Ugh!
This newish Martin D-13 showed up the other day.
The back had been smashed in towards the treble side, cracking it in several places and knocking sections of back wood out.
Then a poor attempt at a repair was made by a local big box store and it was pronounced fixed and returned to the customer.
My pics suck as usual, but I have a real can of worms here. And yes, this is how this guy got the guitar back from them.
When the back got crushed, three braces were knocked loose and two of them split.
Hard to see in the pic, but the lower two braces are hung up on the lining that the back attaches to.
There's a 1/2" gap on that bottom brace. You can see the wood fiber shadow where the brace was attached.
That allowed the side to move inward at the back.
The braces were left like that, split & loose.
Then they glued in the loose pieces of the back. But the with the braces no longer bracing, dimensions had moved and nothing fit back together.
It blows my mind that this is what the store passed off as "repaired damage".
Not even close.
It was so bad that clothing was snagging on the edges of the cracks.
Only one thing left to do at this point.
Yep
Chainsaw...
I pulled the back off and proceeded to undo all the crappy glue joints in the back as best as possible.
Going to have to replace the chunks of linings that got damaged as well.
Refitted the pieces back together and the back looks and feels somewhat more like a guitar back, now.
At least on the outside it does...
It's nice and smooth and even now. No more raised edges to snag.
Inside the back, it's a different story...
It took a little creativity to tie everything back together and keep the broken edges aligned.
Thirty five cross grain cleats do a great job of keeping things flat & stable, and the braces have been repaired and reattached to the back.
Now I drink beer.
To be continued...
This newish Martin D-13 showed up the other day.
The back had been smashed in towards the treble side, cracking it in several places and knocking sections of back wood out.
Then a poor attempt at a repair was made by a local big box store and it was pronounced fixed and returned to the customer.
My pics suck as usual, but I have a real can of worms here. And yes, this is how this guy got the guitar back from them.
When the back got crushed, three braces were knocked loose and two of them split.
Hard to see in the pic, but the lower two braces are hung up on the lining that the back attaches to.
There's a 1/2" gap on that bottom brace. You can see the wood fiber shadow where the brace was attached.
That allowed the side to move inward at the back.
The braces were left like that, split & loose.
Then they glued in the loose pieces of the back. But the with the braces no longer bracing, dimensions had moved and nothing fit back together.
It blows my mind that this is what the store passed off as "repaired damage".
Not even close.
It was so bad that clothing was snagging on the edges of the cracks.
Only one thing left to do at this point.
Yep
Chainsaw...
I pulled the back off and proceeded to undo all the crappy glue joints in the back as best as possible.
Going to have to replace the chunks of linings that got damaged as well.
Refitted the pieces back together and the back looks and feels somewhat more like a guitar back, now.
At least on the outside it does...
It's nice and smooth and even now. No more raised edges to snag.
Inside the back, it's a different story...
It took a little creativity to tie everything back together and keep the broken edges aligned.
Thirty five cross grain cleats do a great job of keeping things flat & stable, and the braces have been repaired and reattached to the back.
Now I drink beer.
To be continued...
, I was almost going to use a different example, but then I pondered a minute further for the Rosebud comment. I don't think I could have come up with a more precise illustration of my point. LOL.
