, looking great on the American.
After gluing some loose braces, setup, cleanup, and new strings this guy was ready to strum. Justin was very pleased and so were we.
Here is Buck with his original American, which was custom made for him by Semie Mosely of Mosrite.
Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean
Mr. Guitar, Chet Atkins, being the Certified Guitar Player that he was, had many signature models over his illustrious career. Here is a list from the forums on Chet's site: Chet Signature List. We see a lot of Gretsch models (Country Gentleman, Tennessean, Tennessee Rose, Super Chet) and some Gibson nylon string solid bodies. For some reason we have not seen so many of this model, the Gibson Tennessean. It has a ton of Chet and Gibson vibe at the same time. This guitar came in looking pretty grimy and out of adjustment. We cleaned her up and the Sunrise Orange finish almost glows, and with some adjustment plays great. We just thought it was too good lookin' to not post some pics.
Love it or Hate it, the Antigua Finish
This finish, known as Antigua, is a product of the years that the Fender guitar company was owned by CBS. Yes that CBS. Reminds us of a fridge or a washer and dryer set you might have bought at Sears at the time. So here is a '79 Strat that embodies this era of Fender production. Love it? Hate it? Don't Care? Re-fret it and install 4 neck bolts?
We hate to see it leave, but we love to watch it go.
Just in time for Summer
Come on in, grab a Coke, and talk shop in the AC.
