The .013's

so, i've completed the project with 

elixir's nanoweb 0.13 gauge strings.

keep in mind that i haven't played for a year or more!
this was recorded with a phone, so the quality is mediocre,
but it sounded good and he was happy with the results.

so, the project is complete.
(^.^)

Saddle height adjustment

i filed off the top of the existing saddle
as there was enough meat and reshaped the pitch
to original design. after that, i shaved off
some of the saddle as it sat way too high.

you can see how low it sits if you look at how close the 

end tips of the saddle seat in the bridge.

the action now sits at 3/16", which is pretty sweet for 

.013 gauge strings.

The split

i have glued the split in the guitar top and 

have it under minimal pressure as it needs to 

sit 24-hrs and this step will be 

particularly beneficial to the guitar as 

we're installing 13-gauge strings on it.

now that 24-hrs have passed since taking this photo,

the next step will be to remove the brace and 

clean the grime off the guitar face.

Fingerboard

sanded entire fingerboard between frets 

with 600g sandpaper, twice, then 

scraped ever so gently the fingerboard, 

especially near the frets with a fresh razor blade. 

after that, i sanded the fingerboard again 

to remove any small nicks from using the razor blade 

with 400g and then finished it off with 600g. 

you can now dry-ice skate on this fingerboard! lol

[before]

[after]

the frets were stick out over the edge of the fingerboard,
so i filed them down (without taking meat off the top).
now it's comfortable to play.

after sanding the fingerboard, i used #0000 steel wool and
polished the frets. in doing so, it lightly smoothed them out
which was predominantly noticeable in the first 3 frets. 

you can't see your reflection in them, but they are shiney. :D 

you can also notice the fret differences in the previous two images.

Machine addressing

i tightened all of the tuner housings as they were 

loose and then tightened all of the tuner knobs as 

they were super wobbly.

Flimsy neck

i removed the neck after finding a video on
that the construction was like to
make sure what i was getting into
and it was, as you can see
in these two pictures, really simple! 

why did i remove it? it was really loose.
the neck end at the soundhole side was
lifting about 3/16 of an inch. :shock:
upon removing it,
i see they added a 22,000th of an inch riser. 

the "before" pictures

this picture isn't the best, but the top is covered in 

fingerprints and general grime. there is also a crack in

the top wood (top-right area [of this pic]) where the

wood had split with the grain and pulled away from the

sidewall. i'm am not sure how this occurred.

if you zoom in on this pic, you can see the fret-wear and

grimed up fingerboard.