Official Luthiers Forum!

Into a silk (and steel) purse?

Dipping my toes into repair and restoration, and have just watched Robbie O'Brien's new repairs video series. (Also been reading Erlewine, Teeter, etc.).

I have acquired a few inexpensive project guitars, and the first victim is an early '30s Slingerland May Bell parlor guitar with a trashed top and fingerboard. Birch body (top, back and sides), walnut fingerboard, and maple neck. The bridge is stained hardwood with a brass saddle, and a stained wood nut. The scale length is 24.9"

As acquired, the top is cracked and warped, several of the braces are missing, the back has a crack and is coming off, the fingerboard has multiple checks, and one tuner is a recent made in Japan replacement (the other appears to be an original Kluson). Oh, and the bridge pins where crudely whittled out of something woody.

Initials and the dates 1933 and 1940 are penciled on the inside of the back.

I'm considering two paths: restoration or highly-modified rebuilding.

In the first case, I would have to find some birch to use as soundboard stock (probably a trip down to Lakeshore Hardwoods). I can reuse the bridge and (remaining) braces. The back can be repaired, and a new fingerboard and neck set would be in order.

The second option could be interesting too; make a spruce top (ladder or x-braced?), neck reinforcement (bar or truss rod?), new bridge with bone saddle, bone nut, new ebony fingerboard.

Still pondering, and open to any input. Here are photos:

Yeah, baby - make it live again!

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Looks like a fun project. Regarding restoration vs modified rebuilding, for me it depends on what the guitar was like when it was new. I’m not familiar with these, don’t think there’s many around over these parts. What were they like? If they were good instruments, then I’d restore and respect the original design. If they were cheaper / average instruments I’d feel free to tinker in the hope of ending up with something “better than new”.

I restored a MayBell for a guy (it was his Dad’s) a few years ago. It didn’t need a new top but had to pull the back to fix braces and such. Did a reset, new frets and new tuners too. Job cost more than the guitar was worth but it was a super-sweet sounding finger style guitar when it was done.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

The top looks eminently restorable to me, so that's what I'd do. I'd want a 30s instrument to sound 30s.

Here are more photos of the top. Note that there has been uneven longitudinal (!) shrinkage and separation along the biggest crack (which ends at the bridge.

It's aso wavier than a Lay's potato chip.

How would one go about restoring this?

DIsclaimer: I don't have much experience with this kind of restoration, but I've read a lot (goes with the day job) and attempted fixes on a couple of instruments. So if anyone with real experience comes along, listen to them instead!

Looking at the pictures I don't think you have longitudinal shrinkage. Rather, the upper bout has moved widthways and curled the portion under the fingerboard into the soundhole. I suspect that if you measure the length either side of that big crack (soundhole to rim), you'll find they are the same.

So I'd try the following in combination:

1. Humidify the top (inside a plastic bag with some source of moisture, plenty of postings about how to do that on this forum).

2. Once I'm sure it's humidified, attempt to flatten it using heat. Heated sandbags seem to be the most likely way to do this. If you have a radius dish you could use that, but I suspect this top was made flat and then domed using curved braces, so I'd do it on a flat surface. Probably needs several cycles of heating.

If this puts the edges back in close alignment then I'd fix the cracks, splinting if needed, and then re-brace.

Hope this is some help in deciding what to do.