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25th February 2013

Lots more varied work continues to arrive!

This jumbo guitar had had a couple of different pickguards fitted and removed leaving some marks. We thought the best thing was to design a guard that would cover the marks and look in keeping with the shape of the guitar. The pickguard was cut from a tortie blank in a kind of J200 meets Guild shape....

The Ibanez destroyer arrived disassembled and looking in a rather sorry state. So far, we have removed the hardware and electrics and stripped off the diy paint. We found some tell tale signs of a nice metallic red.....which would have been the original colour.

We were sent a Fender 60's classic tele body to strip and add binding to the back and front then refinish it in aged sonic blue. The original finish was a very thick poly coatin g in white. We have fitted a bareknuckle piledriver bridge pickup and rewired it as an Esquire. It will be posted back to the owner for him to re-attach the neck and set it up.

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7th February 2013

Fabulous tiger stripe maple top!

The LP sunburst is now finished. A subtle amber edge was requested, overlacquered, buffed and polished to a semi-gloss sheen....Now on its way back to the owner to complete.

The Ibanez RB 924 is in fine condition. Just needed a bit of fret levelling to restore it to playing order.

the Ovation custom baladeer had suffered as many do from cracking on the top. The lacquer was stripped and the cracks repaired and supported, primed up now ready for black paint. the headstock had lost its pointy bit too so this has been repaired and shaped. it will be finished in thin nitro for a smooth silky feel.

We make 42ndstreet guitars and parts.... Custom ordered and now ready to ship, these replacement bodies necks and hardware kits.

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8th January 2013

A very special customers custom build....

A regular customer sent us this LP kit to finish in a faded yellow burst with reddish brown back and sides. After fine sanding and grainfilling the mahogany, we applied some sanding sealer coats then some tinted nitro. The maple top has some very fine tiger stripe figuring. We have applied water based dyes to further enhance this which when sanded back will be much paler overall but will really show up the stripes well under a tinted nitro burst. The water based stains are less patchy than their spirit based equivalents but take a little longer to dry.

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7th January 2013

A new Year begins......

A very happy new year to all our past and present customers....

We managed a 2 day break over Christmas and meanwhile, repair work arrives daily.

We seem to have had some rather lovely Gibsons in recently: A gorgeous Les Paul elegant which was suffering from a slight twist in the neck. A bit of corrective fret levelling brought it back to life. The J200 and Hummingbird pro needed the saddles skimming to lower the action a little and the Les Paul pro from 1980 had some minor restoration work to the finish.

Alongside the repairs and restoration work we are also busy building our 42nd street brand customs, currently building a La Cadette, G-cab, S6 and Carve top models. More info can be found here

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10th December 2012

Hot-rodded and modded.....Epiphone Explorer

Epiphone Explorer to which we have added binding to the back and front, Seymour Duncan pickups, both coil split with push/pull pots and an N tune. Repainted in BMW Ruby Black which is a subtle metallic enhanced by light/reflection where the ruby/wine shows through. We also made a see thru perspex pickguard with an Epi "E" underneath in gold, also painted underneath in matching Ruby black. We ebonised the fretboard too....A true one off and very special Explorer.

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2nd December 2012

Gibson Hummingbird bridge replacement

This much loved Hummingbird had suffered a broken bridge. The bridge had previously been modified and repaired several times and was in poor shape. After consulting with the owner it was decided that the best course of action was to make and fit a new bridge to restore the guitar back to original spec.

Firstly the old bridge was removed and the bridge pin/string holes filled as the bridge plate on the underside of the top was showing signs of wear also.

A new bridge was shaped from a rosewood blank and its position, alignment and saddle slot calculated. The slot was routed and the pin holes drilled and reamed.....The bridge was then glued and clamped and left to set.

The owner requested  a brass bridgeplate reinforcer so we made one to fit perfectly beneath the original plate.

After final sanding of the rosewood base we made a bone saddle to give the required action and strung it up. The brass plate significantly improves the sound, much more attack and volume!

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