Clay S. wrote: It sounds like your customer knew what he was getting - a retopped guitar that didn't sound good (assuming he listened with his ears instead of his eyes). Although the bracing is a bit heavy and sloppy I've seen guitars with equally bad work that sounded good. The original construction on some of the old Stella guitars had similar glue globs around the bracing. If nothing else the retop kept some otherwise decent "guitar parts" from going in the trash.
I think the discussion that needs to be had is when does "a decent vintage guitar" cease to be, and rather become a collection of guitar parts. I'm not saying guitars shouldn't be retopped if necessary, but should they still be considered "vintage" when such a major part has been replaced? Should they still even be considered the work of the original maker?The extreme case was the person who found parts of an old Martin in the trash, but felt as long as he had the original neck block with the stamped serial number he could build a guitar around it and call it a Martin.
Instrument was purchased online, not played in person at purchase. Client understood it had been re-topped and new there was a potential for problems. The price appeared to be fair (if the work had been proper). The work was not the most hideous from the outside and even the finish that was the original complaint aside from being overly tinted wasn't that bad. I think the fact that it is BZRW helped save the tone enough to make it acceptable. There were also some filler spots on the back that looked old and bad so it was decided to pull the neck and bridge and completely refinish rather than just try and tone down the top. There was ahead break repair that was burred under brown lacquer he wanted looked at as it concerned him after having the guitar a few months.
After receiving it I gave a quick look over I noticed immediately it had deficient neck angle and more bridge rotation than should have. This was puzzling as I could see the top was thicker than typical at the sound hole. loosening and tensioning the strings and you could watch the top collapse in front of the bridge as string tension came up.....
He had owned the guitar longer than his 1 week return window before he ever even sent it to me and did contact the shop who sold it but to no avail..... He decided he could not sell it as it was even if all issues were fully disclosed, he still wants a vintage BRZW guitar from this maker so decided to bite the bullet and just do it.
To address the originality thing... I make a third of my business on restoration. So when I take a broken guitar with some missing bits and bring back as close to possible to original have I saved and preserved history or created a forgery? And restoration is just that.
They are only original once. And the market does reflect that. A vintage Les Paul will loose up to half it's value when you change pickups.....
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