Recommendation of luthiers.

[shreddedsweeper]

Hi, my first post here. I need to do some major mods to my guitar.

I need a complete refret, and sanding, clearing of dirt on my ebony fretboard. Need a complete refinish on my ash body guitar. I want something like natural, but blonde stained on the grains and lacquered with a non-gloss finish.The procress where you stain the body and light sand so that the dye will appear on the grain only or something like that, what you call that process?. One thing is that, i have a chip on my bridge area, so will it affect since im doing a natural coloured refinish? I also might need to do routing on my bridge, to something like vai bridge routing, which had 6 little semi circle pipeline extending out of the bridge routing instead of my current one which had a plain rectangular one.
Too, is it possible to reroute my current guitar bridge, to fit in a ZR trem? I might get a 2hand sabre to play around with? I also need to change electronic parts, tone knobs and stuff but not the pups

Are there any luthiers around, that take pride in their work to do that? Yeah I know about malcom, but he doesnt do respraying or routing I believe. I had a budge of around 600 to do these, I know its abit tight, but I think I could broaden the budget, since the mods take times, and normally we pay a partial desposit first.

I heard about sinamex guitar hospital, guitar connection, guitar workshop. And several others who dont do major cosmestic touch up, mainly luthers, mikemann shop, malcom, davis i think, dans.

Any personal comments and experince from shops above?

 

[ShredCow]

There's only 1 Luthier in Singapore and you already know him.

Have you contacted him with regards to what you want?

In anycase, Malcom can just do the refret. And you will be a happy man.

 

[shreddedsweeper]

Have yet to contact him. Actually I dont really care about the respraying part, Im more worried about the bridge routing. Will ask him tonight if he will do a routing for me or is there any drop fit tremolo available

 

[theblueark]

There's more than one.

There's this guy:
http://www.bezalelinstruments.com/index.htm

Who makes these:

 

[shreddedsweeper]

There's more than one.

There's this guy:
http://www.bezalelinstruments.com/index.htm

thx dude, that was very helpful. Own you one favour :smt045

 

[ShredCow]

Qualified luthier? Or just "luthier" by name? :wink: Anyway, if Bezalel Instruments makes great guitar that also play and sound great, why not?

In any case, shreddedsweeper, its highly likely that no respectable luthier/tech will install the ZR for you, and its is highly advised not to do so.

Reason being:

1) the amount of routing that has to be done is VAST. You lose a lot of wood and if you don't like the trem in the end, you cannot change if for anything else.

2) it is not an established trem system unlike a Floyd Rose: there is not much know-how/experience on it. If you have an extra guitar with a ZR trem in it, a good luthier can use that as a base model. But. If the base model's ZR system has a flaw... without proper experience, that Lutheir might not see the flaw.

3) The ZR trem costs a BOMB and you can only use parts from Ibanez which cost a lot... www.ibanezrules.com I think Rich has ZR trems in stock.

In the case of doing the Lion's Claw trem routing like on the Ibanez JEM, you may refer to www.projectguitar.com for instructions how to DIY. Its purely eye candy if you have a properly recessed trem, especially if you are not using a lo pro floyd.

 

[ShredCow]

Oh.
If you do decided to carry on the ZR trem idea... just note, there are 2 versions of the ZR trem.

V1 is the earlier version, the spring tension is adjusted by using an allen wrench.

V2 is the current version, uses a thumb screw to adjust the spring tension.

V2 is sturdier.

 

[shreddedsweeper]

i just measure, the trem post was about 74.5mm, a gotoh should abit to fit in well, but my bridge routing is routed in this way

normal
|.........|
|.........|

my was.

\....... /
--------
I might not be able to do pull up

added dots to correct the picture, the end of the bridge is shape in that way, unlike normal one which is pure rectangular, my was like trapeziam

 

[ShredCow]

Gotoh floyds are good. And with a great price tag. Its a licensed floyd, so if your current trem is a OFR/licensed floyd, it should retrofit fine and you can expect the same amount of performance (SOLELY n terms of dive/pull up capabilities) as your current floyd.

I don't get your diagram, got a phone cam pic or something?

 

[shreddedsweeper]

I dont have any camera phone, or digital cams on mine . .. I guess i could take a screenshot

got a clearer picture?


as you could see from the picture, the hole are those for the studs. So what im worrying is that, the lower part of the bridge, must hit the bridge routing, so i can do much pull ups.

or are all ofr/lfr bridges in this way? the end is narrower? I dont rem seeing those arounds hmm

 

[ShredCow]

Well, to answer your questoin abt all ofr brigdes being like so, nope... you may have a rare guitar!

What you can do is to compare your current floyd's base plate to the gotoh (which is similiar to an OFR, NOT edge) baseplate, and see if your current floyd has some special shape.

If you can take measurements, that would be the best of course. I think there is a diagram of the OFR or Gotoh so you can compare your measurements.


Anyway, what guitar do you have now?

 

[shreddedsweeper]

a yamaha yeah my lfr plate had a narrower towards the end, and i searched your thread on gotoh, and measured. The measurement is like, just nice and im measuring by a ruler, might not fit or actually i could file it down myself :lol:

 

[ShredCow]

Yamaha? Which model? The TRS (MIJ ones) floyd on them are pretty okay.

Haha, if its just minor, just swap the trem out for a gotoh and file it yourself. Do measure your tremolo block, the gotoh clocks in @ 41mm long. A 36mm block is available.

 

[shreddedsweeper]

yeah its the MIJ one. The reason i changing, is that i broke the arm, and not too sure where to get it, and its VERY rusty. And god, the worse part came, you know the hole where u just allen key to tighten it to hold the string in place? It wore out, become round . . . I got to use piler to turn it slightly tight, using finger is possible but my finger are weak The nuts where you should loosen when u adjust the intonation have the same problems. Its really pissing me off, really

 

[ShredCow]

Well, i guess if your current trem is that bad, then just replace it. The Gotoh will work wonderfully.

 

[shreddedsweeper]

I will me making a trip to yamaha to see if i could get the replacement part first, yeah. any idea where should i go? Plaza sing?

 

[ShredCow]

Don't hope for much.

Go to any yamaha outlet, or better, call them up now, ask what to do.

 

[bopakeh]

Qualified luthier? Or just "luthier" by name? :wink:

Does it matter? Its like saying you're a musician by name because you're not Berklee 'trained'? Musicians play/compose and luthiers build. If they cease to do what they are doing, they are no longer what they are. They are also alot of 'qualified' teachers in Singapore, sadly not many can teach. Cheers

 

[ShredCow]

Of course if you can build well, then more power to you.

I'm merely asking people to have a little more respect for the term.

Its like "doctor". You don't call some well-read senior nurse a doctor.

 

[bopakeh]

It's nothing like a doctor, you spend 7 years in medical school and you get government bodies to recognise your degree. Anybody can call themselves a luthier. Get used to it bro, just like anyone can call themself a musician even though though they know less than 5 songs. Respect for the 'term', go figure.