We very nearly produced 1,000 setups last year which is by no means all we do but we made a big deal out of redefining the set-up and it's importance as the user interface to the instrument. In our location we have tons of regulars who now, after some years of me setting up their ax, bring it in for an annual set-up and conditioning and cleaning, restring, check-up and maybe a new pick-up too. Our setups are also a catch all for everything but other bigger jobs that are billed separately. So I might spend some time cleaning up someone's fretboard on this one and repairing a broken pick-up mount on the next one, they are all different but they all get a full setup before they leave. We have one price for this level and it's a very good value because our approach is making the instrument whole not itemizing charges. What a concept.
So I batch these jobs that are centered around the set-up and do them at night when I can use my Six Sigma training and bust through as many as I can as efficiently as I can. It's also very quiet and I get lots done.
So last night in the pile was the dirtiest fretboard that Felix Unger here has ever seen. The gunk is actually green in color too....
and yes, in case you were wondering the instrument does smell or did smell but not any more....Now our friend Chris has warned us about steel wool use and he's right and some of the the rest of you prefer your scotchbrite but we don't. Nearly every instrument that passes though our shop (around 1,400 guitars alone last year, most ever for us) gets the fretboard cleaned and the frets shined up. It's very much part of our value proposition and we prefer OOOO steel wool and have never damaged a pick-up because of the precautions that we take. We tape things off and vacuum our benches between every instrument and have never had a problem.
It also works better than scotchbrite and cleans a board faster, gets in the crack better and is WAY cheaper for the very high volume of work that we produce. But I would not recommend steel wool unless you can see all the precautions that we take that vary from guitar to guitar.
So here it is as promised, please try not to throw up...
I timed myself and it took me 12 minutes to completely clean this board from start to finish with the scraping being the slowest thing but still pretty fast. The gunk comes right off with the scraper/blade with the hardest part being stopping any chattering of the blade as I scrape.I posted this on Facebook and some of my Luthier friends wanted to know how many times I washed my hands after this...
The answer was three, really.And Howards is there for us finishes things off nicely.
Client should be happy but there is NO WAY I'm shaking that guy's hand after what I know now.....
![[xx(]](./images/smilies/smiley11.gif "Dead")
OMG....
There is some truth to this it seems to be fashionable to have your instrument look filthy and like it has been dragged behind a semi truck for hours on a freeway..... As a little kid who was nine with my first guitar a single scratch would give me a heart attack