James Roadman - Musical Instrument Repair and Restoration

James Roadman - Musical Instrument Repair and Restoration Fretted musical instrument adjustment, repair, and restoration.

I have a private workshop but I take in work at the following stores:

Robot Monster Guitars
Spacetone Music
Lark Guitars
Puretone Music

I was very sad to hear about Frank Fords passing. I learned so much from him. Not just the technical skills he shared to...
12/18/2023

I was very sad to hear about Frank Fords passing. I learned so much from him. Not just the technical skills he shared to help us all be better at what we do, but his attitude and approach to work and life, his practicality, his curiosity and inventive genius, and his willingness and desire to pass on that knowledge. ❤️

Join , , , , and myself on the loothalong for a roundtable discussion/demonstration of simple shape building in Rhino, O...
08/28/2023

Join , , , , and myself on the loothalong for a roundtable discussion/demonstration of simple shape building in Rhino, Onshape, Blender, AutoCAD, and Fusion360. On the menu, the spring collet from an offset vibrato. There are a lot of options when it comes to 3d software and it can be hard to find a fit sometimes.

September 11th, at 3pm EST, via , the bestest group of ragtag dingdongs there ever was.

XO

I had a little advanced knowledge that I was going to get to try out the new “Prop-Jack” from Doug and Sharon Proper a...
08/15/2023

I had a little advanced knowledge that I was going to get to try out the new “Prop-Jack” from Doug and Sharon Proper and I was already excited about that! But holy smokes! It arrived along with so much more! It’s like Christmas in August.

Thank you very much, Doug and Sharon!

-jack

Heading home from a fantastic week at the GAL convention in Tacoma. I saw some old friends, some friends I have known on...
07/10/2023

Heading home from a fantastic week at the GAL convention in Tacoma. I saw some old friends, some friends I have known online and just met in person, and made many new friends. The presentations were excellent and I am coming home inspired and excited about getting back to work.

Another cool Mosrite in the shop this week. A Brass Rail marked “A1”. Anyone know what the A would refer to? Apparently...
05/04/2023

Another cool Mosrite in the shop this week. A Brass Rail marked “A1”. Anyone know what the A would refer to? Apparently the acoustic Aluminum Rail for Dolly Parton was marked “D1”, so possibly made for someone or a prototype? It has a mistake plate behind the bridge. It could have been a leftover Bluesbender that was already drilled for a tailpiece? It has some crazy wide binding on the uncarved portions of the top.

If anyone knows anything about it, the owner and I would like to know.

We had a great group meeting yesterday. We were joined by David Staudte or who spoke about his 30 year career buildi...
05/01/2023

We had a great group meeting yesterday. We were joined by David Staudte or who spoke about his 30 year career building and repairing guitars. He worked at Taylor guitars for 24 years, 20 of those in the repair department. It was fascinating to hear about his career. He has recently moved to New Braunfels, TX where he has opened his own shop.

If you would like to get to know David he has been a guest twice on the excellent podcast , episodes 98 and 155.

12/08/2022

First test cuts on my MCX3 with a 4th axis. I wanted to get this going because I am going to need to make some graduated dials for the Precise H1. Here I am just making 10 graduations to test out the functionality. This requires a bit of direct coding since I don’t have the Fusion package that allows 4th axis processing….perhaps in the future. Next I will need to add the additional graduations and the numbers.

Thank you for your help getting it set up!

12/02/2022

And for those tiny little taps that break if you look at them wrong, the hand tapper is the way to go.

12/02/2022

Chipping away at some machining projects. I’m power tapping on the Rockwell 21-100. It doesn’t have an instant reverse so I manually turn the motor off and pull the brake to stop it before reversing. You just have to do them at the right time and in the right order to avert disaster.

Thanks to and for a fun project. The knife edges on this Steinberger Trem had serious wear. The parts were pretty stra...
11/06/2022

Thanks to and for a fun project. The knife edges on this Steinberger Trem had serious wear. The parts were pretty straight forward to mill but there were some interesting considerations with the material and hardness. The originals were case hardened and once the outer layer was compromised the edge deformed. We opted for O1 tool steel through hardened to 55hrc.

It is a great honor to be featured on this month’s episode of Lutheir on Luthier podcast hosted by Michael Bashkin.I am ...
08/31/2022

It is a great honor to be featured on this month’s episode of Lutheir on Luthier podcast hosted by Michael Bashkin.

I am a huge fan of the podcast and have listened for many years. I look forward to each new episode but I never thought I would be the subject of one!

We talked about two of my favorite things….guitars and machining…and where they intersect.

A huge thanks to , , , and

Address

San Antonio, TX

Telephone

+12107643738

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