Official Luthiers Forum!

I"m not new to guitar repair and restoration but I'm new to this forum. I'd like to share a project I'm doing. Perhaps this will have some entertainment value or stimulate constructive feedback.

Welcome to the forum! What's your name, where ya' from, and what's this little beauty in for?

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I bought this guitar for very little money knowing it needed extensive repairs.
The front has a crack from top to bottom that breaks the front binding. The back has an old crack repaired with epoxy and a fresh crack that runs the whole length. The ladder braces on the back have been repaired with Elmers.

The binding came off with no new breaks. The is one break at the waist that was already there.

The braces were repaired through the f-hole. Yikes!
The fresh split is in good condition for a straight forward repair. No missing wood and perfect fit.

The epoxy repair is for a partial split that ends at the center strip. This is how it looked after I cleaned as much epoxy off as possible. There is a loss of wood here with a gap that will need to be filled with some thin shavings.

Back came off at the expense of the kerfing
Shown are the cracks on the front from the inside.

This guitar is constructed with a carved solid top and a bent solid back. I have not figured out the radius of the back yet.
In the Later 40s Gibson changed the construction of the L50 to a carved front and back.

Kerfing is 1/2" by 3/8" and I'm still looking for a source. I don't have the correct tools to make a good one.

This is very interesting. When I took the back off I saw there was a brace missing. No way it came out through the f-holes unless it was chopped into pieces. On closer inspection you can see remnants of the kerfing directly touching the top in the area where the end of the brace should have been. The other 3 brace ends were between the top and the kerfing. This indicates the guitar was constructed without the brace at the waist. I'm not sure why but it must have been on purpose; how could some one miss that. I found one picture on the internet of another L50 innards but it did not show the back bracing, it only showed the front.

The main break on the back came together nicely. I wanted to get that together before I worked on the botched partial split. I'm going to reinforce the crack. I'm making this guitar to play. Even though it is an old Gibson, it is not a valuable collector's item.

Fixing the cracks on the front was the easiest part.

From the midwest. I started building with an Eddie Van Halen conversion of a Kay solid body in 1979 when EVH was on the cover of Guitar Player. I wish I had pictures of that guitar. I even made the pickguiard out of the clear plastic top of an old turntable cover.
About ten years ago I finished this Les Paul body I found (no hardware). I won't take credit for the new frets with nibs, I had a pro do that, but he showed me how, so I could probably do it myself next time.

Very cool. Keep us in the loop!

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

What he said!

Also, that LP is beautiful.

I found some appropriate sized kerfed lining available from Allied Lutherie. It is round but that is better than nothing.
I don't have a sanding dish but my plan is to sand the kerfed lining to correct angle with a sanding block consisting of a 2x4 propped up on one end one inch. Using the end-block and exising kerfing as a guide, it looks like that configuration will allow me to sand the kerfing to an acceptable angle to accept the curved back.

Reinforcing the repair on the back. Makeshift go-board.

This is the back of the guitar as I got it. I don't know what the black stuff is. I thought it might be dirty but it is under some coats of clear something. It certainly is not stain. Don't know what is on top of it, Poly or more nitro, don't know...

I cleaned the back with lacquer thinner and got all that black stuff off. I think it might have been enamel paint. It did not dissolve easily with lacquer thinner. In fact, the lacquer was slow to come off. Have to go back tomorrow and clean the rest of the old lacquer off.

Even though it looks bad here, the wood is in very good condition. All the scratches on the guitar were in the finish, no scratches came through to the wood.This will look good once I touch up the stain and re-lacquer it.

I'm a guitar player, not a guitar builder. I don't have any fancy equipment. After some research on similar guitars it seems there is supposed to be a 4th ladder brace on the back. I had to use hand tools to make this. Came out pretty good. I'll do the final sand of the curve once the other braces are in place; I'll sand the new brace against the curved back.

They are not glued on yet, just have them sitting on there to get a feel for how I'm going to clamp them in place. Ideally I'd have an appropriately curved dish.
The back got a little dirty when I was stripping the other side but that will clean up with more lacquer thinner.

This is the picture I found on the internet. I believe it is the same style of guitar on which I am working. You can see it has all 4 braces.

The back is in pretty good shape under the old finish.

Back braces getting clamped.

This project has been on hold waiting for the kerfed lining. This came in the mail today, so back to work on the guitar.

New large size lining getting installed. Again thanks to Allied Lutherie.