Official Luthiers Forum!

I've had this old Ensenada Acoustic for a while now and its had a bellied top thats been progressing and it needed a neck reset so I just took off the top while I was at it. I'm redoing the bracing but the top is severely warped. Is there a way to fix this using steam or something?

Photos please...

I don't have a camera or I would put photos up. It's just like any other acoustic with a really bad belly.

I'm just curious if I could steam the top and then clamp it flat to fix this?

Do yourself a favor and buy a new top. You're obviously game for major surgery. The the neck is off. The top is off. The top is probably a laminate. (Look at the end-grain in the soundhole.) Even if it it's a solid top, any steam treatment will be likely to open up the center seam.

You can buy an "A" grade sitka spruce top from LMI for $30. Even if you omit a rosette and purflings, if you do an adequate job of thicknessing and bracing, the sound will be much improved. Wipe on some sort of thin finish, and you'll be amazed at the sound.

No, don't do this. Next you'll be building guitars. Put the guitar in the dumpster, and seek professional counseling.

Was this guitar originally designed/built as a classical for nylon strings? The only Enseneda brand guitars I have ever seen were Classicals... but that never stopped people from stringing them with steel strings - which wrecks the tops over time...

Thanks