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The ufb and first two ladder braces on the treble side peeling off on the ends and the whole side under the pick guard is concave and appears to be set that way from being in that state for a long time.

Any hope? Is it worth it?

Pat

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Pat

Got pics?

Brace ends popping off on these models is very common

Is it dry. It might be a good idea to hydrate in a big plastic bag for a while to see if the shape improves.

Lived in Missouri for a long time, then it lived in Florida for a long time....

Pat

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Pat

So to answer your questions, Yes it is worth it. The shape will not improve solely from hydrating it.

The best thing to do first would be to reglue all the brace ends. Second thing to do would be to replace the plastic bridge with a rosewood one. Third would be to replace the oversized spruce bridge plate with a maple one that's an appropriate size.

To remedy the concavity the only way I've ever had success on these is adding some beefy bracing around the soundhole. I usually add a brace on either side of it in the same fashion as an X braced guitar.

All that being said, these guitars will benefit from these modifications tremendously. They are great little blues fingerpickers. There is no point in keeping these original as the original design was inherently flawed.

EDIT: Keep in mind that these were built with a VERY tightly radiused top, so do not under any circumstances try to remove the prominent "belly" that they have as the braces are cut to hold the top to this shape. The top radius on some of the ones I've measured have been as tight as 12'. Just food for thought.

What Dan says. I had an LG-1 cross my bench that needed almost exactly these same work. I don't remember a sever depression in the top but it did have one brace where the end was loose, the bridge plate was badly chewed up and of course it had the screwed on plastic bridge.

I was able to find a reverse belly rosewood bridge with the correct foot print, fortunately it did not have the saddle slot cut so I could do that after gluing it to the guitar. The plastic bridge was finished under it so I had to clean up to bare wood.

I lucked out and had a good neck angle so I didn't have to reset it. Guitar is a great player, I have pictures if they would help.