Official Luthiers Forum!

I built my first guitar in the fall of 1994, thanks to Harry Fleishman’s International School of Lutherie. He was a great teacher, and I learned a lot from him – especially things like “get your hand away from the saw!” and “you realize you’re about to jam that chisel into your finger, don’t you?” Of course, I did not, and I still have the scar from the chisel point on my right index finger…

After a long layoff, I’ve got the bug again. I at first decided to build an archtop using Bob Benedetto’s DVDs and book. But, the archtop I envision doesn’t look like the one in the book/DVDs, and I’m afraid if I made too many design departures I would just end up with a big pile of expensive firewood.

While thinking about this, I ran across a Weissenborn kit from Australian Tonewoods. A lot of the work is already done (bending sides & bindings, joining top and backs) and I play Hawaiian music. So I thought I would sit on this one for a while.

While letting that idea marinate, I ran across a “luthier’s special” guitar: a Gower or Grammer birdseye dreadnaught in very sad shape. Take a look. You might notice there is no back:



After running the pics by a repair guy/luthier I know, here’s the draft list of things to do. The list may get much longer depending on what it looks like in person.

• Build a mold to make sure the sides stay where they ought to while I’m doing the work.
• New back. Try to find either 2- or 3-piece birdseye back.
• New back linings/kerfing.
• New binding.
• Check out those braces – at least some cleanup is in order. It looks like someone started roughing in the braces, went out to lunch, and came back to find someone had slapped the top on a body.
• See if a neck reset/refret is in order. The divots on the fingerboard might be a good indicator that fretwork is needed. The neck may be some sort of bolt-on, as it looks like there’s a bolt sticking out of the neck block. It was built in the 70’s, so maybe.
• It looks like the guitar might have been finished with the neck attached. Complicates the reset issue.
• Take off the adhesive where the pickguard used to be.
• It would be hard to get the back to match the sunburst on the back and sides, so a refinish might be in order. However, I like the wear on the top – a sign of a well-used instrument, so I’ll have to figure out the balance between full refinish, partial refinish, or no refinish

A big list, but it only cost me $150. If I screw it up royally, hopefully I will have learned something. And if I do an all right job, hopefully it sounds good.

I gotta figure out what to call it, though. Gower/Grammer did all of the hard work (Gower, most likely). I thought about putting a label that said something along the lines of a Bushouse restoration of a Gower, or a Gower restored by Bushouse. But I intend to put my own mark on this guitar – and hopefully on a headstock inlay as well.

Of course, then I have to figure out what name/logo to use on my guitars…

John my friend did you see this: http://www.grammerguitar.com/history.html

It looks like Bob Taylor bought the assets of Grammer/Grower nearly 40 years ago.

Cool project - keep us updated please?

I recognize that... Ted Nugent used it in a concert I went to!

Good luck,

Mike

By the looks of that worn out finger board I would say that it was loved by somebody once. It was played a lot!

_________________
http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

Man, that's a BIG sound port!

Kidding asside, it should be restored. Why not? Have fun.

Mike

Edit: I just maginified the picture of the bracing. Man have we become obsessed with internal perfection or what?!? I swear a pair of partially trained squirrels could carve braces better than that! But then again, have you seen the bracing in a 20's era Harp Guitar?

unless the neck is loose, there is no need to take it out to reset it if you are putting a new back on a guitar. You will set the neck angle when gluing the back.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Just a quick question - can I edit my posts? I wanted to shrink the photo above.

John posters may edit their posts within a time frame of making the post - I think that the time frame is something like 15 minutes. After that the editing ability is gone.

Go to it, just be aware that a big restoration job like this is potentially more work than building a guitat from scratch, and comes with unknown complications. Howard has a good point- when you glue the back on, keep track of your neck angle.

_________________
Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Exactly what I am talking about. I want to build one of those double points one day.

Mike

Edit: (oops, thats a single point) One thing you will notice is the new wood around the second soundhole. None of the drawings I have seen call for bracing here. In my current project, I did brace that. Since there is little (if any) hand action there... it may not be needed. Also, no glue seams. But still, only took a minute to do. Is it your guitar?

I don't think it's crazy, either. You seem to want to bring it back into use, and you seem undaunted by the potential task. You'll learn a lot in the process, and it'll ultimately be very satisfying. I say go for it. Let's see it when you finish it up!
Patrick