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Location: SoCal | You going to hydrate that thing and see if the wood closes up? |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | It's a pretty wide crack. I will soak the top, below the bridge, and determine how much it will close, and also how flat I can get the soundboard. It will probably not move much, since it is still glued to the crossbrace. Maybe, put a clamp across the lower bout & see if that might close it up while its being reglued. It will never be perfect, but it IS the original top, so I will do whatever I can to salvage it.
Gonna start making my long-throat clamps tomorrow.
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| At some point you're going to have to make a decision as to whether you want a playable guitar or a nice-looking and playable guitar. Personally, I'd go for playable and decide later if I want to venture into re-topping territory. Guitars don't have to be pretty. Ask Willie Nelson.
In any case, I'm looking forward to following your project.
Edited by BCam 2022-01-13 8:33 AM
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Looks like it had a pretty rough life, probably dropped on the end at least once, or possibly used as a club, hopefully in self-defense. Too bad someone tried to hide the damage with that hideous blue paint. I'd like to see if you can save the top. You could make it look a lot better than Willie Nelson's. |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Thanks Guys! I have to agree with BCam, at this point. I'm pretty sure this will be a nice-playing, great-sounding instrument, after whatever restoration efforts are accomplished. As for Willie Nelson, he gets a lot of notoriety with Trigger, and reflects the dedication, and probably the adventures, of his marvelous career. There are a couple of videos at Stew-Mac of Dan Erlewine's brother doing the maintenance on Trigger. I'm sure the Martin Guitar company has offered Willie a replacement several times!
Back to the subject, next referendum: Should the bottom brace be pried loose, to see if that crack can be reduced? I was thinking of carefully cleaning up the edges of the fissure and possibly gluing in a splinter of spruce. It isn't like I am going to be fooling anyone into believing this is a new instrument, anyway. |
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Location: Lake Forest, CA | I'd glue in a splinter of spruce rather than remove the brace.
For the missing kerfing, I'd order some kerfing from Stewmac and glue that into place. |
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Location: Utah | My vote is to embrace the aesthetics of the hard life this guitar has had. Make it structurally secure and easy to play. I wouldn't try to cover up the wear and tear too much. Dan's advice sounds good to me, splice in a bit of spruce to the open crack and repair the kerfing. Rehab the neck as required. |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Thanks for the input. Yep, I think the splinter option is the best. I don't see the neck as requiring refretting, so that's a relief. The wires are a trifle thin, but still functional. And, the rosette from Dave, routed through Al, just arrived. Thank you so much for that contribution. One less dilemma to resolve. Probably will need to shim under it a bit, but it should fit very nicely!
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Yes, Dan, I have some kerfing in the supply closet. The trick will be gluing it in. I guess, after the top is fixed & the binding channel is recut.
So, back to the welding shop to make my deep-throat clamps. |
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Location: When?? | That backlighted shot looks like something from a 70's sci-fi movie.. but the top wood looks better than I thought it would. Like squeezing the air out of one end of a balloon it can only go to the other end, so too much hydrating and compressing could take an unexpected toll elsewhere. Experimenting with the splinter patch to start with may behoove the future since if you can't get one to fit and match to your liking you can always scrap the plan and be no worse off than back to square one (sorry to dwell on the obvious).
PS thought-- On re-examination of the top wood appearance, I kinda like the look of it with the blue streaks and chips the way it is. Sand smooth and shoot with Eastwood. My mom the artist used to do that with painted antique furniture and most of her pieces ended up to be quite pretty and unique for those who are into such an appearance.
Edited by Love O Fair 2022-01-13 3:01 PM
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Dwelling on the obvious is what I need. Maintaining some perspective is what I depend on from my esteemed colleagues. Much appreciated! |
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Location: SoCal | This is so cool...... |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | It sure is, Paul. I am having a blast with this project. The input has been great, and nobody is directing me to the local landfill with my prize! |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Cut my thumb on a drillbit last night. Might have to take the day off. Probably won't save me from the Friday vacuuming, though! |
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Location: When?? | Condolences to the thumb.. and don't forget that spot behind the sofa. |
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Testimony to good recuperative powers & persistence. Pressing on!
