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I was walking around my school yesterday playing guitar and a girl starting talking to me about guitar and whatnot. Her father has a martin but he put his foot through the top (he tried to duct tape it together )the good part is that he is going to sell it to me for very cheap, and I'm going to try an put a new top on it. I am rather inexperienced but I have some people around me that would know how to do this procedure. I thought I would share my excitement and if you dont mind share with me some things that I should look out for.

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" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

Robert Johnson

Remove the neck, it is most likely dovetailed so you will need to inject steam into the joint by drilling a hole at the 15th fret or so (remove that fret) and insert a needle and inject steam into it to separate the joint. But first remove the fingerboard that is right over the body because it's also stuck, use a heat blanket or an iron. Then you can just remove the top by cutting it off (since it's trashed anyways) and remake the brace and a new top, reprofile the top rim then glue the top back on. Try and see if you can reclaim the rosette.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Somewhere online (maybe Frets.com?) I seen someone remove a top while leaving the bindings in place. Then they remade the top and installed purflings to clean up the binding/top seam. I just cant recall where I saw that?

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

If you're using the term "investment" in a learning sense, go for it and more power to you. If you're thinking of investment in financial terms, I think your money would be just as well invested in Chrysler or Fannie Mae.

If and when you get it however, please do post some details on the model, year, condition, etc., before beginning any work on it. I assume it's probably a cheaper or recent model Martin, but in the unlikely case that it may be something of more value, advice on how the instrument should be treated can vary a great deal.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Lance,

That's on John Greven's site, under Extras.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I think that's John Greven.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Looks like David, Pat, & Jim beat me to the answer for Lance's suggestion. Here's the link: http://www.grevenguitars.com/GrevenGuitars.html

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

+1 on what David Collins stated above.

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George :-)