Back in November an elderly gentleman called and asked if I could pet a new bridge on his Martin because the strings were too high and he wasn't too pleased with the fellow that had repaired his guitar the last time. "Sure" say's I! "Bring it on!"
I know better than to agree to a repair without looking at it first but with Christmas coming I figured a few extra bucks couldn't hurt and a bridge replacement is a simple task. Famous last words! A few days later this old guy shows with a 1927 Martin "0" series guitar that someone had butchered. The bridge was not original and had been bolted on and the screw holes plugged but the man said he had dug the plugs out with a pochet knife so he could tighten the screws. The fingerboard had been replaced with that red colored wood that you find on cheap entry level instruments. The binding had been poorly replaced and there were bracing issues. The gentleman said that he was not concerned about appearance but just wanted the guitar playable. There were no strings on the guitar but the neck angle appeared to be OK. The bridge was too tall and the soft plastic saddle had been filed down to almost flush with the bridge. OK i says and proceeded to make a new rosewood bridge with a bone saddle. While waiting for the glue to dry I took the liberty of treating the red fingerboard with 20% nitric acid in an attempt to at least make it look more like rosewood or ebony. The next day I strung it up and began a setup. Before I could get the strings to pitch, the top bellied up behind the bridge and collapsed in front of the bridge. At this point the bridge was at about a 20 degree angle. This does not bode well for me so I called the old gentleman and had him come out and see for him self what the problems were. After visiting for a while I found out that the person who had been doing repairs was "kinda new at guitar repair". He had removed the top once before to repair the numerous cracks and broken braces, replace the bridge plate and patch the back. Further investigation revealed that the top had been sanded down to about .060" to .070". Way too thin! At this point we decided to replace the entire top. This is when I started taking pictures. The attached photos pretty much tell the story.
IMG_2519.jpgIMG_2522.jpgIMG_2523.jpgIMG_2527.jpgIMG_2532.jpgIMG_2555.jpgIMG_2559.jpgIMG_2560.jpg I will add additional photo's and documentary as work progresses if anyone is interested.