Sunday, October 10, 2010

Rebuilding a 1932 Martin 1-17

The magic glue pot 

Bar fret is like it says, a solid bar......
Good view of the fret
New bridge with intonated saddle


This  Martin  1-17, about a 1932  guitar came in needing lots of TLC.  There were almost no fret sticking out, 1/2 of the bar frets had been replaced  with modern tang frets in a very messy way, the neck set was so off, the string height was high and un-playble, the wood bridge was shaved down so low it would not hold a saddle and there were various cracks on the body.   But it sounded good and our client wanted to play it, as we like to say "it has good bones"
On a guitar this old we wanted to get it back together as original as possible.  So we recreated the original style bridge and used new bar frets  (Thanks for the frets Glade and TJ) and pit it back together with hide glue.  Hide glue is kept warm and has and very short working time since all your parts have to be in position before the glue cools.  
SO, Off to work.
Remove the bridge and flatten some of the bow out of the top with heat and clamps.  Make a new bridge to the original spec of the guitar.   Reset the neck to the correct angle to match the bridge and saddle for the desired string height.  Clean up the fingerboard so it could be refret with the original style Bar frets,  NO EASY TASK!   Once the frets are in they need to leveled and crowned.  We got it close by hand and used the plek machine for the final level and crowning.  We were able to reuse the original ebony nut which was a very nice touch.  When we got done the guitar had a beautiful tone and was a dream to play.  

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