I haven't had much time for shop updates this week. Man, I turned in a scary one Friday morning... it was a job I really shouldn't have taken in the first place; a 1965 Martin D-28. In mostly original condition, an $8-10k guitar. But it was supposed to be a simple bridge reglue. And that part was simple... easier than usual. But it had a slightly loose brace too, that had allowed the top to get a crease in it right behind the bass side of the bridge. I used my phone-a-friend privileges and called my buddy and mentor Ward Elliott for advice. After having a little fun with me, he took a look inside and agreed this was a mean one. He loaned me a caul for flattening the top first. I spent the next 10 days and nights trying to get the top of that guitar back to something flat enough to work with. Then the hard part was how to get glue under the brace... as soon as I'd let the strings down the tiny little gap would disappear. I ended up working thinned fish-glue (it's a real thing - look it up) into there with the three bass strings still on the guitar tuned up to pitch, then wound them down quickly, used a hot, damp cloth to clean up the excess, and applied clamp pressure directly to the brace with a cork-lined flat caul on the top side. Part of the advantage of the fish-glue is longer work time, and easy cleanup. 24 hours later, I restrung the D-28 and held my breath. The top stayed flat as a flounder. You guys really didn't want to see pictures of glue drying did you? Here was the real repair; Ward's flattening caul. The repair would not have succeeded without having that top flat first.
What else...? Well, there's that HPL Martin I was evaluating for repair. It's a pretty sad case... fixable, but quite honestly the amount of time I'll spend doing this will make the bill very close to the cost of a new similar model. I'll have to find a nice way to tell them that. HPL guitars are tough but they are still breakable. This model has a solid top. As you can see, it has some extreme damage. There is a jagged hole that took out some of the kerfing too. There is a center seam separation, and another top crack, and a couple 'whisker' cracks at the tail block. The back has a jagged hole through the HPL, and the back is separated from the side for several inches. Gluing that separation back isn't a big deal, but replacing the missing piece is. (here's a close-up look at HPL for ya' Dave...) On one hand, I love to see guitars played... but this guitar has been abused. So this is where I sometimes have to turn the switch off and treat it like a job. I can fix it; here is what it will co$t.
The SuperTone 'Graduate' has been drilled and fitted for lag bolts and I've fitted the coordinator rim-rod in. I'll probably finish it up this afternoon. It'll take a couple days for the hide-head and gut strings to settle in. More pics of them later.
