1959 Martin D28 Restoration

Here's a fun example of a Martin restoration I recently finished up. I use the word fun loosely here.  This is one of those projects that comes along once every three or four years to remind you that you still don't know everything, and that things can still be a huge challenge now and again!  I have done enough of these Martin rebuilds through the years that they do tend to get a little repetitive, but this one fought me.  The neck didn't want to come off, and when it did, the fingerboard was so thin and brittle, that it was literally falling apart while I was working on it.  The top was seriously collapsing and warping due to all kinds of top brace damage, and the bridge, even though lifting significantly, would just not come off!  While I was doing it, I didn't really appreciate it, but now that it's done and all good, it was actually kind of fun...kind of.  

Not only was the bridge lifting badly, but the base side X-brace was broken away causing top deformation and belly-ing.  Also, the underside of the bridge was warped from being pulled up for so long.  I thought it would come right off, but it still managed to put up a fight.

The first lateral brace under the fingerboard extension had been broken away with such force that it tore the top through from the underside.  

Here's the first lateral brace under the fingerboard extension.  It was broken through it's mass, and torn away from the top.  This made the top cave in dramatically ahead of the soundhole.  Even when glued up and fixed, there was still noticeable caving.

Time for a neck reset...a long time ago!

Beautiful straight grain Brazilian.

The typical pick guard shrinkage crack.  I've fixed hundreds of these.  I remove the guard, then steam the crack shut, glue it with flat cauls on the top and bottom, then cleat it shut to keep it stable.  Often times, they nearly disappear.  

Heating up the frets for easy removal.  This reduces the tendency for the fingerboard to chip out when pulling the frets out.  It didn't help much with this one since it was terribly dry and brittle.  

This shows the base X bar fractured and broken away.  This, and the deformed pull pattern from the lifting bridge caused most of the top deformation.

I love these old small bridge plates.  They almost always need work.  This one is in pretty good shape, but I still like to convert from slotted to solid pins on projects like this.  With the wear already there, I barely have to cut a slot for the string, and the ball end of the string ends up sitting further forward on the plate.  Got that?

You can get an idea of how thin and brittle the fingerboard was here.  

Heating the bridge for removal.  This is before Martin went to their PVC glue in the 60's, and it was still hide glue, but for some reason, nothing came apart easily.  The PVC glue almost always fights, and it's always a mess.

Heating the fingerboard extension.  It didn't seem to help much!

Bridge and fingerboard removed, and ready to address the crack between the b and e strings.  I think the guard was the only thing that came off easily.

A shot of the pick guard crack after closing it up.  Pretty good.

I tried to salvage the fingerboard to no avail.  Several things made me decide to ditch the old FB.  First, it was horribly dried out and falling apart.  Second, it was terribly over sanded, and about half as thick as it should be.  Third, being so thin, it wasn't going to allow me to clean it up, and fret it to counter the string tension (this Martin still has no ADJUSTABLE truss rod, only a steel T-bar).  With no truss rod, it's up to the fingerboard and fret tang (the part that goes into the slot) to counter the string tension.  Just not enough to work with.  

The old fingerboard removed.  Yes, it kicked and screamed the whole way.

Laying out the new FB.

Getting things trued up.

Planing the radius into the new FB.

Looking pretty smooth, and ready for slots.

Slotting the new fingerboard.

This was an unpleasant surprise...  From being so dry, the neck had shrunk and deformed around the steel T-bar rod.  So, not only were the glueing surfaces to each side of the rod not flat, but the bar protruded up and out of its intended slot by about a 64th.  So, I had to remove more neck material on either side to get it level, and mill a fine channel on the underside of the fingerboard to accommodate the rod.  

Finally, the fingerboard and neck ready to mate.  Also, note the dovetail.  You can see how off-center it is here to allow the neck to be shifted over to center since the dovetail pocket was milled off center.  Must've been a Friday.

More clamps!

Here's the new bridge next to the original.  I tried to keep the shape exact, but make the entire footprint larger by a VERY slight amount.  I wanted to reinforce the top a touch more considering it had been so terribly deformed for so long.  

Bridge glue-up.

About ready to remove the clamps here.  Pretty clean.

The bridge glued up, and the new solid ebony pins installed.  Now I'll have to cut a small channel for each string to thread through between the bridge and the solid edge of the pin, as opposed to slotting the pin itself.  The plastic pins allow the string to pull up and through, and after several years, help to cause unnecessary bridge plate damage.  A solid wood pin, combined with a properly fitted slot make for a very solid mechanical connection, and in my opinion, make for better contact, vibration transfer, and better performance all around.

Working on the neck set.  The dovetail in the body was off center by nearly an 8th of an inch, and had some ridiculous shims inside to push the neck over into the correct location.  Fitting the neck again with a new fingerboard, new bridge, and the pocket in the wrong location, made for a bit of a challenge.

The original shim with the serial number written in pencil.  I've seen this guy's handwriting more than I care to say.  Wish I could meet him!

Here you can see the original shim(s), which had to push the neck over to one side since the pocket was totally off center.  It's about 1/16" thick.  

I had to put a tapered shim under the fingerboard extension to account for the caving from the broken first lateral brace.  It made the end of the FB look a tad overly thick, but I later thinned it some during the sanding and fretting process.

The old stuff.  I always keep everything for the customer.  

Here's a shot showing just how thin the fingerboard was where it set up to the nut (at the first position).  This just left me nothing to work with.  I HATE replacing fingerboards, so you know it was a last resort.  Typically, the guitars I build are 0.25" in the middle.  Vintage Martins are always thinner than modern guitars due to having to sand the fingerboard to level it out as opposed to just adjusting the truss rod (which Martin didn't start using until the 80's...and which all other builders had been using since the 40's/50's...something I never quite understood about Martin).

New bone nut, and you can see the dramatic increase in fingerboard thickness here.  

New fingerboard looking as good as new...or old I guess.

You can see the tapered effect due to the shim under the extension here slightly.  It keeps the fingerboard and bridge relationship parallel, even with the top falling away under the end of the fingerboard extension.

Inlays exactly like the original.

The bridge with the new intonated saddle installed.  

One more shot of the back...

All done.  It's projects like this that always surprise me.  I get all worked up and worried about everything as I encounter it, but the longer I do it, the more I have to remember that it's happened before, and keep my eyes on the end result.  This came out fantastic, looks as good or better than before, and plays and sounds killer!  The customer was absolutely thrilled!