One of the most common cries for help I’ve received recently concerns the restringing of acoustic guitars. While this should be a straightforward job, it seems that your pesky bridge pins are causing trouble. I don’t want to start a fight here, but it’s probably your fault. If these little plastic, metal, bone or wood pins aren’t fitted correctly, they can shoot out of the bridge like a rocket when you tune the string.

It’s one of the most traumatic moments in a guitarist’s life. You’re at a rehearsal or playing a show. You sound great. Never better, actually. You get ready to take a solo, you step forward, put on your best sex face and ... nothing. Your guitar has gone dead. At that moment, you just want someone to give you a big hug and tell you everything is going to be alright.

Most of us don’t give our guitar’s top nut a second thought until something goes wrong. I bet the last time you bought a guitar, you didn’t spend much time checking the top nut ... if at all. We make a bigger fuss of scratches, dents and chips in the finish than the parts that influence the playability. We've all done it.

The week’s blog post is all about bonding. By that, I mean we’re going to talk about glue. If it seems that it’s taking a while to get to the actual process of filling and recutting the nut slots, then there’s a method to my apparent procrastination.