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A good friend has a sweet 1890's Washburn parlor in need of a little TLC. I'm working on upping my game with really quality vintage guitar repair/restoration and this little guitar needs the love, and offers a lower risk opportunity to practice some of the skills I've been learning.

It came to me right after suffering really low humidity, 16% for a long weekend, and after suffering assault from a falling guitar stand that cracked the soundboard at the soundhole edge. Upon looking inside, and out, we found a few other areas that need attention.

I'll first share where it's at, and then try to document the process and final work. I'll welcome any tips or opinions along the way.

Soundhole damage from a stand that fell on this sweet little guitar.

Side cracks from either or both low humidity and/or the falling stand.

Yikes. Looks like a great project.

To get a good look inside, I removed the LR Baggs mic - not a lot or room in this little parlor, and even less with a pickup installed. My friend wanted it out anyway.



With endpin jack out, I'll want to fix this oversized hole. I could just use an oversized endpin, but I would like to do a proper patch and replace with similar BRW end wedge.

And now it gets good.

Clearly more than one person has worked on this instrument before me - I could see the splicing and crack repair from the top, but images from the box tell us more:

Re-braced top - with old tape, new lattice bracing, and misc. glue remnants.

More of the bracing, and a bridge plate that has seen better days.

Here is evidence of the risks in using CA to repair side crack. It can work wonders, but it can also leak into the box leaving a unsightly glue runs.

Sometimes we must carefully undo the not-so-carefully-done work of others.

Someone had installed a very smart-looking ebony pyramid bridge - but I suspect the lack of slotting might have led to the bridge plate splitting.

Wow. The inside looks like it doubled as an ash-tray.

Bummer! I see from the label that it is probably out of warranty!

A lot of challenges there, looking forward to following along on this one.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

That's an exciting project. Keep us posted!