The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Q&A, discussion, and information for the labels covered by The Guitar Gallery (Specifically and exclusively guitars made by Matsumoku up to 1987)
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 Post subject: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Wed 26 Feb 2014 12:16 PM 
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Power Chorder

Joined: Wed 26 Feb 2014 08:49 AM
Posts: 20
A big bonjour to everybody from Limoges, France. I've been looking in your shop window a lot these last few days and have decided to push the door and meet you and later ask you a few questions about Vantages.
I first bought one , a VP795, way back in the eighties simply because of its natural wood finish. I was at the time member of a rockabilly type group here in Limoges and I knew even less about guitars than I did about guitar playing! Three-chord wonders, a bit of blues, a few slow smoochy songs and some remainders of Beatle songs and that was about it. I kept the guitar for a good while , not playing it that much after the group split up , until about 2003 when my daughter , then 14, asked me to teach her to play guitar. I sold the Vantage in order to buy a Washburn ES335 -type HB30 and slowly but surely restarted playing myself. I still reckoned that my mediocre playing didn't merit new instruments so I stayed with buying 2nd hand ones which inevitably had problems.
To cut a long story short, 3 years ago , newly retired , I started learning to set up electric guitars ( thanks Mr Erlewine ) and from then to buy up guitars for modding or just building from parts. A great pass-time, lots of skills to learn and more and more guitars in the house! There's always a neck or a body or pickups left over which inevitably give ideas for the next project. I often buy up Vantage 113s or 118s mainly for the necks which I find great.
Recently I bought through Le Bon Coin ( net site where you can buy or sell Anything ) an Avenger AV 325 ( just the wood parts ) from a great guy who was reducing his stock of instruments . I fell for the transparent red wood finish and the quality of it all .He also sold me a MMK53 and a MMK61 to go in it , the rest is not MMK made but I'm not a purist so I don't mind. Last week he proposed a naked VP795 for the price of a second hand cheapie so now I'm collecting the other parts to go into it.
Now the introductions are done ( I already know you a little from reading your posts here) , I'll figure out how to post pics and let you see the reason for my "pushing the door"
Back soon!


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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Thu 27 Feb 2014 05:44 AM 
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Virtuoso
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Joined: Thu 20 Oct 2011 04:40 AM
Posts: 127
Bienvenu Johneko!
I have the same pass-time as yours in Paris
and more and more Matsumoku guitars at home I like to restore and play :D
à bientot :up:


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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Thu 27 Feb 2014 03:32 PM 
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Power Chorder

Joined: Wed 26 Feb 2014 08:49 AM
Posts: 20
Thanks for your message Fabien, I guess it would be impolite to post in french so I'll carry on in english. Haven't got round to taking pics of my guitars in front of a white door yet ! The house is full of white doors, and two small rooms contain a fair number of guitars.
To come back to my MMKs I've a problem with the VP795 in that the neck has a back-bow ( bombé ) even with the trussrod slacked off. It's the first time I've met this problem on any guitar and I think research on the net is going to be long before I solve the problem. One luthier treated the problem by putting the neck ( a bolt-on one ) in an oven strapped to a rectangular metal tube! I can't see myself doing that.
Not much time for writing at the moment, thanks again for the "bienvenu"
A bientôt


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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Thu 27 Feb 2014 05:03 PM 
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Virtuoso
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Joined: Mon 19 Mar 2007 08:50 AM
Posts: 1588
Welcome.

A back bow can be much harder to fix than an up bow. There aren't that many things that will cause it. Among the few is a poor re-fret. Is there any indication this happened? Pictures are always welcome and most helpful when diagnosing a problem.


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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Thu 27 Feb 2014 10:18 PM 
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Virtuoso
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Joined: Wed 29 Apr 2009 12:32 PM
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Location: St. Catharines, Ontario Canada
Ouch! What a shame.
Especially awkward to fix since it's a set neck. It must have been something drastic such as an over-sized refret as you suggest Nevin. Otherwise, you would have to really work at it to bugger up a 3-piece Mats neck.

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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Fri 28 Feb 2014 08:21 AM 
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Power Chorder

Joined: Wed 26 Feb 2014 08:49 AM
Posts: 20
Thanks for your replies RSB and Barry.
Maybe I'm worrying about a problem that isn't one...... As it is the guitar is completely bare , just a neck and a body. When I put a steel rule on the 11th fret there's a 1mm gap above the first fret and the same above the last fret. Maybe that back bow will be taken up by the the pull of the strings.
For the moment I've no adequate bridge nor tuners in order to string her up but I should be able to do so next week.
Meanwhile I've discovered that my wife's discarded iron could find its way to my tool box as a way of persuading the neck to get back straight.
There are no obvious signs of a refret , I'm also waiting for a mail from the guy who sold me the guitar, he'll tell me all he knows about its past.
Still waiting for decent weather for the white door photos!
Will keep you informed.


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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Fri 28 Feb 2014 10:48 AM 
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Virtuoso
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Joined: Sat 25 Mar 2006 09:25 PM
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Location: Grand Absurdity, TX
Before you do anything to straighten it out: :o
Is your straight edge truly straight?
Are you measuring the frets or the fretboard?
How long has it been "naked"?

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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Fri 28 Feb 2014 02:19 PM 
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Virtuoso
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Location: St. Catharines, Ontario Canada
150 lbs of tension can straighten out a lot of things. :rofl:

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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Thu 06 Mar 2014 04:54 PM 
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Power Chorder

Joined: Wed 26 Feb 2014 08:49 AM
Posts: 20
The bridge and stopbar have arrived. I've fitted them, put in some tuners, a temporary nut ( I'm in the process of making a brass one out of an old plumbing tool! ) and a set of strings. At first all the strings touched the fingerboard, I raised the bridge a little and slowly but surely , starting with the outsiders, 1 and 6 , the neck seems to be straightening a little, last time I tried only 3 and 4 couldn't sing! The rest is far from brilliant but I'm going to leave it like that for a few days and then measure the results.
Is there really as much as 150 lbs worth of pull from the strings , Barry, or do you mean I should give it a shot of heavy pressure and than slack off once it's corrected?


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 Post subject: Re: Hi from France!
PostPosted: Thu 06 Mar 2014 06:15 PM 
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Virtuoso
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Location: St. Catharines, Ontario Canada
johneko wrote:
...Is there really as much as 150 lbs worth of pull from the strings , Barry...
That's approximately what an average guitar strung to standard tuning will exert, yes. That's why you need a truss rod :wink:

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