Back From the Dead

By Jon Chappell, Pete Prown and Lisa Sharken
Guitar Shop Magazine

There it sits in the corner—your once beloved guitar, now a beaten-up hunk of wood. You'd like it to look as pristine as the day you bought it, but unfortunately, there isn't a fairy godmother for guitarists. Or is there? Guitar Shop rounded up three total guitar disasters—including one car-crash victim—and sent them to top craftsmen to be restored. The results were stunning. Instead of mere patch-up jobs, the guitars were as good as new—even better than new. Too good to be true? Listen to these stories to see how guitar miracles really can happen.

VICTIM #3:
Martin J40-M

THE CRIME:
Being in the trunk of a Chevy that was creamed by a semi.

TO THE RESCUE:
Elderly Instruments, Lansing, MI

When the owner pulled the gig bag from the twisted wreck that used to resemble an automobile, his heart sank. Before he even unzipped the canvas bag he could hear the sound of wood rattling inside. His worst fears were realized when he extricated the limp and lifeless guitar: just about every inch of this fine Martin had sustained damage. The top was completely caved in. The back and sides had long, longitudinal cracks, the fingerboard was chipped, and, what was to be the worst injury, the neck block had punched through the back of the guitar. Was the guitar as totaled as the Chevy from whence it came?

Everyone said yes, write it off. Everyone except Elderly Instruments of Lansing, Michigan, that is. Unlike some stores that see repair as a mere service or adjunct to their retail operation, Elderly has maintained a fully staffed, professional repair facility for over 22 years. The repair shop at Elderly employs seven full-time repair people. Like seasoned emergency-room doctors, they were not horrified by the carnage that lay before them, but calmly and clinically proceeded to diagnose the problems and the cost to repair them.

This first step in a repair—the diagnosis—is a critical process. In any repair job the repair people must be able to accurately assess three things: 1) whether the guitar is worth fixing 2) if so, what are the owner's options, and 3) how much it will cost. The badly damaged Martin proved to be a good test because so many things needed repair, and some repairs could only proceed after others were completed and had proved viable.

The folks at Elderly want to stress to prospective customers how important this step is. They can tell you in sobering detail what's involved on their end and whether the instrument is inherently worth the repair. They will also consider your needs and wishes when devising a repair strategy. This detailed, team diagnosis—decades of collective expertise—cost the customer nothing. The Martin in question, though, had bigger problems than mere cosmetic damage.

An acoustic guitar's entire construction is a delicate balance. The decision was made by head repairman Joe Konkoly to replace the top, not repair it. The top wood was too badly damaged for patching and could never be restored to its original strength.

Surprisingly, the basic materials for a high-quality acoustic guitar top are not expensive. Most of the cost is the labor to properly work and shape the wood. The owner was given a choice of tops: a Sitka spruce top, which was the one closest to the original, German Engelmann, or Adirondack spruce. To restore the guitar to its original spec's would have required the Sitka, but this owner, after discussing his playing style with Elderly, went with the Adirondack variety.

The old top was removed and the back and sides were repaired. The body was then fit into a mold made by repairman Paul Schotzko. The new top was sanded to thickness and the rosette was installed. The braces were glued to the top and carved to size. The top was glued on before the binding and purfling (strips of black and white plastic that line the top's edges) were installed. The neck had been removed and repaired separately from the body repair. These two, independently repaired elements would combine later during the reassembly.

The biggest head-scratcher was how to treat the fact that the neck block had punched through the back, compromising the guitar's structural integrity. Could the guitar be restored to its former strength? Could the neck block ever again support the high tension of the six strings pulling on the neck and its block? This issue is what scared most repair shops off, but Elderly was up to the challenge. First, the neck block was removed. Then after seeping glue into the mottled back, they applied a rosewood veneer reinforcement on the inside back of the guitar. There is a slight height difference between the patched region and the rest of the back, but it's not obvious when looking through the soundhole because the repair people took care to match the grain patterns between the patch and original back, and because a back brace separates the two regions. Ingenious.

Many of the repairs performed by the Elderly folks on this Martin are typical of repairs performed on less-damaged instruments. For example: touching up the finish on the back and sides, re-setting the neck, re-gluing the bridge, leveling and dressing the frets, compensating the saddle and adjusting the action.

The most impressive aspect of the repair by Joe Konkoly, foreman Steve Olson (who did the lacquering), John Jozwiak (who handled the neck block/back repair), David Kornblum (who performed the structural repairs on the back and sides), and the others is that no part of the job was beyond their talents. They encountered problems along the way, and often consulted the owner regarding possible solutions. They were sensitive to the financial side of such an extensive repair, and were detailed in their description of each option. If cost is a concern, consider telling those involved that structural integrity is the most important aspect of the repair. Usually the aesthetically pleasing final details are the most costly because they're so labor intensive.

Elderly Instruments repairs acoustic, electric, new and vintage instruments. There is nothing they haven't seen as far as horror stories go, and the worst you could be out is the cost of shipping (it costs about $15 to send a dreadnought acoustic in a hardshell case from New York to Michigan). So if you've got an axe that's sidelined because of an injury, don't put off a trip to the doctor because you're afraid of the results. The diagnosis will often relieve your fears and make you realize that with some qualified repair steps your beloved axe will be up and running, good as new, in no time.

Published 02-1996