Instagram feed - TJ Thompson Guitars - Pro Luthier Tools

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tj_thompson_guitars

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I don’t post much about Gibson guitars but this one is so rare I thought it deserved a mention. Tough to get facts straight when talking Gibsons (can’t tell you for sure whether this was made in 1937 or ‘38, how many they made, etc), standards seem to change from wk to wk, sometimes day to day. I have long fantasized about being at one of those staff meetings in the 20s, 30s, 40s, etc. when someone at some point surely must’ve asked: “what’s our plan here?”. So would like to hear the crickets and see those blank stares.
OR perhaps they were just mad business geniuses and realize by making a top .087 one batch and .137 (same model!?) the next that no two guitars would be alike and interested players and collectors would just have to buy them all.
LOVE watching pro players evaluate a guitar - in a few secs you can see their brain eliminate 8 possibilities and focus on the 2-3 that particular guitar does well. Here’s a clip of my friend and collaborator @nikolastajicmusic doing just that. kinda expected him to strum a G chord.. improvisational jazz?! not what i was expecting.. but he was right, kinda what this guitar does best 🤷🏼 .
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@nikolastajicmusic #guitar #gibson #j200 #video #nikolastajic #tjthompson

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I don’t usually post celebrity sightings (ok never) but come on, how mad would you all be if you found out later I’d kept this to myself?! Realized the other day, in the 10 or so yrs i’ve known @crittereldridge I’d never heard him play bluegrass guitar. He said he kinda stopped doing that about 15yrs ago. See where this is going? embarrassing, I know.. like asking Sting to sing just the first lines of all his hits, but I handed him a 1935 D-28, manipulated him into a state of euphoria and said “I know you don’t really do this anymore but I wonder if you’d be willing to give me a demo of what it might’ve roughly sounded like back when you DID play this style”. Had to cut to 60secs to keep IG happy, but here it is. He apologized after for his playing while I picked up my head and tried to put it back on my shoulders.
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#crittereldridge #bluegrassguitar #guitarbuilding #guitarrepair #vintagemartinguitar #martinguitar #whatonyourbench #guitar #punchbrothers #guitarrepairtools #proluthiertools

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Been listening to old radio episodes of Gunsmoke. This must be how they faked the sound of horses running.
I made this tool years ago to help me make new tops look old. The original version had four guitar picks glued into holders I’d fashioned out of ebony. The 1st time I used this rig I pounded the top for an hour+ and hardly made a scratch. Eventually all the picks broke off and I was slamming the top with just the sharp ebony. Finally started to make some progress! Mad respect for guitars with serious play-wear.. it represents 1000’s of hours of picking and strumming.
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#guitarbuilding #guitarrepair #sunburst #vintage #martinguitar #finefinishes #whatonyourbench #guitar #folkwaymusic #guitarrepairtools #proluthiertools

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Things seem to come in waves around here. For example, I hadn’t worked on an 0-size guitar for maybe 10yrs. Nine of those little cuties have now crossed my workbench in the last 10mths. These C-style “archtops” (1s, 2s & 3s) are another example. Martin made 4638 btwn 1931-1943. They afford us an interesting peek into this bit of their history, but are not terribly useful as musical instruments. No serious jazz players use them and no single Martin employee ever took responsibility for this misstep. Nevertheless (always wanted to use that word, and like having 6 conversions in the shop at the same time, a 1st for me) I’ll only agree to convert them if the top is wrecked, just don’t want to be that guy. Good news/bad news that so many have come under the wrong luthier’s knife because once rebuilt with a period-correct flattop they are able to rejoin the extended pre-war Martin family and sing along with the other angels.
last clip is Doug MacArthur trying one out for the 1st time (before any fret dressing or setup!?). He’s kind of half smiling because it’s only about the 3rd time he’s played an acoustic guitar. Hoping to convert him too.
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#guitarbuilding #guitarrepair #sunburst #vintage #martinguitar #finefinishes #whatonyourbench #guitar #guitarrepairtools #proluthiertools

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Hey there, It's Mark from @FolkwayMusic. I'm down visiting with TJ again and comandeered his phone so I can share these follow-up pics of the 1930 OM-28 that he's in the process of 'unconverting' from its abomination of an after-market cutaway. He talked about this one on his last @FretboardJournal podcast, and posted some 'before' pics back in December of 2018, and so we're all due for an update.

Well it's come along a lot since then. Still a long ways to go, but have a look.
TJ spent unrecorded eons sorting through wood to find the most accurate match he could for the back in-fill. Check out how the grain whorls just like its bookmatch.
Next he replaced the missing section of side with a transplant from another OM-28 he just happened to have kicking around (that kind of thing happens here at TJ Thompson Headquarters). And then he spliced in a piece of original 1930 binding too. The purflings are spliced in seamlessly. Once there’s aged and worn-in finish on this body it’s going to be fairly hard to detect the repair. Pretty inspiring stuff, and the kind of results the rest of us repair-people need to keep aspiring to.

