Need Help with Sierra

Chuck Martin · Post by **Chuck Martin** » 5 May 2003 7:04 pm

I need to replace one of my front leg sockets on my Sierra and tighten the other one. There are 4 bolts that hold the sockets to the body; 2 are mounted through the ends of the guitar and 2 are mounted through the front. Unfortunately the 2 front bolts are mounted underneath the Sierra mica name plate so that has to be removed. Any of you guys have any experience removing mica? Sierra said to use a putty knife and work carefully from the edge using lacquer thinner as I go.

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 5 May 2003 7:52 pm

I use a high wattage hair dryer (actually used for heating monocoat on model planes) ~in order to loosen the adhesive first~ in conjunction with a putty knife. Don't be in a hurry and it will come off nicely.

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 5 May 2003 8:03 pm

Yes I had the exact same problem on my Sierra Session D-10.

Like Emmons' (captive) crossbars, it is just one more piece of poor design on PSG's. Simply NO excuse for it IMO.

I have heard, though never tried it, that you can take a hair dryer and melt the glue that is holding the formica enough to lift it up then do the reverse sealing it back up.

Not sure it will work.

Good luck,

carl

Bob Smith · Post by **Bob Smith** » 6 May 2003 1:31 am

Chuck, This may work, when you get the mica started get a piece off thin steel wire behind the mica and pull back and forth to cut the glue.Use pliers on the ends of the wire to get a good grip.Make sure you tape up the trim around the mica so it doesnt scratch.We used to cut out glued in windows at work like this and it worked good.Lacquer thinner sounds like a mess to me and will ruin any decals it gets on. Good luck Bob

Chuck Martin · Post by **Chuck Martin** » 6 May 2003 2:52 am

Thanks for the good ideas. I'll try the heat and wire trick next weekend when I have some time to work on it.

Carl, I agree. Seems like just having the the name plate slide out from one end would eliminate this access problem.

Chuck

Chuck Martin · Post by **Chuck Martin** » 11 May 2003 10:03 am

I successfully removed the front mica on my Sierra and will be able to fix the leg sockets now. I removed the mica using heat from a hair dryer and got one edge lifted using a windshield scraper (single edge razor blade). After I got an edge lifted I stuck heavy guitar picks under the edge and carefully slid them all way around the mica. Then I took some cotton twine and working from one end to the other, moved it back and forth to loosen the glue and lift the mica (as suggested). The whole process took about an hour. Neither the plastic guitar picks nor the twine caused any damage at all to the chrome along the front of the guitar. Thanks for the ideas they were a big help. Sierra needs to either use velcro like amp grills or figure out some other way to access the leg socket bolts. Having to remove the mica is about as dumb a design as I've seen on an instrument which is otherwise extremely precise. [This message was edited by Chuck Martin on 11 May 2003 at 11:07 AM.][This message was edited by Chuck Martin on 11 May 2003 at 11:11 AM.]

Bob Smith · Post by **Bob Smith** » 12 May 2003 1:44 pm

Chuck, Did the string break at all while you were cutting the glue? Im just curious. Man that does sound like a bit of work to change that part.Having worked on automobiles most of my life i have seen some crazy things like that before. Bob

Chuck Martin · Post by **Chuck Martin** » 12 May 2003 3:09 pm

Bob,

The twine did break several times but it was easy to start a new piece. The advantage of using guitar picks and twine is that there was no scuffing of the front chrome at all even though I didn't mask it off (didn't need to). The glue underneath looked like some sort of rubber cement, which is what I think I'll use when I replace the mica.

Chuck

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 12 May 2003 4:56 pm

I think it's contact cement, Chuck.

David Wright · Post by **David Wright** » 13 May 2003 3:15 pm

Tom uses Wilsonart formica adhesive

#400 but any formica cement will work,he said.
Hope this is some help

------------------
DavidWright.us
Sierra Guitars

Sierra S-12 9&7
Peavey-2000-PX-300

James Quackenbush · Post by **James Quackenbush** » 13 May 2003 4:40 pm

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when Bob was talking about takeing a piece of thin wire and move it back and forth to cut the glue..Instead of using pliers on each end of the string to hold the wire, I was envisioning another Sierra blunder...How about attaching 2 of the plastic string pullers that come with the keyless models to each end of the string ?
How's that for adding insult to injury ??...
Hmmmmmm......Jim

PS. As whacky as some things seem to be, I still love, and play my Sierra faithfully !!
It's still a great steel !!

Chuck Martin · Post by **Chuck Martin** » 13 May 2003 6:58 pm

Sierra's are well made and very precise. The one I'm repairing is a 25" scale keyless which sounds great. I just upgraded to a Wallace Truetone pickup. I want to thank Tom at Sierra for the extra information he sent me about removing the mica. My method of using heat, guitar picks and twine was successful but slow and painstaking. It would be very easy to either break the mica or mar the front of your guitar if you are not very careful. I hope Sierra addresses this maintenance issue in any future design changes. Thanks to all for your help which really was helpful.

Chuck