Old Guitars (and a new one) Update

Well, I told myself I wouldn't start this blog with a lament about how much time has past since my last post....so...er... let's just jump right into it. For those of you who follow the blog, you know that I have taken on a couple of major rebuilds lately. This past month has been all about reconstruction and restoration. Here is a progress report: After numerous patches and interior work that is hard to take pictures of, the 1956 Martin is about ready for finish. The old pearl ovals inlayed on the peghead are no more. I found some wood that matched pretty well and after some careful work it's looking pretty good...and I didn't screw up the logo. Hooray! Spraying the finish will be tricky though!

Removing and patching the extra fingerboard inlay was pretty straight forward. I had some nice ebony which matched pretty well. Here it is back to the original inlay pattern. After the new frets are installed it should look great!

The back is stripped, loose binding is glued. Everything is starting to look much better.

Here's the body and neck, ready for finish. The top is still pretty rough looking, Unfortunately the play-wear is pretty extensive. I didn't feel that I could clean it up completely without make the top too thin. With a new bridge and pickguard it should look good when it's all done.

Hotrodders have a term I remember from growing up...Resto-rod. As I recall a Resto-rod is a vintage car which looks from the outside to be original. On the inside however, many of the major components have been modernized for comfort and performance reasons. This is the idea which kept coming back to me as I worked on the old Henry L Mason Parlor guitar. Information on this guitar is pretty scarce. From what I can tell it was probably made around 1890 or so. What ever the manufacture date was, the old parlor guitar is very different now! Just for reference, here is the old top. The bracing pattern was designed before steel strings were popular. Even in good shape, it would not standup to the tension of modern acoustic guitar strings.

Here is the new top. I'm sure you can see the difference. In this photo the braces are rough...

To tune the top, I trim and shave the braces. Here the top is almost ready.

On the body, I had to fill in the areas where the old braces met the linings.

Once the linings were all patched and cleaned up, I re-notched them for the new bracing pattern.

Ready to glue the top on!

New top...ready for some finish.

A few coats of lacquer makes everything shiney.

After sanding and buffing, it was time to set the neck.

And then install the new bridge..

The neck was badly bowed. So I pulled the frets, trued up the fingerboard and..

Installed new frets. Then the it was the moment of truth...Strings!

The Henry L Mason lives again! I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It is a lovely little guitar...and it's for sale! Email me if you are interested (connerguitars@gmail) or contact the guys at Guru Guitars (www.guruguitarshop.com). I also finished up the new 504 Jazz jr. Here are a couple of photos. It's for sale as well.

Thanks for reading the blog! Talk to you all soon! Clay