Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello,
One of my customers brought over a Taylor 514CE with a Broken top. (someone stepped on it) It is a cedar top with rosewood binding, anyway, I have really not done this type of repair. I have replaced a back board on a Fender acoustic with plastic binding. This one seems a little trickier. My question is: what would be the best way to remove the top without damaging the binding-or- the lacquer on the side? I have ideas, but just thought I would check with the group here and see if anyone has a different approach. the top is NOT reapairable and there is a hole the size of a foot!!


Also, best place to purchase a western red cedar top?

Sorry, 1 more thing: I have heard the Taylor necks are bolted as well as glued?

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!

I will post progress pics if interested.

-Rick

RJ, As for the bolted neck, Taylor now uses a complete bolt on, I believe they started phasing the NT neck in around 1999. There is no glue, complete bolt on. There are also shims under the fret board and behind the heel block that enables you to change the neck geometry, easy neck re-sets!

Make sure this one does not have the ES system. This will require you to also remove two body sensors from the broken top and re-attatch them to the replacement top. Placement is critical.

Pat Diburro is an authorized Taylor repair luthier and he has developed a way to remove tops while leaving the binding intact and unharmed. You might want to drop an e-mail to him and also check out his web site. He always has pictures of damaged Taylors and others that are under repair.

http://www.diburro.com/

Hi Rick,

This is not difficult, but requires careful use of a lam trimmer. John Greven has a nice tutorial slide show on his site. You can see it here: http://www.grevenguitars.com/GrevenGuitars.html

I can send you pics of a recent re-top I did on a Fletcher classical, if you think that would be helpful.

You might consider sending it to Taylor, or over to Pat DiBurro in New Hampshire. He's got the Taylor router jigs required for seamless removal of Taylor tops, and can probably get a genuine Taylor top, braced and ready-to-go. It's not inexpensive, however. You can contact Pat through his website: http://www.diburro.com/ Tell him I referred you ... Pat's one of the unsung gems in this biz ...

Taylor necks before 2001 were bolted on at the heel, but the fingerboard extension was glued down. In 2001, Taylor converted to the "NT" neck system, which has 3 bolts, two in the heel, and one holding the FB extension down. (A few year 2000 guitars guitars had the NT necks).

Feel free to contact me if you'd like additional info, or tips on how to replace tops.

Best of luck

Jim
(9 years as an authorized Taylor repairman)

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James Warwick
J. Warwick Guitars, LLC
http://www.jwarwickguitars.com

I try my best to be polite and diplomatic, but I'll cut to the chase on this one.

All the questions you've posed really wave red flags that you're in over your head on this one. If you're doing this as a learning project on your own instrument or for a friend who understands that it's a learning project, that's one thing. Before taking this on as a professional repair job for a customer though, you should make sure you're prepared to do it right. The optimist that I am, I'd say this repair is repair is likely to prove difficult and with questionable end results unless you have a bit of experience.

Again, not trying to assume what anyone does or does not know or offend anyone. The questions just sounded a bit concerning if you're taking this on as a customer repair. I'll try to come back later with some more useful and less offending advise later. Dinner's burnin'..

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I am not offended! I am confident and have done these before (before i joined this board) I just thought I would see if any of you had any different techniques I could try. There always seems to be someone that knows a trick or 2. I do this as a full time profession and there really isn't a job that I have been not comfortable doing ( so far!) this is just my first "Taylor" and I have heard they do things a little different than most. I understand your concern.

Joe White: Thanks for the info and the "heads up"on the ES system, I will look at it and see if it has it.

Thanks Jim!

That is exactly what I was looking for! I'll be starting the work as soon as I get a Cedar top!

Appriciate the advice!

-Rick

Thanks for understanding and not taking offense. I'm just so used to amateurs with little experience asking for advice on forums that when I hear of an ambitious project being taken on by a name I don't recognize I try to advise caution. Sounds like you know how to handle this, and the Greven article is a good reference for fitting a top within the binding.

Good luck with it, and it would be interesting to see progress pics when you get in to it.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

BTW, there is NO lacquer involved. UV set resin finish (read: fiberglass).

This makes the whole process difficult. Of course, I prefer the lacquer finish. Might make it sound better!

Mike

I use the Greven method especially when doing vintage repairs. It works well as long as you think through the steps before making the cuts. Sounds like you have it under control though.

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Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com