1927 Gibson TU Tenor Ukulele Clean Up

Hmmm, this is interesting.  It looks like an old violin case.

But as much as I love violins (can't play one, and I am learning too many other instruments to justify one), I don't think it's a violin.

Whoa.  It's an ukulele, it's sunburst...and it's a Gibson!

It's a Gibson TU tenor ukulele from 1927-29.  Crazy!

Gibson was very late getting into the ukulele business.  In fact, by the time this uku was made, the 1920s ukulele craze (aka the First Wave), was subsiding.

Ironically, Gibson contacted Martin for advice on ukulele building!  Martin offered to help them source small parts.  It's not known if they followed through, but we know Gibson made three soprano uku models, as well as an extremely rare TU, or "tenor ukulele."  The TU was in production for just about 2  years, 1927-9.

The TU features a spruce top over mahogany back and sides.   The neck is also mahogany.  The bridge and fingerboard are Brazilian rosewood.  You can see the lovely celluloid binding on the front and back.

One of the most interesting features is this double-layer bridge.  I thought it was a replacement, but the 1927 Gibson catalog pictures the TU with this bridge, so it is original.

There are four tiny bridge pins and a fifth decorative pin.  Very unusual.

Here are the pins removed.  They're hand carved of bone - you can see how the taper is not consistent.

I sanded just a touch off that fifth pin - it stuck up way too high for my taste.  (In the picture above, you can see how high up it was).  I had visions of that little piece snapping off.

The saddle and nut are also bone.

The instrument is in wonderful condition.  There is some wear on the back of the neck - it was played a lot.  There are also a few well-repaired cracks - the worst is this triangular-shaped one on the top.

It looks worse in the photos than it really is.

The interior bracing is spruce, and it's very light.  This picture is a mirror image looking up a the top.

There are 2 thin braces that are similar to fan braces on a classical guitar which are alongside the bridge plate.  The plate could be maple - it's hard to tell.

In addition to the top cracks, there are 2 cracks in the back that were nicely repaired.  The glue used on all of the repairs appears to be hide glue - whoopee!  Nicely done.

There are also 2 thin back braces.  You can see the 2 back cracks at the top of the picture on the left.  Nice clean repair.  Not easy to do on such a small instrument.

While the bracing appears to me to be lighter than a Martin, the ukulele is almost twice the weight of a Martin due to that relatively massive bridge.

Gibson sopranos use a much lighter and more conventional bridge.  I can only guess that Gibson was concerned about the longer tenor scale length needing a stronger bridge.

There are no serial numbers or other markings inside the instrument that I could see.

The ukulele is in very fine shape.  I'm just going to clean it up and restring it.

I like Dunlop fingerboard cleaner for boards like this.  You can see some of the grime that came off.  Not too bad.

I used to use lemon oil on fingerboards, but lately I've been using this ColorTone fretboard finishing oil.  I like it a lot.  It really enhances the wood, and helps to keep it from drying out.

This picture was taken while the oil was still soaking in a bit - I wiped the excess off.

Then a clean and polish with Virtuoso cleaner and polish.

The Virtuoso polish is fantastic, but the cleaner is even better.  I can't imagine using anything else.

You can see the gloss on the old finish really coming alive.  Remember, this finish was put on about 87 years ago!

Compare this picture to the picture of the back at the top of this post.  The Virtuoso cleaner gives a cloudy finish terrific clarity.  The polish is the the final touch.

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1961 Supro Lap Steel Cleanup, Pt. 2 (Completed)

Finishing up the Supro was very straightforward.  The hardest thing - if you can say that - was polishing out a couple of lightly corroded spots on the control plate.

This corner was probably the worst.  You can see it's really not bad at all.

After a few passes with Mother's Aluminum Polish, it looks great.

The polish won't remove rust, but it take off light corrosion like this very easily.  It puts a great shine on plating or bare metal that's in good shape.

Here's the finished control plate.

There were some small string divots on the bridge, so I filed it a bit and went over the edge with 400 grit sandpaper.  The edge that the strings pass over is super smooth now - I wanted to make sure the strings couldn't snag and break on it.

I'm restringing it with Scotty's lap steel strings.  The high strings are plain and the bottom three are semi-flatwound, which helps reduce bar noise.

This set says "C6," but there are a lot of tunings you can use it with.  I'm thinking about trying an E9, since my Oahu is tuned to C6 right now.

