Arlington Fret Works

Some rare or unusual instruments, and random stuff:

Paul Barrere, guitarist for Little Feat, came to my shop while on tour. Here he is playing my custom apple wood guitar:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This 1950 Gibson ES125  had 2 broken braces and the back was loose. A complex repair:

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An antique Martin from 1875

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1959 Fender Strat

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This beautiful bouzouki was made in 1922 on the island of Mykanos, Greece for Dino Koukoulas, the premier bouzouki player of his day.   I had to make a new nut for it, after 89 years of play :

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Spalted maple top from Melancon Guitars:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This old Fender Malibu was damaged in a fire. The nut was melted and finish charred from the flames, and the back was loose because the guitar was filled with water from the sprinklers.  I was able to clean the body with alcohol and polish, refinished the neck, new tuners, fret dots. Before and after:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aluminum neck Kramer bass



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think this was called "Euro-star", modified from a kit I got on eBay

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Lee (chineseirishman.com) gigging with my Holly guitar at Ragtime in Clarendon:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great looking Silvertone with a flame maple top

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A beautiful Japanese guitar from the 60's, "Handcrafted by Montclair"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    A very rare 1934 Martin tenor ukulele, model O-17 T, with original case. Emma Figaro played it on the Vaudeville stage for many years. I had to re-glue the bridge and carefully clean and polish. The owner had it appraised at $10,000, so I handled with care!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This beauty was made by its owner, the only guitar he ever made. The top is actually flame maple instead of spruce.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My friend Johnny Rushmore has started making custom guitars out of one piece of wood ... neck, body, headstock all cut and carved out of one big board. They sustain forever. I put in the frets on this Walnut one, yet to be finished.  I've posted some YouTube videos of the fret leveling process on this guitar, and of the amazing J Rushmore playing his creation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA0Y0ixpIJU

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Terry McInturff Polaris Pro; a very well made guitar:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A mint condition Gibson ES125 from 1955

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An electric stand up bass. I had to make a support on the back so it could go on a drum stand.  That's the owner playing it:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's something I don't work on every day -- an electric viola de gamba. I had to glue down the frets and level them, fix the pickup, and modify the string hole arrangement:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a sitar that broke when it fell off the wall. The neck broke and the gourd had a sizable dent in it.  I was able to repair the dent by fishing a guitar string through the neck pocket and pulling the pieces into place using a guitar tuner.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This 1947 Gibson belonged to Jenkins Bell Ruscoe of the Mississippi Valley Boys. It spent many years in an attic in North Carolina, and the heat and humidity damaged the glue bonds. Eight of the internal braces came completely off, and 2 more were loose. This top brace was beyond my reach so I used powerful neodymium magnets to first locate it in position then hold it in place while I put the clamps on.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An Ovation stereo bass from 1976

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Some oldies but goodies from the '60s ... Silvertone, Airline, Kay and Apache:

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A clamp set up for gluing a broken headstock. The white stuff is called "Friendly Plastic". It softens in boiling water so I can shape it to fit odd angles to get the right clamping pressure.  Underneath the neck is a jig I made that uses a mini jack to push the break closed:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I converted this Alembic 6 string bass to fretless: 

After pulling the frets and cleaning the slots I put in strips of maple veneer.  I thinned the strips to size by tapping on them with a hammer to compress the wood. With the maple compressed the neck will be as stiff as it was with metal frets.  After the strips were fit I glued them in place with thinned shellac:

The finished product:

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave Kline's violin.(violindave.com) I'm no violin expert, but I fixed the pickup and did some touchup on the French polish finish: