Restoration of a 1931 Martin 00-17

[Barry Daniels]

Good question, Bob. Actually you need to drill a hole bigger than 1/8" or your heatstick will get stuck. Heat and glue will turn it into a permanent attachment. I've got a 0.145" extra long bit that works well. So yes, that creates a hole so large that it will definitely show up on either side of the fret, once it replaced. What I have done so far is to make small, round inlays of matching wood and plug the hole. Then I cut through the inlay to reestablish the fret slot. It will show but won't be noticeable.

My technique for making the round inlays is to cut a small square piece of matching wood from 1/4" stock and glue that to the end of a short length of wood dowel. Then take that over to the disk sander and spin it around while cutting a tapered plug. Cut the inlay off the end of the dowel and glue it in.

[Bob Gramann]

9/64” is .140”, a #27 bit is .144”. Do you think 9/64” allows enough room to get the rod out, or should I get the #27 bit for 4 more thousandths (I have a short one, but I’d need to get a longer one). Thank you for the description of the hole fill. I may try turning a little ebony dowel out of some fingerboard scrap for the plugs. And now, back to the restoration?

[Barry Daniels]

Bob, I was going off of memory which is getting to be a bit sketchy. The bit is .140" and it is 6" long. It is loose enough but the rod still gets stuck sometimes due to the melting glue. I pull the rod out during usage and wipe off the goo. Also, I use an eyedropper to squirt a few drops of water into the hole a few times during the process to aid removal. This slight amount of moisture is insufficient to create steam damage to adjacent finishes.

Your ebony dowel should work and it will fit tighter if you make a slight taper.

Restoration to get back on track tomorrow.

[Bob Gramann]

Thank you. I will consider 9/64” close enough. I love it when someone solves a problem before I get there.

[Barry Daniels]

Glad to help, Bob.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Here I am as Barry's muse - playing air-guitar, because i can't play a real one.

[Chuck Tweedy]

By the way, I never really looked closely at the heat-stick things, and I assumed they were heat pipes.
But I doubt that they are available as small as 1/8" - actually i think they are.
If you are not familiar with this technology it is amazing. Far, FAR, better heat conduction that just a copper wire.
Do a quick image google search and you will see them in use as heat-sinks for CPU's and other applications.

[Barry Daniels]

Those are cool, Chuck. The solid copper rods actually work pretty well though. I believe the limiting factor in using solid copper rods is not the thermal conductivity of the copper though, more likely the thermal conductivity of the wood in the dovetail joint. The heat pipes may overheat the area they are in direct contact with, because the wood might not be able to adsorb the heat and transfer it to other parts of the joint. But I am just guessing here as heat conductivity is not my nerd area. Mine was hydraulic conductivity which is totally different.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Because the copper rod is encased in wood (an insulator) it likely forces the entire rod to quickly come to the same temperature. plus, Proof's-in-the-puddin', right, and its working for you so ... it works.
Your practice of dripping water into the hole seems like a key feature to speeding up the process. Steam is both a good heat transfer media, and it's required by protein glues to "get loose".

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

Whenever Barry starts a project like this, I move to the back of the room and stand slack jawed.

That being said, the question of the sides reminded me of an article in GAL journal (#97, p. 48) where damaged sides are lined with veneer. This might allow you to keep the original sides even with replacing previous bad repairs.

I eagerly await the next step in the restoration.

[Barry Daniels]

You are too kind, Joshua,

I have considered lining the sides and this would go a long way in strengthening these very thin and fragile mahogany ribs. However, it would not do much for the visual impact of all of the damage, which is actually my largest concern. Once I get the top off and inspect the interior, I will be deciding the fate of the sides.

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

This is becoming an interesting and evolving study in philosophy. It might have been simpler if your customer had bought a box of parts labelled "Martin 00-17, maybe". At the extreme, which seems to be approaching rapidly, you and your customer will end up with an excellent guitar built on an old Martin back and an old Martin neck whose only relation is a common birthplace.

If your customer is willing to foot the bill, he ends up with a very cool guitar and a story to go with it. I think Barry ends up with the better part of the transaction, not because he gets paid but because he gets to coordinate and execute some real challenging work.

Jon Lundberg had 8 Stella 12 strings built (http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Museum/ ... clone.html) because he had 4 tailpieces. Jurassic park comes to mind. I think Barry's project is in a similar vein.

In my mind's eye, at the end of the day (I'm bound and determined to stop using cliches) I see an excellent little guitar, in a good case (unless the "original" case is serviceable) with Waverly machines. In the case is complete documentation of the project. In the guitar is a label from Barry.

[Barry Daniels]

We do not have the original case but we do have the original tuning machines that are in working order. I see this restoration as a sort of tribute guitar with a few original parts. I am going to try to make it look very original, if you squint your eyes. I always place a repairman's label near the sound hole that you can read with a mirror (printed in reverse text). Regarding renumeration, I don't really charge a lot because I am retired and get a lot of reward by bringing basket cases back from the grave.

[Barry Daniels]

Taking off the top. This one will not be saved so it is done expeditiously.

[Barry Daniels]

On the inside of the top is a note that it is made from a salvaged piano soundboard. There are five non-book matched pieces of spruce making up the top and the braces are stack laminated. The work isn't bad for the age of the repair (1976) but it is a bit too heavily braced.

[Barry Daniels]

The rims are really in bad shape. Two full length spilts were previously repaired but are partially opened. Also, check out the large side repair near the headblock. I don't know what kind of wood that is. I do believe the sides are not worth saving.

The strange wood was also used to fill in the outside edge of the lower bout on the back. Will have to replace that with genuine mahogany. The two repaired cracks in the back appear to be in sound condition.

[Brian Evans]

Spray gun and dark sunburst fixes all... I was taken aback to see the sunburst sprayed right over the pick-guard. That seems just kind of rude.

[Barry Daniels]

Yep, the sunburst appears to be mainly for covering up the repairs using mis-matched wood.

[Barry Daniels]

I feel the need to be less critical of the repair work previously done on this guitar. I have to think back to 1976 when this Martin was repaired the first time, which, by the way, is when I built my first guitar. There were only a couple of places in the country to buy guitar wood and one obscure book on the subject. So this gentleman rebuilt the guitar with his available resources, a 75 year old piano soundboard. He did a good job with what he had. I hope that 50 years from now when someone rebuilds one of my guitars they don't cast too many stones my way.

[Bryan Bear]

That’s a good point!