I lined the strings up so they pass right over the pickup's polepieces.  These pickups sound fantastic.  Super clarity and good power.

This one, in fact, seems to be a bit hotter than the one on my Oahu.

Pickup and bridge cover back in place.  I polished all the plastic - including the knobs - with Novus #2 polish.  They came out great.

The mighty Supro logo.

The finished steel ready to twang!

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1961 Supro Lap Steel Cleanup and Minor Mods, Pt. 1

I finished painting the exterior of the sunroom.  Whoo hoo.  I still need to fix the rotted corner.  I'll post about that soon.

However, the good news is that I'm back in action in the Dungeon.  Ha!

This is a 1961 Supro lap steel.  You may recall that I acquired it as part of a package with my Supro 1616T amp.  I'm not sure of the model number on the steel - other than the Supro badge and serial number, there are no other identifying marks.

It features the famous Valco/Supro/National string-through pickup.  The electronics are in good shape - I just need to clean it up and restring it and I'll be twanging.

This steel is pretty much as basic as you can get.  Unlike my Oahu Diana (also Valco-made), this Supro has a painted-on fingerboard.   Quite plain compared to the Oahu.

Two thumbscrews hold the plastic pickup and bridge cover on.  Here's the pickup with the cover removed.  Some light corrosion, but it should clean up easily.

I took the knobs off so I can polish the control plate under them.  You can see they're two of the millions of knobs made by Daka-Ware.

Valco and Daka-Ware were both in Chicago, as were many other manufacturers of these kinds of parts.

I want to take of the control plate.  There are two wood screws on the back end - the arrow points to where I removed one.

The two rear screws on the top plate of the pickup hold the pickup down and also hold the control plate down.  Unscrew those and the plate will come off.

You don't need to take the front screws off the pickup unless you want to remove it too.

Here's the control plate.  Notice how simple the whole steel is.  It's just a single piece of wood cut to shape and routed for the controls.

My guess is the bodies were done separately as were the controls.  Then the output wiring was soldered to the output jack, and the plate was mounted to the body.  String it up, and you're done.

You can also see the fading and yellowing of the body next to the control plate.  The paint's a lot brighter underneath. 

The serial number dates the guitar to 1961.  The first 1961 Valco serial number was T51000.

And here's the date code on one of the pots - I think this is the volume.  The "304" is the EIA code for Stackpole (also in Chicago).  The "60" is for 1960, and the "43" indicates it was made in the 43rd week of the year.

The other pot was made in the 49th week of 1960.  So based on these dates, the pots were in Valco's stock probably about the end of 1960, the guitar was probably made and shipped in early 1961.

Here's a great list of EIA codes and how to read them.

I cleaned the pots while I had the control panel off.

I also made one small mod I do to most all of my guitars.  It's known as the "50s Gibson" or "Fezz Parka" mod.  It prevents the guitar's tone from getting darker as you turn the volume down.

It involves moving exactly one wire.

If you look at the rightmost tab on the volume control here, you'll see that the hot lead from the pickup (yellow wire) and the tone capacitor are joined there.  Wiring the tone this way tends to load the volume circuit and cuts treble as the volume goes down.

So what we do is just take the capacitor lead and move it to the center, or output, tab on the volume pot.  Easy as cake.  (Mmmmmm cake).

I really like this mod much better than a "treble bleed" mod.  It's more natural sounding to my ears.  With a treble bleed, it sounds like the treble goes up at lower volume.

It's certainly easy enough to try this mod and see if you like it.

I'm going to leave the original cap in for now.  It's probably leaky, but what the heck.  I don't think it's worth messing with at this point.   The value of this one is .05 uF.  I changed the one in my Oahu to .03, so this is also an opportunity to compare the two values.

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Removing Rotted Wood on Exterior Support Pillar

So I'm back with more stuff on the sunroom painting.  I expect this to be over this weekend.  It's taking me away from The Dungeon and I need to get back down there!

I was doing the prep on the front outside wall and I found an area where the wood on one of the columns was rotted.  You can see it here at the bottom and on the right side.

This kind of thing is like rust on old cars.  It's usually worse on the inside than it appears from the outside.

The good thing about this is that I got some neat new tools to hack the rotted corner away.  As you know, you can never have too many tools.

I used a jamb saw to make a horizontal cut across the top.  My first cut was about 1 1/2 inches (maybe 35mm) deep.  I'm going to cut a "block" out so I can determine how deep the rot goes back.

