1931 Martin 0-18

[Larry Pederson]

I was fortunate, I think, to buy a 1931 0-18 needing repairs which I think I have the ability to make.  My intention is to make a solidly repaired, high quality "player" guitar while preserving its originality as much as possible. Without knowing for certain, it appears 3 bad things happened to it. Photos are attached. I'd like to consult about the sequence of repairs, or if the sequence doesn't really matter.

 

First an open but securely, professionally repaired crack goes from the bridge to the end block. There are also two 1.5 in. cracks going in opposite directions in the sides from the rosewood center piece edges with no repair work apparent inside. It looks all these cracks resulted from the guitar being dropped on the end pin, which is missing.

Second, it came to Colorado about 20 years ago from Indiana, and no humidification was done at all. Damages resulting were open cracks in the top on both sides of the fingerboard, open seam between the top halves from sound hole to bridge and a barely open seam between the back halves. There is a tongue brace and all braces appear and feel to be firmly intact. The fret ends also stick out nearly the entire length of the fingerboard in serious need of being dressed ... seriously sharp edges!

Third, the previous owner, who had the guitar in the family since new, wanted to start to learn how to play guitar, and started to string it up w/med. gauge strings. He stopped tuning up when he heard a loud "crack". That noise was likely the bridge cracking thru the peg holes nearly split in half, and three new cracks in the top, one from the hi E edge of the bridge toward the end block, and probably 2 parallel cracks about 1/4 in. apart from the low E edge of the bridge all the way to the binding.

 

I'm re-humidifying it with a couple Rubbermaid small square food containers with loose fitting moist sponges cut to fit, and holes drilled in the containers. I have a rubber sound hole "stopper" that just rests on the sound hole (doesn't fit in the hole), and it's been in a closed case at house temperature lying flat to keep the stopper over the sound hole. The cracks I attributed to the second and third mishaps all have closed or shrunken noticeably over a period of several weeks to a month. That's all I've done.

 

Based on my description of the problems and the photos, am I mistaken in my judgement that this should be seen as a "player"? It will probably need a neck reset too, but after the cracks have been shored up. I assume there are hundreds of guitars from this era in far better condition as collector material. Or should this be viewed as a diamond in the rough that needs professional attention?

 

If I'm correct in my assumption this is a "player" guitar, and repairs I want to make will be functional but not necessarily "aesthetically pleasing", I want to try to keep the original bridge. I'm guessing it can be shored up with black superglue that will likely be somewhat apparent and ugly. It may be that a repair attempt will fail and then I'd replace it.

 

I don't think I want to do anything to the big, repaired crack. It seems totally stable with 2 diamond shaped cleats.

 

As I said in the beginning, I’m looking for “what to do” advice and not “how to do” advice.

 

Thanks, as always, for that advice!

[jbbancroft]

Guitar definitely needs to be humidified for at least 2 weeks before you start repairing cracks. Neck could be removed now if it needs resetting. With cracks at the butt end of the guitar I'd guess the end block is cracked too. Looks like the large top crack may need splinting, if it doesn't come back together.

Lots of work but nothing too serious.

Jim

[Larry Pederson]

Thanks for your interest and responses. I have asked this fine group questions because I really value your opinions and concerns. I want to respond to some issues that I didn't deal with yet.

The guitar has been humidified for about 6 wks. Last week the bridge crack was essentially closed by that passive process. I forgot to mention that. I got some black superglue from Stewmac and over a period of days applied a narrow bead of glue, let it absorb into the cracks and wiped the excess with plain paper. This is absorbent enough to remove the teeny amounts that remain on the edges of the crack, but leaves the glue that's in the crack in the crack, if you know what I mean. Because the cracks were closed or very nearly closed and the volumes of glue used per application were so teeny, I'm relatively certain the glue didn't flow to the spruce top of the guitar. Capillary action of the glue to do that is counteracted by the absorbance of the broken interfaces of ebony. Of course I don't know that for certain unless I decide the bridge has to come off. But the successive applications of the black superglue has resulted in a completely closed crack that is still somewhat visible in places in the right light. I'll tell any future owner about what I did there.

I wasn't going to do anything with the top cracks along the fingerboard edges until I talked to the repair pro I'll be using. But I thought that when he did the neck reset he'd repair those cracks first before attempting to get the fingerboard loose. I'll do whatever he wants me to do or not do, but I can probably size, position and glue adirondak spruce cleats with the appropriate glue ... hot hide glue was the specific recommendation from Ned ... and would make the appropriate disclosure to any future buyer about who did what work when I try to sell the guitar. If my work isn't up to the standards of some future owner, I have in mind that what I do should be reversible or correctable. I'll be leaving many cosmetic issues this guitar has to some future owner who wants one of you out there with the chops to work your wonders to minimize them or make them go away.  That means I won't be messing with the crack in the middle of the top, and I won't be paying anyone to work on it since it's apparently stable and ultimately playable as is. And I'll take Ned's caution for sure about appropriate pressures applied in crack repairs I do here or on future guitars.

Thanks again everyone!

[Mark Pollock]

This sounds like an excellent plan. 

In my mind, I very strongly doubt that the glue in the bridge will work at all - there is just too much force from those strings, and each pin is essentially a wedge trying to force the bridge apart. I've done a similar job on a couple of bridges, with a 100% failure rate. It's worth a try, and probably did no harm, but I would keep a very careful eye on that bridge - if it fails, that is a lot of stress on the top and bridge plate (which has grain oriented sideways as well, making it even more likely to fold up).