Soitinkorjaaja Mikko Koivisto

Työ tekijäänsä opettaa.

These LP Galaxy fiberglass conga drums came for a head change. Also the owner wanted to learn how the skins are mounted. So he was helping me.
With these medium thick African cow skins it was a wrestle again, but proper tools and extra hands helped a lot.

Sieltä se tulee. Pikkuhiljaa.

Nyt ollaan vaiheessa "hinkkaus" tai "nysväys". Eli vaiheessa jossa jokainen virhe tai onnistuminen tulee jäämään näkyviin. Virheet tuntuu pieniltä maailmanlopuilta, ja onnistumiset lottovoitoilta.
Siksi onkin hyvä välillä ottaa myös etäisyyttä touhuun. Joten mukavaa viikonloppua itselle ja kaikille!

This Cuban okonkoló batá drum got full treatment.
- lugs alignment (bending)
- bearing edge shaping
- new skins

Now it sounds good.

Välillä postaus ihan suomeksi;

Omalla työhuoneella on nyt ollut hiljaisempaa. M***a jouten ei olla oltu! Oma kitara valmistuu pienin askelin. Seuraavaksi kannen liimaus.
Pintakäsittely sellakalla (French polish) on haastavaa, m***a kovin antoisaa sitten kun alkaa löytymään tatsi siihen!

Next to my house there is a music school and a band rehearsal room. The place recently went through some owner changes, and it was emptied and cleaned. The senior couple who used to own the place were both musicians who had gained some recognition in the -70's. Before the place was cleaned I went to see it. Because I was then considering the idea of moving my workshop there.

The gentleman who owned the place knew that I play and repair musical instruments. So he started pulling out the cases from the shelves and dark corners. Showing me several musical instruments that had been stored there for years. Acoustic guitars, a banjo, an electric guitar, etc. But the old gray guitar case in the corner was the one that got my attention! The exactly similar case that my fathers vintage classical guitar had. Only in a much better condition. What a sentimental nostalgic rush! There must be something interesting in it for sure!

In the case there was this vintage Höfner classical guitar. Looks interesting and promising yes. But when I took a closer look at it, I noticed that it had been abandoned and forgotten there a long time ago. It was not badly broken, but clearly needed some care and attention.
Maybe I should try to put it back to life? But the owner of the guitar was not this gentleman, but his wife. So we had to go to see the lady and ask her permission. The lady said yes. And we decided that I try to fix the guitar and bring it back to them later. Then they can decide what to do with it.

I took the guitar to Kitarasalonki, and let luthier Uwe Florath estimate it. He soon recogniced the model and gave the verdict: It is a middle price range guitar built in West-Germany around 1966. This same info I had already found out on my own too. But what I didn't know was that these models often had a problem with the intonation. Meaning the guitar will be out of tune, no matter how much you tune it. Also this one. But the problem could be fixed by taking off and replacing the bridge.

So I took the bridge off, cleaned it and reshaped it a little. Together with Uwe we glued it back to the correct position. Also we repaired one broken harmonic bar. I made a new bridge saddle. Cleaned and polished the guitar. Filed, sanded and polished the frets. And mounted the new low tension nylon strings.

When the guitar was ready, the intonation was correct. But it turned out that even with these new low tension strings it felt that a standard E -tuning was too tight for the guitar. It felt that the guitar was choked and in an alert state. This same thing I already had seen with so many vintage guitars. I guess the main reason for this is the years of inproper storage. Letting the guitar woods dry and shrink in a too dry climate. When simultaneously the unloosened strings are pulling the neck up. So I had to leave the guitar in D -tuning. This way the guitar sounded and felt very nice actually!

I had had the guitar a whole summer. And finally in the autumn I decided to take it back to the owner. The gentleman I hadn't seen around for a while, but that I thought was just nothing unnormal. I rang their doorbell and the lady came to the door. This I felt a bit odd. As I had used to that the husband was allways the one who did the talking with the neighbours.
But the lady was super nice! She asked me to enter, and quietly listened my report about the guitar. Her responce was that she would pay me whatever the cost of the repair is. No problem. But she also said she doesn't need the guitar. As she has another guitar she could use if still needed. I explained her that it's quite hard to sell this guitar. As it's not possible to tune it to a standard tuning.
So what shall we do?? I felt it too harsh to charge her anything for the repair. Anyways the repair had been a good practice for me. I also mentioned her that I personally had liked this guitar the way it is now. If it's played solo, like I do, it doesn't matter that much if it's tuned a step lower. But I already do have several guitars, and really don't need another one. But still had liked this one too.
..So the lady said I can have it. ...For free. That she wants that somebody cares and plays it.
..Wow!!

So as a happy camper I go back home with the guitar. But right after coming home I happen to open the facebook and see the news about the passing of the gentleman. Her husband!
.What!?? Nooo!! It can't be true!
What a rollercoaster of feelings! I'm not celebrating the possession of the guitar anymore. Just sitting there and feeling shocked and in sorrow. Trying to understand what had just happened. ...Thinking... The widow I just met didn't express me anything about this! ...Why?! ...Maybe she just didn't want to talk about it. Maybe she just wanted to talk about something else instead. Something more light. Maybe she tried to convince herself, or even me, that the life still might go on. Just might. Even with the loss. In the next generation (me). In the form of this guitar. Who knows... I don't know...
So slowly I start pulling myself back together. And send her a text message with my deep condolenses. And she replies me very politely.

The guitar just got me a deeper meaning and sentimental value. Maybe things went just as they were meant to go. I want to think so.
Thank you Jarkko and Laura!

This Cuban tres didn't sound and feel as good as the owner wished. So he asked me if I could take a look at it.

I took a careful look. And found some small, and not so small, issues. I did all the fixings I would do if it was my tres.

- Overall cleaning
- Humidity stabilize
- The broken back brace repair
- Lemon oil treatment for a dry fingerboard
- The screws tightening
- The tuning machine lubricating
- The bridge saddle shaping and modifying
- Tung oil treatment for a dry bridge wood
- Drilling the missing string hole to the tuning machine peg
- Choosing and mounting the new strings.

Besides the broken back brace repair, the major change here afterall was the new, lower tension strings. The old strings were way too tight. So the instrument was choked and in an alert state.
It took some effort to choose the proper string gauge. But with some experimenting I got the strings well balanced. The instrument is now now able to breath. ...I mean sing!

Now this tres sounds and feels very different. In a good way. The owner is happy too.

What's happenin' here? Lem'me tell ya:
My Cuban tres has allways been a little restless to play. The sound was harsh and nasal (even for a tres), and the projection was kind of jumpy. Difficult to control.
So I darkened the sound and tamed the projection by adding some weight to the headstock. 50 grams actually. That's the amount I ended up to by testing, comparing and analyzing.

But why the Cuban Peso coins? I'll tell you:
The lead bar I inserted into the tip of the headstock, lacked around 10 grams of the wanted extra weight. So I got the correct mass increase by glueing the coins there too. Very Cuban way to fix the problem, I'd say. I was lucky enough to find these two Peso coins. Any other currency didn't feel right. And the weight was not correct either.

Now the tres feels easier to control. The sound and the projection are more mellow. It feels much more like MY tres.

This almost 100 years old Levin parlour guitar had some issues. The E1 string was constantly breaking, and the string action was too high.

I shaped and smoothened the worn out string slots on the wooden bridge. Polished the metal bridge saddle. Chose new lower tension carbon nylon strings. Did basic cleaning and maintenance.
Now the strings are able to hold tightening, and the guitar is playable again. Took the guitar back to life.