Tweaker guitar

So, work is generally a drag, selling parts isn't as fun as say, installing them on your own car or fixing things. So, today in walks a woman that had to be in her late forties or 'influenced' to the hilt. She had with her what looked like an ESP or Jackson 'V' knock off guitar with a bunch of personal garbage scotch taped to it, to include what looked like an engagement ring. No kidding.

In any event, she wanted to see if we could sell her or give her parts to work on her guitar. She began asking questions about what she should do, et cetera. Taking a look I saw that she was missing a saddle piece on her bridge. There isn't anything in the store I can think of that could be situated as a direct replacement on the guitar for a saddle piece that wouldn't need to be drastically modified. That means time and manpower dedicated to a task we can't guaranty is even doable. I ended up thinking if I had a string I could make something very simple and ingenious with extra throw away bolts or screws we probably had. As it turns out she had a package of nylon strings sans locking beads (for an electric? yes) its what she had and she wasn't plugging in; even though conceivably a nylon would work if you had a peizo pickup installed on the bridge saddles, Fishman makes one, but she didn't. Either way she just wanted it fixed and playable.

Anyway I basically cut in on the problem and just started seeing what I could do to get it restrung and playable. I ended up finding an old lock bead from a the metal string that broke and caused all her trouble, lodged in the hole that goes through the body. I punching this through and using that bead as a lock for the nylon string by threading it through the eyelid and locking the string in on itself; Think putting a hook on a fishing line, I had a nylon string I could thread through the body of the guitar. Then taking a small bolt we had in a box I placed it atop the two existing saddles that were bordering the missing saddle; perfectly bridging the gap. I then locked it into place using the strings own tension as I tightened it in the tuner. All the while this lady was outside seemingly praying and distraught with hopes I could fix it. Outside of notching out the nut so the thicker nylon high B would fit without sliding out when strummed, I had to do zero modifications to the guitar.

Easily the most worthwhile and needed I've felt at my job in sometime.

If you're ever in Texas; where she was claiming she was gonna go, and hear an older woman on stage with a hodgepodge guitar singing Autozone's praise for fixing her guitar, that song is about me, son!