Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all. I'm looking for a little input before I jump into this repair. I've got a mid-60's J-45 on the bench that came in for repair of a couple of top cracks. Looking it over, there is a definite dive in front of the bridge and hump behind it. And the area around pickguard also shows some collapse. Internally, the bracing looks solid with no loose braces. But once I got the mirror and light inside I saw something I've never seen before. The linings on the treble side are almost all set about 1/8" from the top AND the back! So there is zero contact between the top and back and the linings. So that could account for some of the collapse around the pick guard and the side. It almost looks like they were epoxied back in place using a thickened dark epoxy. The linings look original, but there's no notch or gap around the bracing. On the bass side, all the linings look spot on. The photo below shows the upper lining at the bottom of the photo as reflected in the inspection mirror. and the lower lining at the top of the photo. So the question is, do we just leave it as is and wait for some larger problem to show up? It's a nice sounding instrument. Extremely light for a J-45. It's had a neck reset. Taking the back off is an option, but the finish all looks good and at this time I feel it may have more impact than just leaving it as is.

Any thoughts?

Cheers! Tony

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Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

When I was a kid I liked the TV show Get Smart... Max, the protagonist was fond of saying "missed it by that much....." Gibson could learn from Max.

Undoing poor prior work even if it's original factory work is often a much harder slog, sucks more time than typical crack repairs. We often will decline of jobs that have poor prior work (especially if mysterious glue or Gorilla glue is in the picture...) because what it would take to make it right would be as difficult or more so than building a new box for the thing from scratch.

Not sure which came first here factory work that sucked if that was the case or prior repair work that left it in this state. In either event there is major scope creep here and unless the steward is willing to pay perhaps much more for you do be fair to yourself Tony I would avoid any repairs that do not have a defined beginning, ending and definition of success with the client.

The example we use in these cases is when we take our car in for a tune-up and they notice that the transmission is failing and it needs new tires does the shop expand the scope of the work they do because the thing needs it or do they stick to what they agreed to do with the customer. Of course you can call for prior authorization but on this one I would be hesitant to quote any exact number and instead seek agreement on a range of pricing and a time and materials effort. You cannot be sure on this one as you peel back the onion what's rotten on other levels.

Thanks, Hesh. Yeah, hard to tell if this is original or some sort of botched repair. I always let the owner know when I run into these issues. We'll probably address the top crack issue and leave everything else for a later time if it continues to degrade.

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Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

The glue squeeze out in the bottom image looks like urea formaldehyde glue. I've seen it colored Red and Yellowish, may have bubbles in it. It's not a reversible glue with water or heat, but is usually brittle.