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This guitar has had the neck reset, crack repair, and refinished by another person with luthier knowledge. The owner it would like the action a little lower. I noticed that the X brace on the bass side has a one inch separation from the top. The top behind the bridge is bellied. I don't want to deal with the action until I know that everything is where it should be and solid. My  questions is: Should I be considering trying to flatten the top to glue the brace?

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 Lee, please don't be discouraged by the lack of response. It's slow on a lot of weekends here.  

 It's an amazing guitar too!

Hi Lee.

Is that an original form the 30's/40's or a recent reissue?  Either way, it's a very nice looking instrument :) I love the concept behind the strap attachment hardware.  I'd forgotten about those.

Other folks will give you the expert advice you need. Your situation concerns solutions where I have very little practical experience.

Best of luck with it. NICE guitar!!!  :)

A leather or cork covered piece of wood long enough to span an inch or so either side of the loose brace, placed on the top will suffuce as a clamping caul. Use a cam clamp or deep throat C clamp in the soundhole to clamp the top down to the brace. Then see how much bow there is.

I'd add making two nicely fit leather lined cauls for the brace side, and proceed slowly. There's obviously some built up pressure in the top that you will have to compress and this will transfer to the side/top connection. I'd clamp over some time and listen for cracking. You might even consider breaking the glue bond on the brace the rest of the way to the side to allow more space for compression. Looks like a reissue to me, still a nice guitar.

Just reread and it's a refin, that's why it looks reissue. Duh..................

Scroll down this page http://harmony.demont.net/kamikazie.php?page=019 to see a rather neato internal cam clamp. You can put this clamp inside, apply pressure outside on BOTH sides of the guitar to keep it from popping apart, and glue your brace in place.

Hello everyone, thanks for the help and happy Independence Day! Since I and the guitar reside in Arizona and I know that it has not been properly hydrated and I'm pretty sure it won't be properly hydrated after I get done with it, should I use a damp rag in a plastic bag inside the box to get things to move? Once I've done the repairs, I'm pretty sure the owner may not keep it properly hydrated. So I'm concerned about doing a good drepair. BTW, this is from 30's and there are other issues I'd like help with but I want to concentrate on the bellying and action for now. I'll post a pic of the inside in a little while.

I am less enamored of "rag in a bag" than I used to be. Unless you are planning on keeping the guitar in that bag forever, as a kind of case, you will have to take it out sometime, and it will dry up again. Thing is, when I've done this, things have dried up and shrunk even more than they did the first time.

I would rather try to clamp it with a little moisture and heat to try to flatten that belly, but first see what a good glue job on the braces does. I recently flattened the very curled back of an old Favilla baritone uke by clamping it to a granite plate that I had carefully heated up on a barbecue. It worked quite well, it stayed flat, althought the shrinkage was still there.

(NOTE - THE NEXT SENTENCE IS ME TALKING OUT MY BUTT) You might even pop the braces off and reglue them, along with the bridge plate, all of which would destress the top and get it back to the way it was.

Okay, that's my 2 cents, I think someone around here can probably come up with a dime better than that!

Lee click on    view all   and go to previous post's on page 14 you will find a post that you should look at Repairs to a 59 Gibson CW IT covers what you are looking for. Good luck Bill.............

I like the idea of heat and moisture, targeted just a tad more. Moist face cloth heated in the microwave to  steamy hot, laid on the inside and repeated several times, then clamp with heated cauls. Just pay attention to the existing built up stress. Most frustrating to me is when I'm fixing over here and something snaps over there.

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