Official Luthiers Forum!

I recently rejuvenated a 70's Alvarez 5014. Short scale OM. Horrible top belly, bridge lift, needed a neck re-set, frets, hole punched in the side etc. Converted it to a double tenon bolt-on, neck re-set, new frets, new nut, repaired loose braces and the hole, installed a bridge Dr, converted to unslotted bridge pins, etc. etc. I left the strange adjustable saddle but even with that the guitar sounds absolutely great! It could hold it's own with any sub $1000 guitar. I was not familiar with this model and really didn't expect this result. I would guess converting it to a fixed saddle would really make it a keeper. Were all 5014's this good?
Terry

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

A lot of work there Terry and it sounds like you fixed her up right! Yes,I think I would
replace that adj. saddle (a lot of weird stuff came out in the 70's)but I don't know a lot
about these either.Good Job!

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Thanks Dave The owner thought it was ready for the dump and I kind of took it on as a low pressure challenge. If I screwed up he didn't really care. I never would have guessed in a million years it would sound and play as good as it does. I'm guessing the 5014 was a good guitar when new. I'm thinking the owner will be back pretty quick to have it converted to a fixed saddle.

The neck and end of the truss rod were totally encased in epoxy. I had to remove the end of the fretboard to get it off.



I took an X ray of it before so I pretty much knew it would be trouble





This was kind of cool. There was a golf ball sized hole punched into the lower bout with 80% of the wood still there. I made a patch of 1/32" hobby store plywood and sandwiched it between two curved cauls with a threaded rod coming out where I removed a piece of wood. Tightening it down pushed the side flat and held the patch against the inside. I replaced the wood after I removed the cauls. It worked quite well. I still have to clean the area up and fill the gaps where there was veneer missing.

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Wow, Those X-rays are great. Some repairs can be a real challenge!
I wonder How someone could encase the truss rod nut in epoxy like that? It
couldn't have come from the factory like that, could it?
Nice job on the hole patch Terry.

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

It actually adjusted at the headstock Dave so that's the butt end of the rod. Yes that's the factory job, almost the entire mortise was filled with epoxy. I was able to drill through it with the fretboard off and fell into an open cavity below the tip of the dovetail so I stuck a steam needle into that and the epoxy slowly softened and it came out. It was quite a mess. Converting it to a bolt-on worked well.

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Ahh,I see what you mean now. verrrrry interesting job....
Thanks.

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755