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Some of you may have seen this old guitar on my "Identify this old guitar" thread. we're still not sure what it is just yet but anyway I thought I would start another thread to address the damage that needs repaired. I acquired this guitar to strip, pore fill, burst and clear in order to gain skill and practice with my chosen materials. The thing is, this ol' girl played pretty well before I stripped it and it is quite unique so I would like to restore it. The worst part of the guitar in the back where it has come loose from the lower bout of the guitar. Evidently, it was used as a bucket at one time

Based on the photos below, would you attempt to re-attatch the top to the sides and lining or make a new back and braces in maple to match the sides? If you choose repair, what adhesive would you choose? There are also two back braces that need to be re- attatched.

From the looks of it, I'd just finish removing the back carefully, reglue the braces, clean up the rims for a fresh surface to glue to and reglue it.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

HHG, or fish glue. 

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Build log

What Joshua said.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

If I remove the back completely, should I make a mold to put the guitar in during this process? Also, should I use heat to soften and reperate the back from the sides and lining and how do I accomplish the heat? An iron?

Joe, you can use an iron over a wet paper towel and kind of "steam" it off. Usually though I just heat and a seam separation knife.

I probably won't go to the trouble of making a mold.After all this time it should hold its shape fine. Just be very careful when regluing to do an accurate job.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

I would just pop it loose along the lower bout, perhaps just past the widest
part. Then reglue the braces and back. Often times you will have to
manipulate the humidity and moisture content of the wood to get the back
to line up properly with the sides. Even then, it will often require a little
flexing of the sides when gluing up.

Removing the entire back can be quite a handful and raise a number of other
issues unless you are ready to make a mold. I may make an exception and
remove the entire back if it seems that the neck angle needs to be changed
as well. Still, when gluing a back on to a guitar with an existing neck, there
is a good deal of geometry that needs to be kept in mind. Simply glueing it
up and hoping for the best won't work. As you flex the sides to match the
back all sorts of things shift, especially the neck angle in multiple axis.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I would consider making a one time mold of corrugated cardboard ,several layers , up to about 3/4 inch thick. My limited experience leads me to believe that there will be some spring to the sides when the back is removed and that if you don't contain them by means of a mold, it'll be hard to get a good fit when you're ready to re-glue the back.

Generally with vintage restoration it's best to stick with original parts if possible. That's the museum ethic.   Ditto with using hot hide glue as that would be original...and it's very good stuff once you learn to use it. This is an oddball guitar, so I think your dark burst idea is fine. Just make it look Gibsonian... I bet this will turn out to be a cool guitar.

Hmmm, you could also do the stenciled "Gibson" logo on it for fun. The original stencils...or maybe they were silk screened...were on the funky side.   

Thanks for the encouragement and help everyone!I'm one step ahead of you Rick, I searched all over the net last night and found a couple of 35' L-30's for sale with nice detailed photos of the peghead including the screened logo and printed them out. They came off almost to correct scale. I will cut a stencil out of tape on the peghead after I "black it out". I did this years ago on one of those les paul kits. My friend wanted a gold top so I did the finish including metallic gold gibson script on top. Hey, it wouldn't and shouldn't fool a true enthusiast but it wasn't built for that. It looked great from stage and the last time I saw it it looked even more realistic with all the battle wounds all over it. This guitar will be a cool one to keep with my collection. Playing it will be a blast and it will look great hanging next to my Dad's 60's Gibson B-25. Should I do the older burst that almost shadows the whole top or just darken the edge?