Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi All,

Being new to steel string building (built several classical's), my first had more than it's fair share of boo-boo's. So it's been sitting in a corner not being touched, another is about to get strings this week, so what to do with a dud? How about learn repair on it? I'm going to try and get the bridge off in one piece and the fingerboard. Maybe do a little fret removal to see how hard that is and what happens, and then maybe some finish touch up trials. Anybody ever done this with a reject or old guitar?

Dave

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God, Family, Carreer

Dave I`ve done it with old guitars,but only ones that were brought to me to be repaired.I`d say if your really unhappy with the guitar then go for it.To me repair work is just as rewarding as building from scratch.There are a lot of books and good info on repair out there that will help, if you decide to go for it.
James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

I burned my #2. I kept trying to fix it and you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear , in this case it was a series of learning how not to do things. We all had at least 1

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Oh yeah - for sure. For me, (novice, without repair experience) I know I need more practice fretting, and just about everything else. By tweaking my #3 guitar - new fret job, and other tweaks I'm getting practice that I wouldn't get otherwise. I also bought an old Gibson 12 string where the top had imploded and put a new top on it, both for the practice ( and to see if I could resurrect an old guitar) Result: very nice top - but the neck has a permanent bend in it so I'll need to address that too.

i actually bought a partially built a dread kit, for the sole purpose of putting it together, and taking it back apart, removing something then putting it back on (or replacing it, etc...)

I haven't done this with a purchased guitar, but that's mainly because all of the guitars I've purchased (that I still have) are in too good condition to sacrifice.

I may pick up a junker locally to make a practice run at re-topping.

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Jim Hansen

Hey....
It's your guitar -- it is up to you to do whatever you feel like doing in the whole world.

Wanna go play "El Kabong" at a local Wrasslin show -- Take it along.
Wanna see how a guitar burns... Light 'er up.
Wanna paint it Yellow with all sorts of hippie symbols... Go get the brush!...
Hang it up down at the Lake for a family of Ducks...

If you aren't going to sell it... may as well do something with it...
and if it isn't up to your standards or you aren't satisfied with it...
Take a shot at getting it squared away.

What is the worst that can happen... It still isn't right and you are still where you are today!

I view it is as a learning experience...
I want to see if I can figure out how to get something done.
and what better way to try to do it than to just go ahead and take a crack at it.

I redid the finish on my 1st guitar 5-10 times before I finally figured out that Spraying finish just wasn't working... and another 5-10 times to get the hang of brushing varnish. I must have scraped, chipped, and sanded off 5 cans of spray shellac and then about 1/2 quart of Behlen's Rock Hard before I finally got it....

I think I levelled, crowned, and polished the frets 3x, fixed the fret edges 3x, etc...

Good luck

John