Next challenge will be the top. He’s hoping to re-rosette an OM-18 top he has. That’s a monumental challenge.... stay tuned. Perhaps next time I’m down this way I’ll abscond with TJ’s phone again! .
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#guitarrepair #luthier #OM28 #vintageguitar #martinguitar #vintagemartin #whatsonyourbench #tjthompson #acousticguitar #guitar #restoration #wood #guitarshop #martinom28

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In a recent Fretboard Journal podcast (#265) I made a number of embarrassing admissions including this gem: I’ve never read a book or watched a video pertaining to guitar repair. Using myself as a lab rat has its downsides but hopefully i occasionally come up with something useful and new. this vid post is an example, no idea how anyone else does this #reinventingthewheel
Three different progressively darker shades (nitro yes, coffee no.) 45-60mins btwn coats.
P.S. this is the rosette I was taping off in the last post using that new custom tape-making tool.
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#guitarbuilding #guitarrepair #sunburst #fretboardjournal #vintage #martinguitar #luthier #whatonyourbench #guitar #sunburst #guitarrepairtools #proluthiertools

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If you’ve ever needed this tool you’ll probably know what it is in one sec.
Finally, a way to tape off rosettes (in prep for spraying sunburst etc) quickly and flawlessly. This will be available on website (along with the long-awaited Gibson Belly reducers!) soon in a couple different popular widths/sizes, but can also custom make to your particular specs.
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#guitarbuilding #guitarrepair #vintage #martinguitar #whatonyourbench #sunburst #guitarrepairtools #proluthiertools

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Tech-geek followup to last post. Fractures like this are almost always compound so you have to remove small amounts of wood in order to to realign the splintered fragments. Here’s the tool I made (easypeezy, less than 5mins) and used to do that. I cut a small piece of thin (.012) StewMac SharkSkin abrasive, created a handle for it and then sanded the back side of tip to a sharp edge.
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#whatsonmybench #custommade #siderepair #whatsonyourbench #stewmac #massachusettsmade #guitar #vintageguitar #guitarrepair #luthier #acousticguitar #woodworker #tjthompson #proluthiertools

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I rarely bother to take before and after pics of repairs like this - if everything goes as planned, it should look like I smashed a good guitar then posted photos in reverse order.
This one had lots of misaligned overlapping fragments in an area that can be almost impossible to reach. So I built an inside form/caul (barely fit thru soundhole!) that was an exact match for the damaged area of side, affixed (spray glue!?) a thin (.011) piece of sheet metal to it and then, using magnets to hold everything in place, I turn-buckled it into position. see where this is going? With the help of bone-crushing, super-powered neodymium bar magnets (70lbs pull each😳), I was able to reverse-crush everything back into position. I let it sit like this overnighting then in the morning heated up the damaged area and brushed hide glue over the whole mess and reapplied the magnets. 24hrs later, with everything now properly aligned, I took it apart and kicked the inside with foam-safe super glue accelerator then hosed the entire area down again, this time with thin CA glue. let dry overnight, then I double stick taped a section of yoga mat to the metal on caul and used it to glue a brown piece of cloth onto inside cracked area. Over the next 2wks I drop-filled, color-blended, level-sanded, and finally top-coated the area. It’s still drying, but figured far enough along to post. .
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#whatsonmybench #custommade #siderepair #whatsonyourbench #stewmac #massachusettsmade #guitar #vintageguitar #guitarrepair #luthier #acousticguitar #woodworker #tjthompson #proluthiertools

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We interrupt this regularly scheduled program for a visit with the master of instrumental rock, Steve Vai. Want to meet interesting new people? Forget Tinder, get yourself a Plek machine. Love my vintage Martins, but you can’t do this on one of those. Here’s Doug (MacArthur) taking XAVIA around the track for a test run after her 100,000 mile tune up.
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#stevevai #plek #plekmachine #Ibanez #Ibanezfamily #guitar #shredding #EVO #FLOIII #XAVIA #BO #stevevaihimself #proluthiertools #refret #guitarrepair #fretwire #luthier #guitarphotography #whatsonyourbench

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More invaluable cheap tools. Just some of the spatulas I used the other day to assist in the removal of a neck and bridge. #deconstruction
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#whatsonmybench #custommade #madeintheusa #usamade #whatsonyourbench #massachusettsmade #guitar #vintageguitar #guitarrepair #luthier #acousticguitar #woodworker #tjthompson #proluthiertools