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | And I determined why the bottom edge of the bowl glows. The kerfing is actually impregnated fiberglass cloth, bonding the bowl to the top. Without the binding in place, light shines through the fiberglass strip. It does look like some of it is missing, likely from falling on its butt one-too-many-times. So, I might be able to paste in a small section of cloth & resin to provide a surface for the binding channel, at least.
That crossbrace noted in the backlighted photo is only a hair-thin strip of wood that has puckered & separated from the soundboard about 1 inch from the right side of the crack in the top. That entire strip can't be providing much support, but it also shouldn't interfere too much with the crack repair. I suppose the idea of a strip of wood crossways was to limit the separation in the soundboard grain structure.
Edited by seesquare 2022-01-14 11:05 PM
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Location: When?? | @seesquare - >>>With the A-918 serial #, the guitar was apparently made in late 1968.<<<
This build is extra interesting for me in that you and I both took delivery of a 1968 Deluxe during the same week 54 years later.. though mine is not a Campbell (see recent sell listing from Standingovation). It's nice to be able to see some of the guttery of how these were built since this is the first one I have owned from the A-series. Anyway.. mine is serial number A 042, so assuming the numbering sequence stayed chronological when it went into the Campbell models, mine must have been built around July/August.. and your's as late as November (dpending on how many A-series were built overall). The number stamped inside the bowl on the neck heel for mine is 3013.. but still not certain what that means. Does yours have a number on there?
Edited by Love O Fair 2022-01-15 2:29 AM
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Nope. Clean-as-a-whistle.
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Location: SoCal | Looking at the pics of the GCDB, I thought that something looked slightly off on the neck inlays. Going back to old pictures of GCDB's, including mine (now residing in Iowa), I realized there there are no inlays at the 17th fret. There should be 2 diamond inlays there. Found a picture and you can see what I mean.
I have learned that some interesting variations came out of the factory back in the 60's and 70's......
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Location: Yokohama, Japan | Off to a great start seesquare (except the thumb injury, of course)! Is it just me or does that neck block look really unusual? |
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Location: Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA | Hello, seesquare,
Your persistence through injury is very encouraging to me, and as of this writing, my injured 3rd finger is about 95% healed, and I should be able to play when my friend, Bruce arrives again this week. I am not a luthier/repairman at all, and seeing all the great work that the BFLG does is fascinating, for sure. The neck block is a bit of a mystery to me, too, but, alas, I know nothing about such things, as I said. I rarely get to see the inside of an Ovation, except for this forum. Your bandage is much tidier than mine was, and is a badge of honour for your hard work thus far.
Mike S.
Ottawa, ON.,
CANADA.
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Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Thanks Mike. Yeah, I seemed to bleed a lot more out of the top of my thumb. It has knitted together well & I have been working on the clamps to glue in the patch under that crevice below the bridge. I need to revamp my design to have a taller clamp, cuz the 12" throat, with only a 3-1/2" opening, doesn't make it into the guitar. Had to cut off about 3"-of-the-12" to clear the back edge of the soundhole. Have made some cauls to align the patch piece & flatten out the distortion in the crack edges.
As to the shape of the neck block- yep, its different than the others I've seen.
Y'know, Paul, you have a keen eye. I had to go look at the guitar. Yerright, it doesn't have inlays at the 17th fret. It would be interesting to know if they were left off, due to later manufacture date.
Also, I managed to remove that thin cross rib intact. Scraped off the old glue & am flattening it out. I will glue it back in after I get the center patch repair done.
Edited by seesquare 2022-01-15 3:26 PM
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Location: When?? | I see that it arrived with an upper strap button.. but my standard'68 DB does not have one.. nor does it appear that Paul's GC does. Some pics of others do, and some don't. You suppose those that do were owner-added after production.. or did the factory only put them on some?? (I am going to install one upon the next string change.) As for comparing neck inlays on the GC Deluxe vs. the standard Deluxe, my standard has one on the 15th fret and no inlays beyond that. Pandora II's inlays appear like something of a hybrid between the two.
Edited by Love O Fair 2022-01-15 4:46 PM
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Location: SoCal | Owner added. I put one on mine/Howard's...... |
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Pandora II- The GCDB Restoration
