Thought I'd share a few pictures of a very sweet little Martin guitar that came through the shop this past week. It's a beautiful example of a Style 0-18... maybe the cleanest one I've ever seen, owed largely to having been a one-owner guitar, bought new in 1968.
This one only needed some minor repair and setup... the pickguard had started to peel off, a common problem with older Martin guitars. The pickguards prior to 1985 were glued directly to the bare spruce tops and then finished over with lacquer. As the plastic shrunk, often the glue held so fast that it would pull apart the grain of the spruce, causing the infamous 'B-string crack'. In this case, it only rolled up around the edges. One little place had some splinters that had to be glued back down before brushing some lacquer on the bare wood, giving a base to stick the self-adhesive replacement pickguard. The tedious part (if you're wondering) is trimming it to fit exactly in the partially sunken footprint of the original.
After that, just a good buffing with some Meguiar's #7 brought the old finish on this one back to like-new. Some 0000 steel wool burnished the frets back to shiny, followed by a dab of Old English lemon oil to the fingerboard and bridge. Nothing left to do but re-string with some TI Plectrum lights.
Of course, I'll have to keep this one under observation for a few days... you know, make sure it sounds right and all...
