Restoring instruments with family significance brings a real sense of purpose and satisfaction to my repair business. This week I worked on two guitars that belonged to the current owners’ grandfathers. The first was an old archtop that a teenage boy recently brought back from Sweden where his grandfather lived. It was in relatively good shape, just needed thorough cleaning, fret levelling, setup, and new tuning machines. Next week he’ll use it to perform with his high school jazz band.
The second guitar is newer, but in far worse shape. The top was crushed completely and the back also had significant damage. I first removed the neck so that I could free the 3 broken pieces of the top. Each piece had multiple fractures, and the internal braces were loose, though not broken.
Then began the tedious process of gluing each fracture, regluing the braces, fitting the pieces together, and finally fitting them back on the sides of the guitar. The hardest part will be restoring the proper radius (arch) on the top so that the strings meet the bridge at the proper height.
I love seeing delight on the face of a customer when they come to pick up their fully restored family heirloom. An instrument must have a lot of sentimental value to justify all this effort!
