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Hi Guys....I love this forum, I have learned so much from the vast pool of knowledge here, Thank you all for your selfless imparting of great dollops of advice from years of collective experience. I'm very grateful to you all.

I have embarked on a restoration project of this old Gibson L6-S.

Its been hung on the wall of an Irish bar for many years and the owner has asked me to give it a going over. I'm comfortable with most of the things I need to do ( mostly from stuff I learned in here ) but one thing that is bothering me is re gluing the joints where the laminates have parted.
It looks like the wood has shrunk or dried the joints apart rather than having been broken apart with force.
I'm not sure if I should just inject some aliphatic resin in there and try to get some clamp pressure on, or hide glue, or fill it with epoxy mixed with some sanding dust when I get down to good wood again...what are your opinions?

My concern with the glue, which ever one I use, is that I wont be able to get any pressure on the joints. I read on here that hide glue is not good as a plain filler
My concern with the epoxy filling is that it will leave visible lines in the final finish (going to try to take it back to a plain blonde with visible grain)
I'd love a second or third or even fourth opinion as to why my ideas stink, and how I should maybe approach this stage of the restoration.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Looks like water damage to me. If so that would mean the wood has warped and the joints will never close back up as they are no longer straight and no amount of pressure and glue will convince them otherwise. Personally I do not think this is a good candidate for a clear finish. A burst maybe or a solid color.....

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Yea, the guitar started life in Ireland (very wet) and has been here in the Canary isles (very very dry) for the last few years, I'm thinking that drastic change in environment plus the obvious lack of care has done this, or it could have stood in water....my mind is open to a dark edged burst now...thanks for the input.

Wow! That poor old beastie has led a hard life from the looks of it. Agree with Brian on the water damage - it was wet a long time. If you want to up the difficulty rating even more, try putting the top bout back and eliminate the upper cutaway.

Anyway - remove all hardware, give it a thorough strip job and cleaning - and assess before continuing. It's a worthy project for sure, and a solid color, burst, or milky finish (ala Fender butterscotch) would be in order. Keep us in the loop, OK?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Converted to Double cutaway too?
Did it have a left hand owner at some stage?
I think I would just strip it and fill the cracks with epoxy and do a solid colour.
I had a black one many years ago, but was never that happy with the sound and feel of it.

I agree with Jeff Highland insofar as this guitar has already been SEVERELY altered by cutting in a second cutaway horn. In my view, you could do anything you want with it, but do not assume you will restore it because it has been so altered that restoration is now impossible.

...but even though it's been severely altered, you might possibly make a heck of a player out of it!

Here is an interesting little story about an AC/DC Gibson L-6S double cut.
http://www.australianmusician.com.au/acdcs-lost-rare-gibson-l-6s-found/

Bob

That was very informative....this is turning out to be quite a nice job, I'm gonna enjoy doing this.

I was tasked with getting it to be a nice playable guitar so that's what I'm gonna do, I'm not looking to rebuild the cut away, though if I thought I could match the wood I might have considered it, but no....not this time. You may be happy to know the owner has a number of old but battered gems on the wall of his bar and I think I'm in for a decent few restoration jobs. I got this restore gig after sticking some pickups in a couple of his old ovations and built him a classical bridge from scratch on an old nylon string he had, when I took those back he revealed his collection and I was quite gobsmacked, there's loads of old stuff up there, it's like finding a barn full of cars.....they're all in shocking condition, but he's fly enough to know what he has. As a bass player I'm coveting an old thin höfner he has, absolutely battered but all the hardware is on it, including pearl (style?) tuners. I'm hoping to trade the work I do on this for it.

I also think I'm going to fill with epoxy and wood dust and see if I can get a dark edge burst out of it, if not, I'll just keep going with the dark and be done....had the electronics out today...they need replacing completely ( any favourite places I should be looking for the rotary switch? ) time is no object with this I'm very fortunate on that score. Pick ups, one original one a replacement. I also have found serial number on back of headstock is readable so I will let you know what I find out about that.

Thanks again all for your thoughts.

You might consider, Devcon or Marine Tex two part epoxy great filler and will level out nicely. Devcon is a dark grey, Marine Tex is dark grey or white.

Great story - never heard that one before.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

First off, I think it looks Guinness soaked, not water soaked!

I wonder if by using a little force with a chisel you could get it to crack all the way through, or just saw along the glue joints. Then you will have a clean slate to start with. Plane the sides and center blocks to fit again, add some sized veneers between them to get the thickness back right, and glue it all back together. That wood looks badly stained and who knows what all is living in the cracks, so filling may not suffice, and can't look all that good anyhow. Top and back it with sexy veneers (one piece or book matched), and go for the translucent finish. Who knows, you might just be one step closer to the Höfner, or all the way there.

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If what you see is what you get, then Stevie Wonder ain't got nothin'!

I think it looks cool as it is. Why destroy all that history?


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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com