Mastena Guitars in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Local business
Mastena Guitars
Locality: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Reviews
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24.01.2022 A really nice Electa acoustic made in Japan in the 70s was brought in for a set up and some repairs. Im told it was used for many years as a studio equipment before being past on to the current owner. Neither original piezo or soundhole dean markley pickups were working and there was a jack sized hole on the side where it was pushed through the body. Also the original vinyl scratch plate was peeling of with a lot of dust and bits of bluetac under it. Apart from dust and dirt it was in great shape with straight neck, no belly bulge or loose bracing and all the binding was intact.
21.01.2022 After Ive prepped the neck its time to start applying finish. I like to use tru-oil which is rubbed in by hand in thin coats. I use between 25-35 coats with about 3 hours drying time between. It is a lengthy process but the end result is worth the effort. While the neck was drying i started filling the chips and cracks on the body with nitro lacquer. Those who have used this lacquer before probably suspect that this took a loong time.
21.01.2022 Scratch plate for Eko. I decided to rework my earlier design as it proved too difficult to shape and adhere to the contoured body without gluing it on. Also the right side wasnt necessary anymore as i managed to remove most of the damage there. Instead i decided to make a cover for the tail-end to hide the badly scratched part of it and to balance the over-all look of the guitar. I started with a vinyl base and glued a licora veneer on top. After sanding it to exact shape i was happy with i added binding piece by piece. Once finished i pressed the plate against the body with heated sand and added weight to bend it to shape.
20.01.2022 next up is the neck. From pictures i found on the net it looked like a quite nice mahogany/maple laminate however on this one it was covered in some kind of bakelite-ish thick plastic that didnt even properly adhere to the wood. Not sure what was the purpose of the cutout in the neck pocket as the coating would prevent any contact or transfer of string vibrations. To make absolutely certain that no wooden part of the neck actually touches any part of the body, makers added ...a piece of a door as a neck shim? After checking with the owner i peeled the plastic all off in big chunks like the one in the picture. Fretboard had some missing markers and frets were worn to the wood and had to come out, exposing 6 decades of dirt and grime. Radius was all over the place ranging from 9 to 14. (But not in the good way). I started there, sanding it down to 9.5 and getting rid of all the scratches, dirt and bumps. I added and color matched one marker and replaced second one with a little logo.
20.01.2022 I really hoped the original nitro finish could be salvaged. Luckily it was really thick. After some dry/wet sanding it starts to look a bit better. The guitar came with non-original pickups. Somebody probably tried to install these and failed which would explain all the holes. Then they plugged everything with plaster putty.
19.01.2022 1968-9 Maton Sapphire came for a clean and set up. Amazing guitar with great sound and feel. All original parts and almost no damage apart from cracking lacquer on the top. Whole guitar was very carefully cleaned of years of dust and grime. Neck needed a shim as the original piece of cardboard compressed over time. I made one from spare bit of maple sanding it down to fit the neck pocket. Next i cleaned and re-cut the nut and saddles, flushed and cleaned out the pots, switch and jack and serviced the tuners. The switch cap was completely worn so i glued in a styrene filling and re-drilled the hole to fit the thread on the switch. Finally everything was put together, restrung and set-up.
18.01.2022 Among the parts that came with the guitar were these strange looking pickups instead of the originals. Neither me or the owner ever heard of them or could find any information at all. They are sealed but i have tested them in one of my guitars and they sound like p90 with slightly lower output and really nice range as the name suggest. Somebody was probably trying to install them on the body which might explain all the horrible damage on the soundboard. I drew up a shape and positions for the pickups and scratchplates. I decided to use material from a dismantled 70s hammond organ for the covers and the tailpiece hinge. Scratch plates are roughly cut out and laminated with some sheets of styrene. Heres a quick check of the parts together with the neck sporting some new frets.
