ADVISE PLEASE!

[leparker]

A friend found his father's Gibson acoustic in the attic and would like me to somewhat restore it. It has been subjected to lots of temperature changes. I am posting photo of the guitar. This guitar is probably 50 years old, it's not a high dollar one, I don't think. Being somewhat of a novice this will give lots of experience in repairs and restoring.

As you can see from the photos the top is in terrible shape. The bridge was broken, the other piece was lost. The bridge plate is chewed up much worse than my photo show. All of the back braces are loose and one fell out when I touched it. Other than the bridge plate the top braces seem to be in good shape.

I plan to do the following unless led differently:
- A good cleaning and further checking
- New bridge
- New bridge plate
- Reglue back braces
- Refret
- Refinish

Would you handle differently? What would you do? I appreciate your help.

[mike carne]

The LGO was a beginner's Gibson,not sought after-ebay is awash with them! I would definately re-finish the top-I once saw the Epiphone version which I think someone had polihed the matt finish and it looked great!
If your looking for experience I'd agree that you should take the back off and check everything.
Good luck,
Mike.

[Ned Knepp]

Hi Mike,
I'm not disagreeing with you about refinishing the top and I wouldn't say that LG series, as a whole, are collector guitars but I'm a bit concerned that your use of the term "awash" might lead someone to think they are almost worthless. A lot of these are pretty nice guitars. There are a lot of LG series Gibson's around but even in this condition on Ebay this one could pull more than a lot of the modern "starter" guitars.

For myself, since I don't do this for a living, I would be tempted to see if I could melt part of this finish back together before I stripped it all off. I think it would be interesting to see how well it would work. It might not look as good as new but stripping it will devalue the instrument too . I could always go ahead and strip it if it didn't work out.

Ned

[leparker]

Hey Mike and Ned,

I do plan to try melting the finish before stripping, etc. This is going to be fun, challenging project.

Larry

[Tim Mace]

very nice 2 piece bridge!

[Bruce Herrmann]

Larry, this sounds to me like a project we'd all like to follow, why don't you photograph everything you can, even
though you might be starting late, and post what you've done so we can follow your progress. You know how much we like photos around here, some who have never tackled a project like this could learn a lot, and many of us who have would learn something as well. Just a thought. Good luck with it, sounds like you've gotten some very good advice.
Best
Bruce

[leparker]

Hey Bruce,

I am photographing everything. This will be good to show potential customers for the future as well as what I'm learning and what I will learn in the future. I have the bottom removed and plan to remove the neck. Not sure about the top, it seems to be in good shape as far as glue but am continuing to check when I'm working with it.

The great thing about this is my friend is no hurry, told me to take a year if I wanted to, but I don't want to take that long. I am learning a lot and Frank's Frets.com has been more help than I could ever say.'

Thanks for your comments!

Larry

[leparker]

Hey Tim,

Tell me a little more about this, can you buy replacements?

Thanks,

Larry

[Bob Gaddis]

I just "restored" one like this for one of my son's Marine buddies. It had been shipped around the country and stored in damp & heat and was in a chipboard case with no neck support. result was alligatored finish, broken headstock and loose braces, cracks in the back, broken bridge. I didn't reconsolidate the finish. but i repaired/refinished the headstock, replaced the tuners with correct-type, replaced the bridge and bridgeplate(MIA), new pins. If it was a more desirable guitar, I would have fixed the finish or oversprayed it. I charged only $75 because he was an active-duty Marine, so I covered only material costs. If the guitar hadn't been his mother's from her college days, I would have told him to hang it on the wall.

[Larry Parker]

Bob,

What kind of bridge did you replace with?

I'm just charging for parts also since this a real education for me.

Thanks for your comments.

Larry

[Ned Knepp]

Larry,
Give us the dimensions of the bridge. I think I may have one that came off of a '58. It's not in perfect shape by any measure. Someone notched the saddle with huge "V" shaped notches so there's a pretty good chance that needs to be changed and it is already starting to crack through string holes so that would need to be dealt with too, Of course, the finish needs attention to boot.

The bottom line is that this is, I think, an original bridge to match your project but is has issues.
If you are interested, I'll see if I can get some pictures.

Ned

[leparker]

Thanks Ned! I like to see photos if possible. I do have a bridge off an Epiphone that is Martin style which is good shape but I'd like to match original if possible.

Thanks again!

Larry

[Ned Knepp]

Hi Larry,
I've been out of pocket for the last week or so and I forgot to post pictures of the bridge. Are you still looking?

I took a couple of quick and dirty shots. the second one is a shot of the bottom. If your still interested, I will try to get some with better lighting.

Sorry for the late post.

Ned