Yamaha FG-180 Red Label Miracle Repair
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- Not much to say here that isn't said in the beggining of the video where I give a good description of everything. But I will say I turned a $700.00 Neck Reset job into a $120.00 fix incliding my Sepetember special: Fret leveling, Fret dressing and sanding, polishing nd a Fretboard oiling and polishing as well as the body. I did this as an experiment because the guy wsn't about to pay $700.00 for it, lol. (Plus he's my Mechanic so lways keep them happy) lol
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I'm with ya! I've shaved countless Yammy bridges and saddles down. Also installed a lot of bridge trusses in them. With all that awesome saddle compensation, if you get the action down the intonation is usually excellent.
Great video ! Good to see someone who has the knowledge to resurrect a old friend . Keep up the great work
Nice old Yamaha. I didn't catch how long you left the weight on it after steaming it. I wasn't expecting to see this, interesting technique!
I attenpted a moisture reset on my FG-75. I don't have a steamer so I put plastic bags (to cover the bottom) and very wet towels inside and clamped mine down on a 2x12 board for a few weeks. (With the soundhole covered). This made a small difference - not huge but noticeable. I let it sit for several days after unclamping it and restringing it. Mine is a 1974 FG-75. I used lighter strings and it plays easier and better action now. Cheers
@@jeffkelly636 I left it for 24 hours but it must be steam, not just water moisture
Excellent guitar model that would otherwise end up as a mere wall decoration, instead of "singing" to the world, as in decades before.
Hey man I love seeing videos like this... TH-cam is like a living museum that lets the world see & hear these old guitars!
I think you're a little off on the date though...I believe this FG-180 was made in mid/late 1969.
There are actually 3 sets of numbers inside the body of these old FG's:
The number on the neck block is usually the most prominent, but it does not correlate to the date. Those neck block numbers are sequential. A friend of mine has compiled a list of serial numbers for like a decade. He has the numbers for about 175 FG's. 95xxxx was made in April 1969, and 105xxxx was October '69...so your mechanic's FG-180 being 104xxxx would have been made Aug? Sept? 1969
The 2nd number is on the brace just inside the soundhole, and that number DOES correspond to the date... unfortunately that number is often rubbed away with age. I have an FG-180 and you could see the number stamped on the brace, but it was so faded, it was illegible :(
The third number is the Emporer date code, and it is stamped way up inside the body, usually on one of the sides. You'd never see it unless you were specifically looking for it. This number corresponds to the year of the Japanese Emperor's reign. That's the number that can really narrow down when the guitar was made
I just picked up a 180, and the date code puts it in July '69, and the s/n starts with 105.
Nice job. I have a 71, still plays ok but will need the same fix soon.
Guy is so proud he saved a $700.oo reset by shaving down the bridge...
No, that's usually only a quick/fix ,I always check the neck, straighten it out, next check the nut,gently clean the grooves etc😊😊😊
Great! Let me know when the bridge splits, we'll have a bonfire!
Great work, what a guitar!!
Thanks for the info, appreciate this, :)
Great job I'm going to try to lower my guitar following your procedure Hope I don't screw it up. Thanks for sharing.
@@thaigrass thanks for the reply and extra tips I really appreciate it .
Why not just sand down the string notches in the saddle nut?
(Sorry I'm new to this and have a FG180 that I picked up for $25 that needs a lot of work...)
Great sounding guitar though.
@@thaigrass ok I see. Thank you. There is a maximum you can sand down the string notches. Weird thing is my saddle doesnt have any string notches but it seems the bottom of saddle was sanded down so that it's as low as possibly can be, yet the neck is not on the same level of plane as the bridge even though the neck is straight. I'm going to try your method. The bridge is actually cracked where the bridge pins are so I was going to have to fill those cracks in anyway. Now I will just use the wood dust from sanding down the bridge. Thanks for posting your solution!
I seen someone attempt to repair this on a Yamaha from 66 at my guitar center. Can’t remember the model but someone tried to sand down the saddle to correct the action and it was still like half an inch or more high off the board at the 12th fret. Beautiful sound but the neck reset is a common repair that’s needed for these.
