Friend brought his "old guitar in the basement" over for me to have a look at. Long story short, it's a 1945 D-18, it's all original and it's a beauty. He had no idea. I explained to him that it was worth somewhere between 15 and 25 thousand bucks, that it needed some fairly routine repairs and that he should get - among other things - an insurance rider and take a little more care of the guitar than he has been. Picture attached for fu…
The VG price guide is a pretty good place to start. On something like that, I'd be tempted to pay for an appraisal from Gruhn's though. They used to do email appraisals that were reasonably priced. Re…
Hey All! I hope everyone has been loothing and living as well as possible. I'm checking in to ask for an opinion.
I have been asked to fix or improve some top sinking/splitting of a Mahogany top 1930ish L-0 that sits between the bridge and the junction of the X-brace. It's showing signs of wanting to crack further but neither seems to be all the way through the top. I have removed the bridge plate cleanly and have tried wetting the…
In the process of evaluating the repairs needed on this guitar I checked to see if the truss rod was working. There is hole in the transverse brace where you would normally insert a truss rod, but all I see is the end of a metal bar with a smallish hole in the center. I tried several allen wrenches that would fit in the hole, but nothing seems to grab. Did they really eliminate the adjustable truss rod on this vintage reproduction? Here'…
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A reproduction with that much wrong?!?! Did the thing go of a cliff in the back of a car without a seat belt, get thrown, and wash up 10 miles south?
Hey all. I've got the above-mentioned guitar on my bench. It had a neck reset and what appears to be a new bridge pad put in 14 years ago. It's a crack-free guitar except for a couple of little hairlines running from the back of the bridge to the upper tone bar. I thought that was a bit weird. Inside, everything looks okay until I turn off the inspection light, at which point I can see the rosy glow of daylight through the top - this…
In classical woodworking theory, yes - crossgrain glue-ups are a real no-no, but we get away with it in guitarmaking all the time. We're the rebellious bad boys of woodcraft! In this case I went w…
Hey all. I have a Martin D18 with a severe belly up. The bridge has nearly popped off all the way at the time it was brought to me. Looking inside, the bridge plate has a crack going across all the pin holes. There's a few additional cracks above them toward the sound hole. Replace, or not replace, that is the question? Is this plate salvageable, with a tool like StewMax's BridgeSaver? I'm planning to heat treat the footprint of the bri…
I'm all about the path of least resistance and filling with epoxy sounds good to me. But you mention watching out for additional cracks. What about the cracks on both sides in the plate above the pin…
We hear a lot in LoothLand these days about 3D printing. I think it's an awesome use of that technology for what we all do. With my long history with AutoCad and 3D rendering in my previous life, I should pull the trigger on a 3D printer, but I'm just not ready yet AND I have no available space for one in my little shop or in my office right now. Yes, 3D printing is great, but sometimes, good ole regular printing can be a surprise frien…
I have a 1915 Washburn parlor that just walked through the door. Bridge plate is pretty chipped out and led to a top crack and the bridge pulling up. The plate is tucked in the kerfing so removal isn't an option. Anyone ever dealt with this sorta thing before?
If it were me, I would pull and replace. You can make a depth stop saw by cutting a saw blade and gluing to pieces of wood on either side. As this is a spruce bridge plate, it would respond favorably…
