Beware ! You're in Kamikazie here. Not many pro luthiers around, more often brave souls experimenting in their kitchen.1948 H1215 Archtone project - by George
George Martin : Hi Francois, maybe you & the Harmony guys would like to see this forgotten archtop I acquired, from a secretary at an engineering firm I assisted in some occasional site work for...just before she left to go on maternity leave, she said to me..."I hear you're good with guitars"...& gave me this guitar, in need of a lot of work, because we worked well together & I told her a lot of info & jokes too. Shortly thereafter, her home computer died, so we gave her our spare one, to "keep things level".
Photos begin with overall condition & a survey of work to be performed, including missing guard, to be found or made... New nut, sand bridge, neck is nice & straight, body work, clean tuners, & re-string of course.
As you can see, a previous non experienced person, used common model glue to attempt repairs...contaminating the break, & making my efforts more difficult. Don't you just hate that...too much of the wrong cement?!
to be continued...GM
George Martin : Greetings, Francois & all Harmony guys...sorry for the delay on additional ongoing progress photos of the salvage job, but I had a slowdown, both of my hands locking up & had to get some x-rays & relief meds, so I had to lay off the tools for a bit & I'm working my way back to this model...& I’m not as old as some of the guitars I'm trying to restore! (well pretty close... I'd like not to think)
You'll see the body in photo, tethered in what's known as a Spanish Windlass"... "AYE MATEYS"... used in seafaring operations, old furniture repairs (especially chair legs) and so forth.
In this application it was to realign the racked body, from the severity of the side crack, without the use or luxury of having or making body mold clamps.
So, for an assortment of reasons, I'm using a durable, reliable cord made for parachutes & won't stretch or tear. Trying to still remove the old clear model cement is slow going from another persons previous repair attempt, some years ago I'd imagine, so the final finish won't be too minty looking.
As you can see, gluing & clamping is going slow, in increments of a few inches at a time.
The waist & the bouts are "in & out"... so working & manipulating the sides, top & back becomes tedious. It's getting better & as you may have noted, some wood is missing, so I'm making up some "splints" as I go. More to follow, so until then, thanks for looking in on the project.
august 2008 : completed pictures
George Martin, Pennsauken, New Jersey
february-august 2008
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