The Totally Miscellaneous non-Alembic Guitar and Bass Thread

[edwardofhuncote]

 Had to go looking for my old thread to post this...
 
The other day on another thread, I mentioned spending some quality time on the front porch with my 'favorite' guitar. Well, here she is... (what's left of a) 1950 Martin D-18. I played my first chords on this old guitar.
 
This one isn't anything special, at least not in the vintage guitar world. It's not a sought-after pre-1945 model with scalloped braces or Adirondack top and ebony appointments. Heck, it isn't even particularly desirable by collectors due the extreme playing wear (and outright abuse) sustained over it's 66 years. But it is absolutely hands-down-bar-none, the most stable guitar I've ever played. The action is lightning fast and low, the neck never moves with the seasons, the top is flat as a pancake, and the intonation is pert-near perfect... I'll take some credit for that last part. (I set it up that way years ago)
 
What I find most interesting about those battle scars is that they were obviously made by two different players. Most of the playing wear was made by a left-handed player, who almost dug his way through the top around the bridge. See where it had two original pickguards? It had to have been ordered that way, as evidenced by the bare wood underneath the now-missing upper one. I can only assume it was peeled off by the next guy, who beat her up some more, ambidextrously. Note also exhibit B, two different belt-buckle rashes on the back. No mistake, two different ruffians had possession of this poor old guitar.
 
I measured one time all the repaired cracks combined, for an astounding 30-some inches. Oh yeah, -I almost forgot- take a look at the bass side rib... it was replaced from the waist all the way to the tailblock. Imagine for a moment what it must have looked like to necessitate that repair. Did they use the guitar as a weapon in a bar-fight... who knows? I'm pretty sure Martin did the repair too... it's very solid, and typical of their warranty/repair work circa 1960's.
 
It's amazing this old thing survived this long... but she's been in my care for a little over 20 years now. I carried it on the road with me for a couple of them, but these days life is pretty tame. Oh sure, there's the occasional gig that comes along, I mean... a racehorse has gotta' run... but mostly we just hang out on that porch. 
 

[edwardofhuncote]

What the heck, one more picture of that old logo...

[David Houck]

Nice account of your 'favorite'.

[ed_zeppelin]

Oh boy, guitar CSI. I keep coming back to that interesting rib repair, because it looks like it's been repaired at least twice and one of those may have been a repair-repair. The older repair is the "box" cut out nest to the tailblock. You can tell because the finish checking extends seamlessly from the undamaged areas adjacent to it.


It really looks like the rib cracked and Cletus cut it free along the edge of the tailblock, because that's the only line that's parallel to any internal structure. Neither of the other lines are actually parallel to the top or back, but appear to follow the wood grain (especially that big honker between the "box" and the top). Martin would have just replaced that side, but I don't blame the Cletus for doing it that way. Anybody who has ever tried to fit cleats near the tailblock by ramming their arm through the soundhole up to their elbow and fiddling around blindly in there with glue and little pieces of wood is bound to say those two little words (one of which is "this") and break out the sawzall.


Much better to cut a square(ish) hole by the tailblock, reach in to cleat the crack near the top, glue the square(ish) piece back in and then jam your arm up to the elbow through the soundhole to cleat THAT. (Which is why I'm betting there it's not cleated.)


That brings us to the piece that was fitted in there, which was what I really wanted to talk about. Replacing a side isn't all that difficult. Take a slab of wood, bend it, glue. It's one of the few tasks that even has a little "close enough" margin to work with. But I can't imagine anything more difficult than replacing part of a side - the curved part, at that - cutting the end of the patch on the bias instead of a right angle, without replacing the previously damaged and repaired section.


One has to wonder what kind of catastrophe happened that caused the Cletus in question to go to so much trouble to preserve the older square(ish) repair while replacing the wood right next door, instead of just redoing nag everything you n one get-go. I'm not saying they did a bad job, though. It's held up for all these years and looks pretty solid, and the damn thing just oozes "personality." It's just one of those things that makes repair geeks go; "hmm."


There are a couple of other points of interest, but this thing has turned into an inquest as it is, so I'll be brief [pause for laughter]. I'm fascinated with the fact that it was once a lefty. Does it have the famous Martin "pickguard crack" on the topside of the bridge? And is the soundhole slightly larger than normal or is it my eyes?


Cool guitar. One of my all-time faves. I'd love to hear it (or at least paint it with house paint).

[edwardofhuncote]

That might be what they did to fix that side like that, sure nuff Ed_Zep. I'll get a picture of it next time I got the strings off. I half expected to see popsicle sticks in there, but it's got a couple pieces of spruce sculpted to fit, and the cleanest glue joint you ever saw. Darn solid repair even if it is ugly. I swear it's an old Martin fix... these days, yeah, they'd just replace the whole side.

I've recorded a few things with that guitar, but here it is from last month at the Fiddler's Convention. I was using it to back up all my banjo-playin' buddies that night, like five 'breakdowns' in a row. 

*soundhole is standard size, but a little ragged.
**pickguard crack is right there under the B- string where it should be, but minor.

[ed_zeppelin]

*soundhole is standard size, but a little ragged.
**pickguard crack is right there under the B- string where it should be, but minor.

*Ragged but right, as they say, and "more than any flat-foot in your camp can afford."

**what I meant was that because it was a lefty at one time, is there a pickguard crack around the 5th string from when it had the other pickguard?

[edwardofhuncote]

Nope, no pickguard crack under the A. I'm guessing since that one was peeled off at least 40 years ago, it hadn't had time to shrink. The guy I got it from thought the guitar was older too, but told me he had only had it since 1978, and was never sure.

[edwardofhuncote]

I dug this old thing out the other night... it's a mid-late 1950's Gibson lap steel, model BR-9. I got it, an old amplifier, and a metal-bodied National Duolian from a retired player some years ago.

The band I was in for twenty-some years wanted some 'gritty slide guitar' for one song we were doing on this 20-year anthology project, so I messed with it and came up with this:

The Weather:

(solo at 2:15, plus intro, and ridiculously long extended play outro)

The pictures are actually from the session where I tracked that tune. I also played bass on the cut, both bass guitar and upright, the latter making the final mix. For the record, I learned the song in E, but had to relearn it in F#, literally while in the booth.

(I cheated on the lap steel though... just tuned it up two 'frets') 

[edwardofhuncote]

Don't worry folks... it's been safely packed away again. I'd almost forgotten where the thing was anyway... can't be too careful about something like that falling into the wrong hands. 

[edwardofhuncote]

Been making a photo record for insurance purposes on a few guitars in my collection. Thought this old thread might be fun place to post the resized ones...


2006 OM-18GE  (Orchestra Model, Golden Era, Style 18 appointments circa 1930, to do a little decoding...)  I didn't get this guitar new, but I un-boxed it when it came into the store new, tuned it up and played the first tunes on it. I was in love, or something like it, but had to leave it there. A couple years later, it was traded back in by the original owner, and I bought it that very day... and had it ever since. This, and a custom-built 00 are my go-to guitars. Less often, a 12-fret Martin D-18. (working on files for them too)

[edwardofhuncote]

This old guitar and I have a history...

I worked on it almost 35 years ago, when it belonged to a guy who I got my first paying job playing bass with. It had a broken headstock and a cracked top, and according to my chicken-scratch records, the bridge needed reglued and rescrewed. One of my sisters took lessons with it for a while. One of her boys plays today.

Years passed, decades passed, people passed...

A couple months ago it turned up in my buddy and mentor Ward's shop for a neck reset, and some bridgeplate work, some fretwork, and the knobs on the tuners were corroded and crumbled beyond usability. My headstock fix and the crack repair were solid as ever. Ward set the neck, dressed the frets, made a new bridgeplate and set her up again... it played like a new one.

It was destined for consignment at the Fret Mill... so I bought it.

1951 Gibson LG-2. Its the dryest, woodiest, guitar I have ever heard.

[David Houck]

Nice reunion story!

[cozmik_cowboy]

Love it!

Peter

[lbpesq]

Coincidentally, a thread entitled "Restoring a Gibson LG2" was just started by luthier Scott Baxendale over at the Strat Talk forum.

Bill, tgo

https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/restoring-a-1950-gibson-lg2.596694/

[edwardofhuncote]

That's a pretty close relative, there...