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Here’s that post I promised with ‘wider appeal’ 😬. 1st color coats applied on this old C-2 retop. Tape helps keep the bulk of unwanted dark finish off the rosette and marquetry, but still plenty-O scraping and cleanup to do. I built this table for routing binding but soon after, a 💡 went off. Now when I need to spray a sunburst finish I just push the whole rig in front on my spray booth.
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#sunburst #whatsonmybench #custommade #madeintheusa #usamade #whatsonyourbench #massachusettsmade #martinguitar #guitar #vintageguitar #guitarrepair #luthier #acousticguitar #woodworker #tjthompson #proluthiertools

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Speaking of tiny tools worth their weight in gold, here’s another titan.. costs more than a pencil but if/when you decide you want to know if your straight edge is straight and your square is square (I was terrified and for good reason 😳) you’re prob gonna need one of these. Can see just a few of its uses in these pics. Combine it with a magnetic base/holder and REALLY have some fun. I know, hard to stay calm, and I’m just getting started! I wanted to do something special for my 50th(!?) IG post.. so here it is, for all seven of my followers who will know what this is and care. I’ll understand if the rest of you unfollow me, but might want to wait one more post, I promise the next will have a wider appeal 😊. #dialindicator #whatsonmybench #custommade #madeintheusa #usamade #whatsonyourbench #massachusettsmade #guitar #vintageguitar #guitarrepair #luthier #acousticguitar #whatsonyourbench #woodworker #tjthompson #proluthiertools

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Tools don’t have to be expensive to be useful. I sharpened the point of this pencil, sanded/cut it flat, then razor-sawed the tip off, inverted it and superglued it back on the end of the pencil. Worth its weight in gold.

#whatsonmybench #custommade #madeintheusa #usamade #whatsonyourbench #massachusettsmade #martinguitar #guitar #vintageguitar #guitarrepair #luthier #acousticguitar #whatsonyourbench #woodworker #tjthompson #proluthiertools

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Row, row, rows of rosettes

#guitarbuilding #pearlinlay #guitarphotography #guitarbuilding #luthier #tjthompson #Acousticguitar #whatsonyourbench #woodworker

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One of my many #1 fav things about lutherie is problem solving. Every repair job is different and presents a new set of issues. I rarely employ the same solution twice unless i’ve built some time consuming jig or fixture that actually works. Here’s an example. I’ve been using this jig (for glueing top/back center seams) for a longtime without any probs. You can control the clamping pressure with the rubber (inner tube) bands and it will adapt and accommodate almost any back or top i’ve ever wanted to join.

#newguitar #acousticguitar #guitar #OM-28 #guitarphotography #guitarbuilding #luthier #tjthompson #Acousticguitar #whatsonyourbench #woodworker #woodwork #proluthiertools

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My workshop is powered by a 16 kilowatt solar power station on the roof. Now my power company writes me cks. There are other benefits too. 2/3rds of the mercury in the beautiful river behind my studio came from coal-fired powered plants. Swimming & fishing have been banned for many yrs. (just in case my kids are reading this: Ali and Sawy, while this may be the norm, it is not O.K.) Gotta keep an eye on some of these shortsighted last-second backroom deals and do what we can now.

#oneplanet #solarpower #renewableenergy #guitarrepair #guitarphotography #guitarbuilding #luthier #tjthompson #Acousticguitar #whatsonyourbench #woodworker

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The title of this post could be: Step away from the dual action sander ⚠️ *or* Don’t make me install one of these labels.
90% of the people I work for don’t ask for estimates. I know this probably isn’t the norm, and I count my blessings every day. If someone presses me (which I totally understand) I usually give them a range say $2700. to $3400. then I say that since I don’t have ex-ray vision (no way to know when some numbskull has removed some or all of the wood under the bridge, epoxied it on or god forbid, epoxied the neck on [I’ll spare you those pics] just to name a few examples) there’s no way to really know how much work it will be. I explain that i’ll ring them up the minute I run into any unforeseen trouble and we can discuss how to proceed. More than one guitar out there with one last lease on life.

#ruined #badguitarrepair #martinguitar #neckremoval #guitar #vintageguitar #guitarrepair #luthier #Acousticguitar #whatsonyourbench #woodworker #tjthompson #proluthiertools

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I promise to stop doing this to u soon 🤥. couldn’t resist one more from the Dept. of: just when you thought you’d seen it all.
That morning you woke up and thought: I have a pen knife, and I have a 1930 OM-28.. I might as well re-voice it myself!

I’m coming to join you ‘Lizbeth 🙈

#1930OM-28 #whoneedsbraces #ruined #badguitarrepair #martinguitar #neckremoval #guitar #vintageguitar #guitarrepair #guitarphotography #luthier #Martinguitar #Acousticguitar #whatsonyourbench #woodworker #woodwork #tjthompson #proluthiertools

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