1940 Martin 000-28

[Freeman Keller]

I've kind of gotten away from doing repair threads but once in a while something interesting comes along and it seems timely with Canadah's thread about 00018/28's.

 

Background, there are two music stores in my town, I do some repairs for one of them. A guy took his old Martin into the other to have a pickup installed, and while I make it a point to not criticize another persons work, frankly they botched this horribly. The owner brought it to the shop that I work with and asked what I could do. This is how it looked with the new Fishman UST "installed"

 

 

Literally, the saddle slot was so shallow that the UST was almost level with the top of the bridge, the saddle of course wouldn't sit in the slot, and to add insult to injury, when plugged in no sound came out of the pickup.

 

I showed the owner that there were several things contributing to this - this very old guitar (1940 from the serial number) badly need a neck reset. Instead of doing the right thing, someone (not the shop installing the pickup) had shaved the bridge by about 1/4 inch, which meant that they could lower the saddle a little bit more but also meant that when the transducer was installed the slot simply wasn't deep enough. For some crazy reason there were even two little shims under the transducer (huh?)

 

 

You can see in that last picture that the area on top of the bridge around the pin holes is flat - on a unmolested bridge that is taller and slightly rounded.

 

I told the owner that had he brought that to me I would have refused the job.

 

He asked if anything could be done. I said, yes, the correct thing is to reset the neck and replace the bridge. Since the frets are really bad and there is a lot of relief (non adjustable truss rod) and the tuners are shot, at the going rates he was looking at 6 or 700, but that was the right thing to do and should all be done at the same time.

 

He said he didn't want to do that right now, was there anything that could be done in the mean time. I told him that I could install a K&K soundboard pickup which would get his saddle back where it was before, but the best thing would be to route the slot deeper and make a new saddle. If I did this I could install the Fishman. He said "do it"

 

While we were chatting I said "what's this with the duct tape on the back?" (I really don't like duct tape repairs). He said the guitar had been hanging on the wall, fell off and had a crack, could I look at it? Sure

 

 

A crack? Sure. The back was cracked in several places, binding was missing, kerfing was broken. I said not a problem, cleaned up the shattered kerfing with a tiny chisel and fished a piece of wire thru the convenient hole (actually a G string). Drilled a hole thru a piece of kerfing, coated it in glue and pulled it up against the inside of the back and side.

 

 

Cut a piece of rosewood to be a cross grain brace and glued it inside using the same method - pulled it into place with the G-string and "clamped" it using two rare earth magnets, one inside, one out.

 

 

A small piece of rosewood (Brazilian, of course) to fill the hole and some binding. Originally the binding would have been white, it was lacquered over and the lacquer has turned a lovely amber. I sprayed two thin coats of lacquer with a tiny bit of amber dye over the repair, sanded lightly and polished with micro mesh. I didn't want to use polishing compound - it would have made it too shiny and would have gotten in all the little lacquer checks,

 

 

That seemed to look about right and I was confident that it was structurally sound. Now to the bridge.

 

I routed the slot as deep as I dare go in that bridge, also made it 1/8 inch because it had been pretty mangled before

 

 

Made a new bone saddle (the old one was micarta).

 

 

Saddle is lower that I would like but that's all I can do with this neck angle. Fixed the bad solder connection on the jack, plugged it in to my shop amp and checked it out (seems like that should be mandatory), called the owner and told him it was ready. The action is still a hair high, the frets are really bad, and all the other problems still exist, but it is playable and sounds pretty good.

 

He shook my hand and thanked me. Told me it was his birthday and asked if I would build him a semi hollow body jazz guitar. I can do that, I said.

 

[guitarcapo]

I probably would have took the back off to repair it at that point....and just reset the neck angle when I replaced the back. That way I could also address any possible loose braces while I was in there.

 

And yea I like soundboard transducers better than USTs....I would have installed that in there while the guitar was open.

 

Taking the back off is very common in bowed instrument repair but it seems like with guitars its considered major surgery.

It's usually pretty easy with these instruments because they are glued together with hide glue. You just remove the binding with a razor knife and then it's just a matter of running a razor knife at the kerfing/back join and it usually pops right off.....typically because the hide glue has gotten old and fragile over the decades.

 

The one flaw in this approach is that the binding on the back might shatter and crumble to bits. I usually just replace it if that happens.

On the upside you don't disturb the dovetail join and there's less chance of getting a "hump" in the fingerboard at the tongue.

[Tony Burns]

That guitar ( if taken better care of ) would of been worth a bit of cash - It makes me cringe

when i think of it hanging on someones wall -- a neck reset from the start would of been the smart move ,

of course you got it after the botched work was already done -

Your a remarkable repair person and luthier Freeman -

what ive seen you do , your amazing !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[superfluidity]

Man if that guitar could talk. The last 76 years were Americas greatest years and it shows on that one. Maybe Willy Nelson owned it as a twin for his nylon stringed axe! From what I can see in the pics the sound board is still in good shape so maybe one day the owner can get the bucks to have you fix it up real good. I have always wanted to do wood working but my eyes won't let me anymore. The git looks like it is in really good hands for now tho, albeit, I guess I never understood a pickup on such a nice axe (but that is just me), I certainly don't mean to be rude of course.