Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone teaching guitar repair .
I have Blackshear Flamenco here that needs allot of help.
I contacted Tom & he has NO interest in getting it back.

I'll go check the build date & post it.

I'll give this guitar to any builder/repairman/teacher.
It would be a great project for students.

I will not pay shipping.
Not in the original case.

Mike

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Mike Collins

I might be interested in giving it a go. I mostly focus on building but have been known to take on repairs I find interesting...and examining/working on a guitar made by someone as reputable a Mr. Blackshear definitely qualifies as interesting.

How extensive/what type of damage?

Edit: Just to be clear, though: I am not teaching nor am I a student. I've built a number of guitars (mostly nylon) over the past 11 years but I would be interested in getting a little more experience with repairs (and would be interested in examining Tom's work).
If you'd prefer someone use it as a teaching opportunity then I might not be what your looking for.

If William doesn't want it (although it sounds like he does) I would love the opportunity to examine and fix this guitar. I am more interested in repair and restoration than building. I like the idea of being able to examine a great guitar, find out what makes it tick and sharing that with others to help further their knowledge.

Thanks-
John

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

this guitar needs a new top!
B & S are fine.
someone ripped out the frets-lots of tearout.
No tuners.
All finish ( F.P) needs to be replaced.
It's a 1975.
label says
Tom Blackshear
San Antonio Tex.
Maranatha
Tom told me this name was a period he was going through.

Mike

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Mike Collins

"Tom told me this name was a period he was going through."

Considering the above ,and the fact that it needs so much work, it might be nice to remove the label. He might not want to be remembered for an early guitar reworked by students.

I've built two following Tom's GAL Reyes plan - I'd love to see what one looks and feels like in person. I don't know how many different designs he built, or what one he would have been following in 1975. I could probably tell if it's the same one from a picture of the top.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Yeah, I would think it would be the Reyes design. Shouldn't be too tough to replace the top.

Sounds like it's from the very beginning of his building career (about a year in) so might not be the best example but would still be interesting. Reading his background from his website, he builds by feel and intuition-didn't measure thicknesses, etc until well into the 1980's and relied on experience to get the sound he was after. Such an early example probably isn't a great reflection of where his experience led him.

I would definitely be interested in the project-very curious about where he started. Having said that, I do have plenty to keep me occupied in the shop as is. So if anyone else feels very strongly about this I would defer to them.

As to the label, I don't see the need to remove his label but rather add an additional label making it clear who replaced the top and did the other repairs.

Mike, I've recently expanded my repair shop, and my assistant, Elliott (who I think you know) and I could definitely use this as a great teaching and training tool. Please let me know if I can help to give it a good home and new lease on life.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Yeehaw! I smell a repair thread coming about.

Ken Jones will get the guitar.

Plus he thinks it'll be a great teaching & learning experience.
Plus he'll post pics & share with the forum the work he does on it .

Thanks
Mike

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Mike Collins

Good choice Mike!

Hey Ken, we all love photos of works in progress, so please share those when you can.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I think re-topping is an excellent lesson for anyone who is interested in building guitars and then of course you get good repair value out of it as well. When I first started many many years ago I re-topped a few junker plywood guitars and when doing so you really get to see how important a good top is even if it's on a junker guitar.

If for some reason things fall through with Ken, I am would love to take on this project. A very dear old friend of mine is a avid flamenco player (his daughter is a enthomusicologist studying the origins of tango) and this would not only be a great learning experience for me, it could make a wonderful gift for him.

Sounds good-I look forward to seeing the progress.

...What would be really cool would be if you guys could find a later model Blackshear flamenco to examine and compare to this early guitar in order to get a little insight into how his work was refined.