Guitar Repair -- Before and After

Before

In a recent post, I explained how this guitar, which was found in a high school storage closet, had taken a beating.  The badly warped top had separated from the body and the fingerboard was loose on the neck. Other than these two issues, the guitar was in pretty favorable condition.

After

Here is the same guitar with a new top and an overall reconditioning.

On the outside, it looks like a new 000 Martin cutaway guitar with pre-amp, which works beautifully since the corroded contacts were cleaned and the old battery replaced with a new one.

But, on the inside it is very different.  I chose to replace the limited bracing with a full-on pre-war D18 style hand formed scalloped brace design for the top.  The internal lining and back braces were reinforced with super glue to stabilize the composite body. The ebony fingerboard was re-glued to the neck, and the warped ebony bridge was flat sanded and re-positioned on the new Martin top, which has six hand-applied coats of TruOil finish.  A new tortoise shell-style scratch guard matches the sound hole inlay, and Ernie Ball light gauge acoustic strings finish off the re-build.

Ian took it for a test run, and I think he likes his 'new' guitar.
By the way, he is a great fingerstyle picker.