17.01.2022 Getting Junior into shape..
16.01.2022 A very interesting and rare mystery guitar was brought in the shop for a restore and setup. I was told it was from the 60s and spent a fair few last years hanging on the garage wall. It lost its headstock badge along the way and make and model were long forgotten. Apart from years of grime and dust it looked in a fairly good condition with straight neck and mostly original. After a lot of searching on the web and with great help of japanese guitar collectors group im pretty certain it was made in 1967 by Teisco and is their copy of Eko Kadett.
15.01.2022 After a long break after moving to our new house in Camira, my workshop is fully set up once again and open for business. Heres a few shots of couple of projects i have been working on in the meantime..
15.01.2022 The finished scratchplate is sprayed with few layers of nitro and then i can finally put the whole guitar together. Everything seems to work and play well so its time to return it to the owner for some real life testing, fine-tuning the setup and picking out any issues left. The whole aim of this built was to make a guitar stable enough to be used on stage and in studio and not just something pretty to hang on the wall. After many hours of work im gonna find out if i succeeded.
13.01.2022 Test fitting the neck revealed couple of problems. Neck was sitting very high away from the body probably due to the original pickups and bridge both now replaced with more low profile modern parts. This would cause the guitar to have a very jangly sound and it felt very uncomfortable to play(kind of like strumming a violin). There isnt enough wood to safely take off the body so the only option was to take it from the neck. This also meant plugging and re-drilling the scre...w holes as the position moved with the changing angle. Speaking of angles, headstock doesnt tilt back enough to make strings generate enough amount of downward pressure on the nut. Since this guitar uses a zero fret this creates a lot of buzz and tuning problems. A retainer might be needed. Original tuners are cleaned, rebuild and oiled. While not great, they work and can be used for the moment. Strings are finally on the guitar to test the electrical parts. Retainer was added and everything seems to works as it should, sound is quite promising. Now to take everything apart and finish it. See more
12.01.2022 Friend of mine bought this guitar a few years ago. Its an early 60s italian made Eko Florentine. It came in bits and pieces in a box and he never seen it with strings on. As you can see from the pictures somebody really did a number on this one...
10.01.2022 Some new work done on the Eko. New hole has been made for the pickup switch. Frets have been levelled, recrowned and polished. Next up, I hand polished the body with sheets of micromesh with gradually higher grit up to 12000.
10.01.2022 Electra repair part 2. With the hole fixed its time to move on to the pickguard, electrical components, clean everything and setup.
09.01.2022 Eko returns. After a few days of playing it at home and with his band my friend came back feeling quite happy with the sound and the feel of it but also with a few last things to tweak. The biggest of these were the tuners. Earlier we decided to stick with the originals because of the vintage look but they just werent performing well enough and in fact one fell within a day. Gotoh 16:1 sealed tuners were chosen as a worthy replacement. I also used this time to put more lacqu...er on the scratchplates. I felt that ivoroid binding was too white and standing out too much so i tinted the lacquer to match them closer to the body binding. Except for the tuners most parts have been made from aged materials and have been lightly weathered to fit with the look of the rest of the guitar. I also thinned out the truss rod cover to stop strings from catching between it and the retainer, added some thin double sided tape under the bridge to stop it from being accidentally knocked out of position while belting rock tunes and i lowered the bridge pickup slightly to match it better with the neck one. And that is it. Eko is now with its owner who seems to be very happy with it and hopefully it will bring him lots of joy for years to come. Ill try to put up some sound samples in the near future. Until then enjoy the pics See more
06.01.2022 After many hours of studying...
03.01.2022 Few pics of the Maton back together and set up, ready to go back to the owner.
02.01.2022 There was a lot of splitting and bulging on the sides and at the back. Instead of the more common tailpiece this guitar had a tremolo mechanism attached to the soundboard only by two screws and actually flat and not following the contours of the arched body at all. I suspect that apart from affecting the tone the pull of the strings caused the soundboard to come loose from the sides. After cleaning the omnipresent white putty i filled the holes with maple inserts and reglued the back together. sides were than carefully sanded back flat re-coated with black dye, sprayed with nitro and repolished.
01.01.2022 Heres a few photos of the neck of the guitar im currently working on. Around 9 coats of Tru-oil - about half way there.