Then I made a vertical chisel cut.  The chisel went in very easily - this side is where the rot is.

Chiselling the other side.

My chisel was quite sharp so it did well on this job.  However, I think it needs to be sharpened after this.  (Making a mental note).

After I removed this section, it was clear that the rot went back about another inch and a half, so I cut more out after this.

Here's the other tool I used.  This thing is fantastic.  It's a hand jab/sawzall saw.  The blade folds into the handle...

 ...and it extends when you need it.

The Milwaukee people make a variety of blades to fit this thing.  It's fantastic.

This is at the top of my list for zombie apocalypse tools.  You can kill Z's with it AND it's a survival tool.  Brilliant.

There were some hunks of wood I just couldn't reach with the saw or chisel.  The new jab saw was perfect for this job.

I'm trying to make the cut out as square as possible so I can fit a new wood block in to replace the rotted wood I cut out.

Here it is mostly done.

This pillar is on a side of the house where there is a tree, so it stays damp on this corner for many days after it rains.

The rotted area is on the right side - it looks like a cave.  It went back about 4 inches (10 cm) or so.

My guess is that the caulk between the wood and the brick cracked, allowing water to penetrate from the bottom.

Here's a better angle.  I'm going to fill that deep 'cave' with an expandable filler foam and then cut a new block to fit the rest of the cut-out area.

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Painting the Sunroom Exterior Wall - Finally!

This stupid wall took a lot of prep.  But now I'm putting the final coat of paint on it and it looks much better than it did.

I think in a previous post I mentioned I'm using Sherwin-Williams "Duration" exterior paint.  Duration used to be the top of the line S-W paint, but now they have some new paint that outranks it.

But this is really good stuff.  Considering the quality and how long it will last, $50 a gallon is quite reasonable.  It's twice as much as the cheap Despot paint, but much higher quality.

First thing is to use my trusty Hyde paint tool to open the can.

I like to make three drain holes/slots in the rim of the can.  That way the paint that gets in the rim can drain down into the can.

Just put your paint tool's pointed end on the rim and whap it with a hammer.

I tried to get an action shot of this, but failed.

Closeup of one of the drain holes.

These work pretty well.  I didn't invent this technique.

After you stir up the paint, you have to pour it into your tray.  This is another cheap-but-valuable tool - a snap-on paint spout.  Helps you not make a big mess.

I like Purdy brushes.  I've been reading about other brands - I may try Elder & Jenks next time (they were founded in 1793!)

Anyway, Purdy brushes are signed by the brushmaker.  I think this one was made by "Chomsay"?

Here's an exciting shot of me painting the top trim board.

Wow.

The color I used is called "Roman Column."  It's got a little cream color to it.  Looks pretty classy I think.

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Priming and Filling Imperfections on Exterior House Trim

I worked this week on getting the sunroom exterior ready for a decent primer coat.

Much like a number of other projects I've done on the house, I found that the undoing - or in this case, the prep - is the worst part of the job.  Removing or disassembling the old mess is a major pain undertaking in a lot of cases.  The good news is I'm fairly far along as of this writing.

The first order of business is to cover the bare spots that cropped up during the (first) sanding phase.  I'm going to hit them with a coat of primer and then fill the imperfections, sand, fill, etc., until I get a reasonably decent looking surface.

I have this great paint mixing tool.  You attach it to your electric drill and stick in the paint and mix it up.

Words of warning: put it into the paint before you start the drill, and stop the drill before you remove it.

Or, you could dunk it in the paint, run the drill for a bit, then take it out and hold it over a canvas and turn the drill on and splatter the canvas with paint.  Then repeat with different colors.  You might be hailed as a genius.

I'm using Sherwin-Williams primer and paint for this job.  I got an endorsement deal bought these very cool Sherwin-Williams latex gloves also.  They have a latex palm (the blue part) and the back is breathable fabric.  I'm digging them.  I've used disposable gloves in the past, but I find they get really hot (i.e., your hands sweat like crazy).

These seem to be much better.

Here I am putting a coat of primer on the bare spots.

Exciting, huh?

I use good brushes and clean them after they're used.  This brush is at least five years old and still supple and doesn't shed bristles at all.

Here's that post after I hit it with primer.

Look at all the imperfections.  How bad is that?

The good thing about the primer is that in addition to covering the bare wood and giving the paint something to adhere to, is that it also lets you see imperfections in the surface like a microscope.

