Entries by Jeff Mallia

1988 Hermanos Conde Flamenco Guitar Top Replacement

This is a restoration of a 1988 Conde Flamenco Guitar with a badly repaired top. Initially brought in to check out top crack repairs and delaminating golpe, it was soon evident that the top had been aggressively sanded to 0.6mm thick in some areas, and backed up with very rough messy internal patching. The owner […]

1930’s German Mandolin Top Replacement

This is a restoration of an old 1930-40’s East German ‘Trade’ Mandolin. Of sentimental value to the owner this instrument presented in a very bad state of repair. This was a “trade” instrument, something that would be made in a factory for music or department store sale as opposed to an individual maker. Its hard […]

Martin OMC-28 Lawrence Juber Brazilian Side Damage Repair

One of a limited run of the popular Martin Lawrence Juber OM which was made using Brazilian Rosewood for the back and sides. Unfortunately as can be seen it sustained a severe impact on the bass lower side which shattered the side. A repair like this demands a huge amount of patience; Once a plan […]

Les Paul Custom

This 80’s Les Paul had a hard life. It’s white finish has worn to a really appealing aged look. Unfortunately along the way someone has added an extra coil tap switch, strap hole and done some less than neat repair work to the head binding. The new owner wanted to get this back to a respectable […]

Taylor 514E Top Replacement

This Taylor suffered a terrible fate when someone fell onto it. It was sentimental to the owner and therefore worth it to him to repair so a new top was in order. To keep it as original as possible and also more cost effective, a replacement top was ordered from the factory. Taylor guitars are […]

1924 Martin 000-18 Pyramid Bridge

Here is a small segment of a much larger restoration from my archive.  I thought it would be an interesting segment of this repair to show the building of a replica/replacement bridge for the badly damaged original. The original bridge had holes on each end right through the pyramid peaks, as well as many cracks […]

1936 Martin 2-32 Mandolin Finish Repair

This beautiful mandolin was in really great shape for its age, however a pretty ugly finish repair on it’s nicely flamed back was holding it back from being a perfect example of CF Martin and Co’s finest mandolins. I remember listening to an exact same instrument being played on David “Dawg” Grismans “Tone Poems” CD […]

1938 Martin 0-17 Restoration

Here is a golden era martin 00-17 minor primarily finish restoration. This guitar was presented in a very roughly over coated state.  It had been lovingly hand varnished by brush to give it a face lift some time in the last 50 years. The “artist” who carried out this work was detailed enough to make […]