Ready to go

After an EBay spending frenzy, most of the bits are now in place to start the repairs.

So I have the recommended adhesive - Titebond - almost every guitar repair site seems to recommend this.

I have bought a new bone saddle blank to replace the existing one (broken in 4 pieces).

The tung oil is to refinish the neck, after I have stripped the lacquer from it - I decided to go for an oiled finish as it gets such good write ups for the smoothness of action.

The 0000 gauge wire wool is to clean up the fretboard and also to help in the neck preparation.

And finally, I bought a piece of acrylic to make a new pickguard from. My idea was to cover up some of the damage to the soundhole with this. However, my good mate Kriss Strings (whose advice I would normally consistently ignore!) has suggested that this might not be a good idea on two counts:

1. it will stiffen up the soundboard which might adversely affect the sound quality, and
2. the distressed look is apparently uber-cool, with Gibson selling "pre-distressed" Les Pauls to hit that market, so why hide the damaged finish - it gives it kudos.

Now I am in a right pickle, because I trust him on all things guitar. But on issues of style and cool ....? ;-)  I'll have a think :-)