I won't be able to get all of these out, but I'll get most of them.  The vast majority, by the way, are places where old paint chipped off and then it wasn't sanded down for the next coat.  I've seen 3 coats of paint under the current coat.

The door on the left will ultimately be replaced.  For now, I'll prep and paint it, but I'm not bothering to fill it.

Here's the first pass on the fill.  I like DAP spackling - it's pink and turns white when it's dry.

After it's dry, we sand again.  Then fill anything that remains.  Then sand again.

I did three (count 'em...) passes on the fills.  It was tedious, but it looks much, much better now.

In hindsight, I probably should have removed some of this trim and replaced it.  Live and learn.

I've written before about my displeasure with sloppy painting of the edges of trim where they meet another surface - brick in this case.

If you use an edge too like this one, you'll get nice clean edges.  Here I'm using one for a piece of trim that lies right on the brick.  You can be fairly sloppy with the paint, but it will wind up on the tool and not the brick.

Little things like this make for a quality job.

You can also see the new section of wood I grafted in to the trim where a rotted piece came up.

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Jean-Eric Vergne's Remote Control

As is the case on many Saturdays during the Formula One season, this past Saturday I was watching qualifying for Sunday's race.  The race in this instance being the Spanish GP from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. 

During Q2, there was a shot of the Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne sitting in his car in the garage.  Not unusual.

Here's the shot in question.  You can see he's looking at those data screen they stick in front of the drivers in the garage during practice and qualifying.

What caught my eye is what's lying on the cowl in front of him.  It's a remote control! 

Is it because his qualifying session was so dismal that he's actually watching TV?  (He had a 10-grid spot penalty due to an incident in practice).

You can see he's listed last - with no time- on the standings graphic on the left.  As it turned out, he didn't go out on the track in Q2; he started last due to his penalty.

Maybe he's watching a video?

It just struck me as unusual - I figured the data they displayed was what the team wanted the driver to see, not what the driver wanted to see!

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Exterior Painting Preparation: Scrape, Sand, and Scrape and Sand

Just so you know, it's not all fun and games at the Crawfish homestead.  (As if some of those neck resets are fun). 

Now that it's springtime, there are a number of outside activities I must partake in.  Such as repainting the outside of the sunroom.

You may recall the sunroom project from way back when.  I can't believe it's been three years since it was done.  Anyway, there was a contractor who painted the outside about 5 years ago, and he did a bad job.  Long story short, little or no prep.  If you have ever done any house painting, you know that the prep is crucial.  If you don't do the prep right, well, you'll be doing the job all over again in a few years.

I decided to break the job down and do each side (3 walls) of the sunroom individually.  Good move, as it turns out.  It's pretty tedious.

Here's a shot of the trim after I scraped it.  It looks ugly, but I'm confident we'll have it looking good soon.  The bare spots where I scraped the old (peeling after 5 years!) paint off look bad.  But the part that makes me crazy is the old paint on the brick.  Someone - I suspect the Previous Owner - was fond of slapping on mass quantities of caulk and then painting it and all the brick close to it.

Either wisely or foolishly (jury's out on that), I've decided to pull off all the old caulk and get the paint off the brick.  Here you can see the seam where I removed caulk, but there's plenty more on the brick, along with paint.

At first I used some spray on "commercial" Goof-off.  It worked pretty well in loosening up the old caulk.  I used a utility knife to scrape it off.  Tedious, but it worked.

I'm still working on the paint as I write this.  I'm using Citri-Strip paint stripper, and 90 percent of the paint is gone.  It looks far better than this picture.

While I was doing applications of stripper, I went to work on the wood that's going to be repainted. 

I used a three-prong approach:  first, a spin with a wire brush to get the loose peeling paint off. 

This worked ok, but not as well as I expected.

Then a pass with my trusty Ryobi orbital sander.  Best 40 bucks I ever spent (they now go for 60).  It may not be the best one out there but it does the job.  It's a bit underpowered, I've come to find out. 

I used 40 grit paper for this first pass.  It's actually starting to look better.  I'll do a pass of 60, then 100 or 120 and see where it's at before I prime it.  There are a lot of divots I'll need to fill.  Joy joy joy.

I also did a pass with 36 grit on a (I know, 36 grit, right?) sanding pad.  This helped get some of the spots I couldn't hit with the machine.

More to come. 

Also:  more guitars to come too!

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