Bass Guitar Setups London: Sadowsky Bass

February 5, 2015 — Graham Parker Luthier

I had a visit from Jean-Louis Locas.

Jean-Louis is the bass player with Cirque Du Soleil who are performing their show “Kooza” at the Royal Albert Hall.

Jean-Louis has in his arsenal of instruments a beautiful 5 string bass by Sadowsky. The bass was in need of a quick set-up and a little fret attention mid shows.

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Sadowsky are a reputed workshop based in New York who make a fine array of 4 and 5 string basses

More about Shadowsky guitars here

Cirque du Soleil tour with a 5 piece band where the musicians double-up on instruments . It’s made up of bass, guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion and a horn section.

More about Cirque de Soleil here

Catch Jean-Louis in action at the Royal Albert Hall here

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Circus of the Sun is in town!

KOOZA | Royal Albert Hall

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Martin D-41 Refret

February 28, 2010 — Graham Parker Luthier

I had the pleasure of working on a beautiful Martin D-41 which was in the workshop for some general maintenance work. After a workbench examination it was decided that it needed a partial re-fret.

Partial Re-fret

In this short video I take you through the process of its partial re-fret. Explaining the techniques, tools and materials used.

Fret Hone and Re-profile

In this short video I go through the process of honing and re-profiling the frets of the D-41. Explaining the techniques, tools and materials used.

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Guitar setup: Acoustic Guitar Repair: Fret Dressing a Martin D 28

September 16, 2009 — Graham Parker Luthier

This Martin HD 28 is in the workshop for a full set up and fret dress. It dates back to 1987 and this is its first serious set up.

The frets are showing signs of wear and tear. Also the fingerboard has started to show signs of wear and has a few grooves worn into it around the lower end on the treble side.
The fingerboard wear is tackled first. It is skimmed between the frets and the worst of the grooves filled and smoothed.

Next comes the fret dress.

The truss rod is released to ensure that the fingerboard is flat and level. The neck is supported along its length. The body work is protected and masked off.

The fret tops are skimmed with a fine honing stone to remove all fret wear and grooves. Also to ensure all frets are a uniform height.

The fingerboard is masked off. Each fret is re-profiled.

Each fret is polished up to 2500 grade Silicon Carbide paper and then finely polished with burnishing cream.

The guitar is strung up and the truss-rod reset for Martin medium gauge strings.

And it plays like a dream.

Meet Colin the happy owner.

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