This tasty little specimen came to me with the owner complaining of a dead note. Henry Ford finished up the fret job from the factory and said you can have any note you want as long as it’s A. 11th and 12th fret of the A string were one and the same, with some buzzing showing on the neighbouring strings, particularly on the bass side.

After some investigation and prodding at it with some flat things, I uncovered a low 11th fret. I was hoping for a high 12th – that way we could just spot level that fret down and bob would again be our uncle, however a low 11th means that everything upwards from that point needs to be levelled together – so that’s what she got!

The owner wanted to keep the patina of age and use, which is probably understandable even to the die hardest polishers amongst us, in this case. A little time with the levelling beam and a few grades of paper got us back level, then a light recrown from the 12th upwards. Then the whole board got a few grades of paper to polish up, finishing with steel wool. After some tweaks to the truss and bridge, not only was our 11th fret back but the action improved across the board (pun totally intended) as well.

The electronics mounting… style… is certainly interesting on this one. Whether that’s your cup of Yorkshire’s finest or not, she plays even more buttery smooth than the Lurpak man’s ageing Mrs on their anniversary night. Eruption 🌋🎸😅