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Behold, the latest victim.

It has a Byrdland tailpiece and no bridge. From this angle, she doesn't look too bad for an old girl.


However, she will need a bit of love...


Aside from being smashed to smithereens, and that's just an assumption as most of the smithereens are missing and are unavailable for study of the the actual smashing, this was also involved in a fire. Fortunately, the neck is good. The tuning machines are in pretty bad shape, even for an old guitar. The truss rod may work, though at this point that would be a relatively minor problem. Clearly it's worth nothing save for the 2 P90s (which may or may not work). I did the only thing I any self respecting luthier could do...I gave him $150 for it. LOL.

Not pictured is the other side. It's pretty much completely split down the middle, which at this point is really no big deal...at all of the pieces are still there. Both braces are problems, one broken completely in half. There are numerous cracks, splits and mashes on both the top and the back, though fortunately most do not go all the way through to the maple (these are laminate tops and backs). The vast majority of the linings are either missing or split in half. There's really only a small bit of wood actually holding this together in some shape that vaguely resembles a guitar.

This should make for an interesting project. I'll say right now that I've never done such an extensive rebuild.

So thats what they look like inside! You can really sharpen your repair chops on this project, John. I'm looking forward to seeing how you approach this.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

The real trick here is getting everything lined back up. Normally, the damage isn't quite so bad...you have SOMETHING left. Linings would be great as they would help reindex everything. In this case, there's basically nothing left on one side. You can imagine what the major problem is. Even when it's all cleaned up, what do you glue to what? Normally, you'd glue everything together and then route for binding. In this case, the sides will float in space without linings, but there are no linings, and the ones that are there are pretty smashed up on both the top and the back.

Essentially what I concocted for a plan (and I'll admit that Harry Becker was kind enough to help me through this today) was to pop off the back, fix whatever needs to be fixed (I'll hand wave this as it's all relatively minor compared to the sides), bend a new side, and then use pieces of binding, and a bit of judgement, to "index" the linings onto the sides. I can come back later and recut the lining for binding later. I will also periodically leave a piece of lining out and glue that to the top/back to act as an alignment key. When it's time to glue everything back up, that should index the sides and the back into perfect alignment.

I got an easy fix for you...sell it to me

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Ken

I'd make an exterior mold, using the popped-off back as a template. I'd make a new side and repair the split in the other side and install new linings as needed. I'd approach each crack and failed brace individually. Then I'd re-close the box with the top and sides in the mold. Dan Erlewine demonstrated re-installing the back of a very old Gibson archtop in one of his Trade Secrets newsletters. He completed all bracing, crack and side repairs as needed, with the top and sides in a temporary foam and cardboard mold. The mold held the shape of the instrument just fine, and aided in plate alignment when he re-closed the box. But, hey, I'm not a repair guy. Just stating what I would do. I think a mold would make a lot of potential problems go more smoothly.

What I've always wondered, and now might be a good time to ask if it's not been talked about before, is what are the materials in the top laminate? I have an old 330 that has a lovely (but quiet) acoustic sound and I don't want to damage it to find out the answer! Is there some quartersawn spruce in there with a lengthwise grain?

Alan

The braces look like spruce. I'll have them out soon and will be able to examine the grain. The braces are strange...they have slices down the length, almost like kerfed lining. I've never seen that.

The top and back are maple laminated onto some sort of plywood thing. It almost looks and feels like MDF but in the area that are mangled up, I can see that it's more like wood. I'm really not sure what it is at this point. I'll really need to get it apart and cleaned up to get a better look.

As I understand it, the entire ES series was designed to be fairly quiet acoustically. This was their amplified line of guitars, and the stiff laminated top (and MASSIVE bracing....they're huge) helped with live performance. Anyone who's every tried to perform with an archtop vs a 335, for example, is able to relate to this.

Hi John,

It sounds a bit like the 330 as regards bracing...that has a single block of spruce under the centre of the top, about 1/3" thick and wide enough to support the pickup holes, with a series of grooves cut almost right through along the length of it. I'm wondering what such a guitar would sound like with either a spruce top or a maple top. I can play my 330 almost as loud as a 335 without wild feedback, surprisingly, although anly fighting an acoustic big band so no electric competition apart from bass.

Sorry to hijack the thread though...this repair looks really interesting and they're lovely guitars, a good deal at that price!

Cheers,
Alan

Hi John,

It sounds a bit like the 330 as regards bracing...that has a single block of spruce under the centre of the top, about 1/3" thick and wide enough to support the pickup holes, with a series of grooves cut almost right through along the length of it. I'm wondering what such a guitar would sound like with either a spruce top or a maple top. I can play my 330 almost as loud as a 335 without wild feedback, surprisingly, although anly fighting an acoustic big band so no electric competition apart from bass.

Sorry to hijack the thread though...this repair looks really interesting and they're lovely guitars, a good deal at that price!

Cheers,
Alan

I see a major Duck tape opportunity here!

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

The 350 is built like a true archtop. There's no block down the center. It's just the top and 2 parallel braces. The 330 is very similar to a 335, except a 335 is a semi-hollow. The 330 is a true hollow body. I think the thin body helps with live performance. The deep bodies really like to grab those low and low-mids, and howl if you're not careful. A lot of folks stuff archtops with foam or use foam inserts on the F-holes to tame it.

You can really crank a 335 without much trouble.

Yikes some one was watching too many of The Who videos.

Post pics as you go along with this repair it will be interesting to see.