MIMF

I recently, well about 11 months ago inherited my brothers 1965 Yamaha 12 string. The sound is unbelievable. It appears to be a copy of a Martin. Unfortunately the action is very high. At closer inspection with a mirror and flashlight, the bracing looks like tooth picks. I've never seen a guitar with that light of bracing. Should I grow some nerve and do something in depth, or take down the bridge height to get the action better. The guitar is all solid wood, mahogany back and sides, and some kind of spruce top with ageing toners. By the way, it's also in very good cosmetic shape. OH, forgot, the top is bellied and the bridge is puling up in the back. But bridge work would be an easy fix. Puzzled.


Mark

The old Yamaha guitars are great, the ones with a red Nippon Gakki label. The top is probably laminated, but it is very hard to tell because back then they made the whole lamination out of spruce, so the center layer is not darker colored and is very hard to see.
I would not put any more bracing in there. they do indeed have small bracing! but you'll probably need a new bridge plate. So remove it, and the bridge, and put in a new plate which will flatten the top and reglue the bridge. At this point you probably will need a neck reset as well, have you checked the neck angle? These usually need one. I really like these guitars and they are worth the work.

Mark is right, first get the body in good shape and then measure the neck angle. This is not inexpensive work, but the results should justify the cost if done properly.

Hello Mark, The bridge plate is small and thin. So I will try replacing it. It's amazing how thin they made the laminates, I would have thought it was solid. And you were correct about the neck angle, it's off. So a neck reset is inline. I've done a lot of repair work in the last few years, but never a neck reset. I'll read up and do it. This is a great sounding guitar. And because it belonged to my older brother it means a lot to me. You should have heard him play and sing.

Thanks for info.
Mark F.

Mark, you were also correct about the label, it's a red Nippon Gakki.

It's a good guitar! You'll find a lot of info about neck resets here in the Library Archive, and you can certainly ask any questions that you need to ask here before you jump in. These guitars have neck joints just like the Martins, and they come off fairly easily if you do it right.

" . . if you do it right". Laminated guitars can de-laminate if the steam stays on it too long. Juat sayin'

Separate the fingerboard from the top first.

I'm not t totally a novice. I've done a bunch of other work on guitars. Including my own, after Reading Teeters book on repair and maintenance The Acoustic guitar. The book was very helpful , and because I am a tool maker by trade I made some of his fixtures. I've also read William Compianos book Guitarmaking. Between that and what goes on here @ mimforum I've definitely gained some skills.I did say I was Leary on doing this work. Not because of lack of skills, I get sad thinking I Have to work on it, seeing was my brothers baby. We Lost my brother @ 67 from complications of being diabetic from the age of 14, he was a great influence on my love of guitars, and playing. But it does need to be done.So as soon as I've finished cleaning my shop and finish two other projects, I'll jump into it.

Mark, it sounds a bit like it needs a reset and unfortunately, old Yamies can be hard to get apart. They either used glues that don't separated easily with steam or the joints are very tight - either way if you scan the literature you will see that some people think they are easy, others do not. A reset will also let you compensate for the belly

I tried to reset my 1969 red label FG-150 and ended up doing the sawn neck bolted conversion. Here is a thread from another forum about this topic

http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.y ... ica?page=1

Also, I would recommend not shaving the bridge - if you do a reset later you will just have to replace it and they are a bit odd shaped - you will have to make your own. Certainly if you need to reglue the bridge it would be a good time to replace the plate but I'd hesitate to do anything else with the bracing (except down tune when you get it back together).

They can be great guitars and have a bit of a cult following, but they also can be problematic. I did own an FG-230 but because of similar issues to yours, sold it and bought a D12-28 (and built a few more).