@@buggzo Saddles are not supposed to have notches on them. I sand notches out when folk bring me their guitars so the strings glide across better. Although SOME do have notches on certain guitars like Irish Bouzoukis.
@@thaigrass I have some notches on my Martin SWDGT. Should I sand them down?
@@louieo.blevinsmusic4197 Not sure if you have a bone or just a plastic saddle but either way there shouldn’t be any notches in a saddle so depending how deep they are you could sand them out but then you will be changing the height of the saddle. You may be able to deal with that by giving more relief via your truss rod but best to have a tech look at it if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.
I had two of them in the past, in 1970s, 125 dollars I paid and my mrs howled like a banshee. never played anything to my taste since.
great scott , did he just save that guy 700 bucks?
From what I've seen , it's probably a great thing you didn't try to do the neck reset ..
Yamaha made these necks so you can't remove them... you can steam them all you want and they don't want to release .. I don't know about the newest ones .. But they did not make them repairable... they just wanted them to stay put ... and they do stay put .. LoL😅
I've completed 72 vintage FG neck resets. Removing the neck is not impossible, it is just very difficult, requiring different techniques, patience, and time.
@@davefengler4266 Determination will fix anything..... But experienced Luthiers tend to build their instruments with repairabilibly in mind , for 2 reasons. 1. Because it's the right thing to do. 2, If the instrument, (which someone paid a lot of money for), comes back for repair , it is possible to repair it without having to hack it up or weaken it or change the dynamics of the wood by having to use excessive heat and
they do this to because they are the ones that will repair it . I do it , and so does every other responsible luthiers.. Factories ? Not so much.
@@thefreese1 I certainly agree. In Yamaha's case, the FG series was their first exported steel string models. I suspect shipping lesser built models on a boat for a month would result in various failures. I think they built excellent guitars for the money, and repairability was probably not much of a concern.
To get the necks off, most people take the brute force approach, a sh!tload of steam, and probably lots of damage. Others take the easy way out and sand the bridge until it's almost gone, which results in a loss of tone and volume, and ignoring the geometric problem of a bad neck angle being the cause.
I learned to do neck resets on them because I ruined a couple of great FG's, sanding the bridge down to less than 3/16", with an audible loss in tone, volume, and value. I vowed to never do that again, and learn to fix them the right way, with my own variations/improvements in the processes.
@@davefengler4266 you are absolutely correct... I never take the bridge down ... I'd rather the action be up .010 at the 12th fret if I take the saddle down as far as it can conceivably go...Not a big deal to a bluregrasser..But ...
If the customer wants it lower it's neck reset time.
I've seen online where someone had gone to the trouble to saw off the fretboard at the 14th fret and literally chisel away the dovetail from the top..
Of course then he had to make another dovetail and set it in the neck .. he did a nice job .. however it seems like a lot of work for a Yamaha.... Value wise...If my memory serves me right I think someone had pegged the heel too.. probably was a keepsake for the customer a d the money didn't matter.. I'd do it but I would have to get paid for it.
I do agree that the tone on those are uncanny for laminate guitars. But $600 -$700+ of work if you run into this problem, it just doesn't add up..
..to me
@@thefreese1 I wish I could include links to current and past Yamaha projects, but TH-cam deletes them. Cutting the fretboard off at the 14th fret is wrong, it hurts the structural integrity of the neck. Twice (1981 & 1990 Yamaha's) I removed the fretboard at the 10th fret to gain access to the neck joint. After MANY steaming sessions over 2 days I finally had to admit defeat and cut the neck off of the 1990 model. I then made a new dovetail (glued & screwed) and did a conventional neck reset. The Yamaha heels are too thin to safely add a threaded insert.
i have a Yamaha FG200 circa 1973, its 47 years old. the label is worn off. I scanned some internet FG180 labels. did some pixel editing to get the color right - I printed it on matte stickers. Stuck one of the Nippon Gakki FG180 red label on to my guitar soundhole and voila, I have a Yamaha FG180 red label... now all i gotta do is change to butter beans tuners, lol!!!
Why not make a new bone nut
Exactly what is this guy doing?
They bust em off
?
What is meracle on that shit!!!
perfect E