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.

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To keep it as original as possible and also more cost effective, a replacement top was ordered from the factory. Taylor guitars are so consistently made, that many years later, a replacement top is dimensionally as per the original spec. whilst it arrives as an over sized top, it’s bracing and sound hole etc are perfectly positioned as per the original.

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First the damaged top is pulled back into shape to allow an accurate template be made. This is going to be a “Drop In” top replacement – a technique that Bob Taylor himself detailed in an industry journal many years ago. It means that the old top is removed without disturbing the binding or side finish at all. If there is no side damage, there is actually no need to do any side refinishing. The top repair can be completely contained to the top surface only. It’s a great method I have used many times since this repair – not just on Taylors.

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Once the template is made, and the old top removed. The replacement top is accurately cut to the exact template shape. After dry fitting to make sure all brace ends fit perfectly into the linings and any adjustments made, the new top is glued in.

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A purfling channel is cut (the trickiest part) without disturbing the binding, and new purflings installed. The new top is now sanded, finished in the original factory UV cure thin flexible polyester finish.

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Lastly the bridge is fitted, and the NT bolt on neck cavity routed before the guitar is assembled and ready to go home to its family.

1924 Martin 000-18 Pyramid Bridge

Here is a small segment of a restoration from my archive that was completed in 2006. I thought it would be an interesting little segment of this repair to show the building of a replica/replacement bridge for the badly damaged original.
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The original bridge had holes on each end right through the pyramid peaks, as well as many cracks and worn holes. Problems with the spruce footprint also dictated the replacement be slightly larger than the original.

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After removal,the original bridge was filled and re shaped to resemble it’s original shape prior to damage occuring. The filler was painted black to allow me to see the bridge in its orioginal form, making it much easier to measure and gauge visually.

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Once the pyramids shapes were done, the centre of the bridge was shaped to finish off the build followed by detail sanding and polishing.

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Then back on the guitar! After many years in storage, this guitar went on to a live a very busy life with a new owner. I’ll post the full restoration in a future blog entry.

1936 Martin 2-32 Mandolin Finish Repair

This finish repair is from my repair archive, completed in 2007
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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 whilst getting into this repair.

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After carefully removing the offending layers of finish repair, it appeared that a small area of dents most probably buckle dents were what the last repairer was trying to cover up, only it seemed to get out of hand.

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The most important part of this repair was to build the finish in exactly the same layering of finish and colour as revealed by the exposed area back to the wood. Paying particular attention to getting as close to perfect match to each colour layer whilst working with a very small airbrush spray pattern the completed colour layer was pretty close. The final clear coats were blended in with the original finish and after drying, the finish patina worn to match the instruments general appearance.

A particularly satisfying note is that shortly after the repair was completed, this instrument was purchased by none other than David Grisman himself.

1938 Martin 0-17 Restoration

Here is a golden era martin 00-17 minor restoration from my repair archive completed in 2012.

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.

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The “artist” who carried out this work was detailed enough to make sure they coated the guitar thoroughly. tuners, fretboard, bridge and all. Apart from that the guitar was in need of a neck reset and some brace/bridge plate and crack repair.

The approach here was to carefully test various areas to see how the varnish layer would respond to different methods of removal.

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After disassembling the neck and bridge from the body, the finish removal work began. A huge bonus was that the varnish over coating was applied without any preparation sanding. This meant the original finish was preserved – patina and all under all that over coating.

It still took many hours of carefully removing the varnish to reveal the original finish completely from the tuning heads, frets and fretboard and bridge as well as the rest of the guitar.

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Following up with a neck reset, brace re gluing, crack repair, bridge work and setup, this beautiful example of a golden era Martin was ready to make music for hopefully many decades to come. A real pleasure to work on.