I met Frank at the Great Northwoods Seminar in 1996. Extremely knowledgeable, very personable, and an excellent teacher.
Frank taught a class in compression fretting. He put a D-15 Martin from the fifties on the bench and started working. He never stopped working or talking except to answer a detailed question. He clamped the headstock to the bench, pulled the frets, then started putting frets of various tang widths to bring the neck into a back bow. (For those of you who do not know, vintage Martins do not have truss rods, just stiffening bars that sometimes take a set. Using frets with a thicker tang will "wedge" the fingerboard and the neck into a back bow.) A few went in, a few came back out. Fifteen minutes later he started dressing the frets. Frank used a jointer plane that he flattened on a surface plate. To the sole plate he attached PSA backed abrasives. He probably changed out the sheets forty or fifty times during the leveling. The entire job took him about an hour and fifteen minutes. Played like a dream.
One thing that I learned from him. He moved that Martin around the bench like it was nothing special. I asked him about that later. He told me that the guitar is just an object to be repaired. He held no special reverence for it. It is simply a workpiece. I adopted that attitude. The level of my work went up exponentially. He removed the fear from task.
By the way, those of you who worship at the altar of Dan Erlewine should take note. Dan and Frank trade tips all the time. They share a mutual respect for each other's skills.
Frank taught a class in compression fretting. He put a D-15 Martin from the fifties on the bench and started working. He never stopped working or talking except to answer a detailed question. He clamped the headstock to the bench, pulled the frets, then started putting frets of various tang widths to bring the neck into a back bow. (For those of you who do not know, vintage Martins do not have truss rods, just stiffening bars that sometimes take a set. Using frets with a thicker tang will "wedge" the fingerboard and the neck into a back bow.) A few went in, a few came back out. Fifteen minutes later he started dressing the frets. Frank used a jointer plane that he flattened on a surface plate. To the sole plate he attached PSA backed abrasives. He probably changed out the sheets forty or fifty times during the leveling. The entire job took him about an hour and fifteen minutes. Played like a dream.
One thing that I learned from him. He moved that Martin around the bench like it was nothing special. I asked him about that later. He told me that the guitar is just an object to be repaired. He held no special reverence for it. It is simply a workpiece. I adopted that attitude. The level of my work went up exponentially. He removed the fear from task.
By the way, those of you who worship at the altar of Dan Erlewine should take note. Dan and Frank trade tips all the time. They share a mutual respect for each other's skills.
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