Re-string Friday: Takamine EG510

A great acoustic re-string adventure done yesterday: Takamine EG510

• Re-string: Down from a set of .011 to .010. The owner is simply uncomfortable with the default .011s & it's a good move going lighter. Why conform to popular embrace when it doesn't work for you, yes?
• Light filing of nut slot: Slight choking at the D-string slot so it was filed, nothing intense.
• Lubricated nut slots.
• Re-moisturized fretboard
• Lowered action: Filed bridge saddle. The default action was high- slightly more than 3.5mm at the 12th fret (bass side). This made fretting there (& beyond) rather ridiculous.

This is my mini bench vice, a little rusty at the sides but that's a mark of good service. You can see the Takamine's bridge saddle there being held in place. When the picture was taken, I was half-way through the job.

Swinging set-up

Met up with YC last night after work, his Swing needed some looking into after he tweaked it a tad during re-stringing the day before & something was a miss thereafter. What's done:

• Reduced neck back bow
• Revised action for a set of .010 strings
• Lubricated nut slots

After a year's worth of ownership, I must say that YC had taken good care of his baby, more so when he's a definite Swing fan.

Set-up: Ibanez SR bass

I usually don't do bass, I lack the exposure time to be able to do one well. But after seeing this bass, I know it's a do-able situation:

• Re-string: 45 - 105 set
• Re-adjust neck tilt.
• Re-set action
• Re-condition fretboard
• Bridge- not screwed into the body well. Thought someone did a botched job but it's one of the screws there; it's just too rusty so the grip was affected. I don't have spares lying around here but here's a neat trick if you are facing the same situation- try removing as much rust from the culprit screw as possible, a chemical approach is recommended. Swap this screw's position with one from the opposite/ diagonal location.

Set-up: Ibanez MTM 2

Did a set-up for this Ibanez MTM2, some other stuff done:

• Set up for a Drop C tuning- Low E string is a .052 to counter the slack from the detune, so the action had to be revised (current tuning E-B-G-D-A-C, high to low)
• Truss rod adjustment to reduce neck's bow
• Re-conditioned fretboard
• Re-positioned bridge- one side of it was sitting way off the body

This was a rather quick job, the guitar in question here sports a fixed bridge so the drop C adaptation was a breeze.