The whammy bar is jammed in this Strat Elite. Trapped. Won’t come out. What’s to be done?

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes2 July 2020guitar, repair, luthier, strat, elite, tremolo, whammy, bridge, vibrato

Repairing a damaged acoustic guitar bridge plate

A worn or mangled bridge plate can be a big deal. Left unattended, it can seriously damage your guitar’s top and even bridge. Addressing the problem can often involve having to remove and replace the entire bridge plate. Or, you could repair and patch it.

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes1 July 2020guitar, bass, repair, luthier, acoustic, bridge, bridge plate, guitar repair

Straightening a bowed neck: Correction and Reassembly

The final part of correcting this very problematic neck. I unveil my cunning plan to get the improperly cut truss rod channel corrected and get this neck straightened again.

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes29 June 2020guitar, bass, repair, luthier, warp, bow, neck, neck deformation

Remove Blue Pencil Lines in Affinity Photo

Utterly non-guitar related but it might be helpful to someone, somewhere. And we’re all about helping each other. 🙂

OpinionGerry Hayes24 June 2020art, illustration, photo, sketchy setups

Straightening a bowed neck: Truss Rod Operation

Last time we removed the fingerboard to assess what had gone wrong with a bowed neck and a truss rod that had burst through the back. And we’ve figured out what was wrong.

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes16 June 2020guitar, bass, repair, luthier, warp, bow, neck, neck deformation

Straightening a bowed neck (with some complications)

Straightening a badly bowed neck is one thing. When the truss rod is misbehaving enough to burst out the rear of that neck adds an extra layer of complication.

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes15 June 2020guitar, bass, repair, luthier, warp, bow, neck, neck deformation

Guitar setup 'vision'

With Series 2 of Sketchy Setups launching in a couple of days, I thought I’d share some of the reasons I wanted to create these guitar setup guides and (more importantly) the reasons you might want to read one.

BooksGerry Hayes10 June 2020setup, guide, sketchy setups, book, ebook, learn, tutorial, instruction

A look at the new Sketchy Setups ebooks

A look inside the new Sketchy Setups guides. Learn to setup Fender Offset guitars, Locking Trem guitars (Floyds, Edge, Kahlers), and even Acoustic Guitars.

BooksGerry Hayes8 June 2020setup, guide, sketchy setups, book, ebook, learn, tutorial, instruction

Sketchy Setups Launch Delayed

Recent events have left me feeling very unwilling to launch new products. I’m tentatively postponing Sketchy Setups launch by one week (12th June) but I’ll monitor things as we go. Sorry.

BooksGerry Hayes1 June 2020sketchy setups, ebook, guide, setup

All new Sketchy Setups ebooks launch soon!

Three all new Sketchy Setups guides launch on June 5th. Damn, this is exciting.

BooksGerry Hayes31 May 2020setup, sketchy setups, guide, book, ebook, instruction, tutorial, learn

Haze Guitars and COVID-19 Update

Prompted by the COVID-19 restrictions, and other factors, I’ve made the decision to keep Haze Guitars closed a little while longer. I’m sorry.

HousekeepingGerry Hayes9 May 2020housekeeping, covid-19, coronavirus, opening hours

The Problem Levelling Necks

Repairing some types of neck deformation can require working to level (sand or plane) the neck itself with the fingerboard removed. This brings its own considerations, though.

Guitar RepairGerry Hayes16 April 2020guitar, bass, repair, luthier, warp, bow, neck, neck deformation, level, fingerboard

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