Ron McMillan
Dec-18-2010, 12:08am
This is my (roughly) 30-year-old Japanese F5 copy that might be an Ibanez prototype (no labelling whatsoever, apart from the number 18 in red, inside).
After taking lots of advice here, I recently had a luthier here in Bangkok undertake a quite extensive refurbishment, and here are some pictures.
Before starting, it had nasty cracks both front and back (the back one is still visible, but now totally stable). The latest set of work saw the fretboard extension scooped, a simple plate tailpiece replacement, total refret with Evo Gold fretwire, and a Cumberland Acoustic bridge fitted. The bridge has already made a huge difference to the sound, and my thanks to Steve at Cumberland Acoustic for quickly providing me advice on sorting out a minor issue I had with it.
It's still only a 30-year-old no name F5 copy worth very little, but now it looks pretty fine and the new fretwire and bridge help it play nicely. I have it set up with very low action, but might change that later when I try Elixir strings (Martins M400s fitted just now). Thanks to very low luthier costs here, the total I have spent on the refurb job, parts and labour included, comes in at about $250.
Good friend and fellow Cafe member Bert Deivert (who knows a bit about these things) says it plays sweeter than new Eastmans he has tried.
My thanks to everyone who gave me advice and help getting this sorted out.
ron
660696607266070660716607466073
After taking lots of advice here, I recently had a luthier here in Bangkok undertake a quite extensive refurbishment, and here are some pictures.
Before starting, it had nasty cracks both front and back (the back one is still visible, but now totally stable). The latest set of work saw the fretboard extension scooped, a simple plate tailpiece replacement, total refret with Evo Gold fretwire, and a Cumberland Acoustic bridge fitted. The bridge has already made a huge difference to the sound, and my thanks to Steve at Cumberland Acoustic for quickly providing me advice on sorting out a minor issue I had with it.
It's still only a 30-year-old no name F5 copy worth very little, but now it looks pretty fine and the new fretwire and bridge help it play nicely. I have it set up with very low action, but might change that later when I try Elixir strings (Martins M400s fitted just now). Thanks to very low luthier costs here, the total I have spent on the refurb job, parts and labour included, comes in at about $250.
Good friend and fellow Cafe member Bert Deivert (who knows a bit about these things) says it plays sweeter than new Eastmans he has tried.
My thanks to everyone who gave me advice and help getting this sorted out.
ron
660696607266070660716607466073