Official Luthiers Forum!

Holy Crow,
Thats alot of effort for an old gitter - Looks fantastic man!!!! .... I have an old Josef Obrecht guitar - which is kinda rare-ish seeing as he was mainly a harp guitar builder ..... I was gonna donate it to a guitar museum or something if I find one willing and able to restore it,,,,, perhaps I'll put the time in myself one day....
Johny keep up the great work..
Cheers
charliewood

Some progress on this.

Building coats of shellac.


And a coat of finishing wax on top of the shellac.


Crowning the frets after leveling.


After gluing the fretboard extension, a quick buff with steel wool and oil to make the ebony look slick.

It's very cool!

I then glued the bridge. I used simple wood screws to bite into the bridge plate and apply clamping pressure on the center of the bridge. Perhaps unorthodox, but it worked great.




I decided to recycle the old screws that were mounted on the original tuning machines. They look old and rusty and I quite like it.
I had to shorten them a bit for them to not blow the sides of the headstock.


Shaped the nut and saddle.


Little knots in the synthetic gut strings.


Finally, shaping the nut sluts.



So the guitar is done! Revived, should I say. I'm about to take some good pictures and a video to show it off to you guys.
It should be up in the next few days.

lookin' good Johny!

Looks nice all fixed up. I like your bridge design

I had the time to take some pictures earlier today.

Continued



















Sorry for the ridiculous amount of pictures, I had good lighting and went at it.
This last pictures kinda wraps the whole story together, with this old label from a (so far) unknown maker.
This hundred years old guitar had its wound repaired and is now ready to make music for another century.

Oh, and it sounds sweet! I'll try and post a soundclip in the near future.

Thanks for your interest and for your help!

Excellent! Looking forward to the sound clips.

Are my eyes deceiving me, or is the soundboard also 'birdseye', or at least some kind of bearclaw that looks a bit like birdseye? That's the coolest thing of all.

Gorgeous! Can't wait to hear it!!!

This is what it`s all about.I love it man.

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

I think it's a fabulous save. A few people might question replacing the headstock, or the use of finishing wax, or other details, or maybe they won't. I don't care either way. I think it's a fabulous bit of...what shall I call it?....resurrection of a broken thing. I would be proud to own it. I would be even more proud if I had brought it back as you have. VERY well done, in my opinion! Very well, indeed.
Patrick

You really made something from nothing with this repair, Johny! Loved the process and the finished product.

Alex

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

nicely done. Thanks for posting your process.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

It was so nice to see someone willing and able to put this amount of work into an interesting old guitar.
Thank you.
Look forward to the sound clip/video?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Yep, the soundboard does have some kind of bearclaw figure, that was rather hidden by the old finish, so it was a nice surprise for sure.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!

For now the guitar is resting in a humidified case: we had a pretty chilly last few days in Montreal and the RH fell to 15 inside my appartment... I first heard 2-3 scary sounds from the guitar and noticed a few small cracks developping in the maple back, so in the case it went, and off I was to buy a humidifier...

Hope it holds up!

Looks like the 3rd on the right in this picture.
similar tail piece, same number of fret marker, etc.
Possibly a Harmony/Stella knockoff
http://www.billlongband.com/display1.asp?image=21

Wow! Great job!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I live in North East, where winters get dry as well. Can I recommend that perhaps you should get a room humidifier? RH down to 15 is not only uncomfortable for your guitar, but also for you. I humidify my house, and ensure a decent RH all year round. As a player, I am a believer that guitars should be out of their case and in easy reach of you. I find one is more apt to play a guitar that is readily accessible than one stored away in a case.

Just my 2 cents worth

Glenn

Absolutely, I meant I went off to buy a room humidifier, as well as put damp sponges in the case. I didn't realize it was that dry before I brought my hygrometer to my living room. The plan is to eventually put the guitar on the wall, hanging besides her sisters, in a confortable RH.

Thanks

Good catch!
They certainly look like they're some kind of cousins. Mine had a different fretboard with star inlays and no binding.
Any guess about what the label might point to? Letters are "C" "M" and "M".

Thanks!

I finally took some time to record this thing.
Enjoy and thanks for watching.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvVcwy4nQt8

Very, very well done!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Great work - thanks for taking the time to document it! I have a similar project planned for an old no-name parlor guitar that belonged to my girlfriend's father. I'll be referring back to this post for reference and inspiration when I get started. Beautiful restoration!

One of the best threads ever. You are very talented.

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee