Junk shop acoustic refurbs (various)

The love of acoustic guitar thread reminded me I had some process pics from some previous acoustic restorations/refurbishments/repairs. I thought I'd start a build thread to document them, in case anyone is interested. I've only really finished two, and the rest are works in progress, so will update as I go.

The pile of instruments began with half a dozen crappy acoustics I picked up from Tiny's Green Shed (our local recycling depot). They were all nylon string except for one parlour sized steel string. From memory they were $12 each, except the bigger kinda orange-y one, which was $20 (despite being the most busted up). On top of that I also have a really busted up parlour sized steel string that I pulled out of a skip at work, and a twelve string Cort (brand new) that I got for $40 because the pallet it was delivered on was dropped and all the guitars bodies split either side of the bridge.

I also have a handful of mandolins in various stages of repair, but that's another story (or maybe another thread...)

Anyway, my wife wanted a parlour sized guitar, and so the first one I had a crack at was the parlour sized guitar from Tiny's.

It went from this (lower left):

https://i.imgur.com/6U6t5Th.jpg

To this:

https://i.imgur.com/pcfZpJ8.jpg

The process was:

Strip the finish
Remove the fretboard
Cut, slot, and fret a new fretboard
Cut a rosette channel
Glue the rosette
Cut binding channel
Install binding
Stain
Glue new fretboard
Finish with Tru Oil (satin sheen)

Photos to follow...

Step 1: Clean off dust and crud...

https://i.imgur.com/pU7WQt2.jpg

It really was a pretty crappy guitar. Plywood fretboard, poorly painted 'binding', etc...

https://i.imgur.com/7eI1Yt0.jpg

Canora label inside. Note the 'beautiful' painted binding...

https://i.imgur.com/d6M0S0X.jpg

Went online and found a rosette that I liked that matched the diameter of the sound hole

https://i.imgur.com/DZlIb7N.jpg

Headstock, with a nice little bit of history

https://i.imgur.com/LoN7K1w.jpg

Remove fretboard: very high tech process

https://i.imgur.com/H9TKs6V.jpg

Cut rosette channel: I did this with hand tools, because they were all I had. It wasn't too difficult, because the guitar top is ply, so I just cut down to the next layer of wood and stopped. I can't recall how I marked out the circles, but there were definitely some gaps that needed to be filled once I was done.

Also, note that my fretboard removal was less than impressive. A good chunk of fretboard got stuck to the neck and had to get planed down, and some chips of neck came away with the fretboard and had to be rescued and re-glued. Also the fretboard pulled away some of the ply from the body above the sound hole, so I cleared that away and later glued in a piece of maple to replace it.

https://i.imgur.com/5jZillm.jpg

Glue in rosette:

https://i.imgur.com/isMQ1Xe.jpg

Then to finish stripping that awful tiger-stripe finish: I used a little bit of paint stripper, and an awful lot of sandpaper + elbow grease. I wasn't sure how I was going to re-finish it, but I wanted to keep the history on the headstock. The grain of the body turned out to be pretty disinteresting, though the colour of the timber was really nice. I couldn't think of an effective way to keep the headstock as was while keeping the timber in it's natural state, so it was a pretty easy choice to stain the body black.

https://i.imgur.com/rtyxEQ7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FuOPxCt.jpg

Sealed the body with a few coats of shellac. Again, note how terribly imprecise my maple shim is above the soundhole. If I were to do it again I'd be much more careful about making it as exact as I could. At least I made it as level as I could...

https://i.imgur.com/bWBiQlI.jpg

Also, at some early point in this process I had cut the binding channels and installed the binding, using one of these:

https://i.imgur.com/gH9p6Vx.jpg

Great work. The finished product looks really cool in the pics. I nearly bought a 3/4 steel string at vinnies today. I have too many guitars to play already!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain

Great work. The finished product looks really cool in the pics. I nearly bought a 3/4 steel string at vinnies today. I have too many guitars to play already!

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Thanks man! I figure it's ok to keep collecting them if the plan is to eventually give them away. Of course, giving them to your wife is a neat way to keep them in the house, lol

Will post the rest tomorrow; feeling a bit like I'm spamming lol

Did you say someone was spamming??? Didn't notice as I was too interested in what was going on in this thread....

I reckon that the guitar was made by Harmony (in the US), but re-badged as a lot of their product was (for various stores and mail-order catalogues). The headstock is the right shape and the 'steel reinforced neck' decal is the same I had on the 1965 Harmony H59 that I restored.

A web search seems to indicate that Canora electric guitars and bases were probably Japanese made, so it looks like Canora were a Canadian import business who had their name put on a number of different makes of instrument. There were quite a few companies like that in the UK as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marcel

Did you say someone was spamming??? Didn't notice as I was too interested in what was going on in this thread....

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Ha ha ha, I hope it's at least a little interesting. I've been enjoying remembering the process.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

I reckon that the guitar was made by Harmony (in the US), but re-badged as a lot of their product was (for various stores and mail-order catalogues). The headstock is the right shape and the 'steel reinforced neck' decal is the same I had on the 1965 Harmony H59 that I restored.

A web search seems to indicate that Canora electric guitars and bases were probably Japanese made, so it looks like Canora were a Canadian import business who had their name put on a number of different makes of instrument. There were quite a few companies like that in the UK as well.

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I think you must be right. I had it listed in my computer as 'Stella Harmony (question mark)', so clearly at some time I'd thought the same. When I did a fresh search yesterday I came up with lots of harmonys that looked right, but no actual info. I had done a little research and kept pretty good notes at the time, but my notebooks are all in a box in storage somewhere, so I'll have to have a dig

Pics continued...

I put a thin layer of brown stain to add some warmth to the black that was going over the top:

https://i.imgur.com/tM1t8FP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rRGBq0J.jpg

Black stain over the top:

https://i.imgur.com/1OtUco3.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/qptGCAX.jpg

Tried to build up the front slowly so the brown still peeps through:

https://i.imgur.com/hBzrNV8.jpg

Scraping the binding. You probably can't tell from the pic, but I didn't know I was supposed to mask out the binding, and the oil based stain got into little cracks in the binding and created a kind of crackle-crazed effect. It makes the binding look old, and it's not entirely terrible aesthetically, but was definitely unplanned and I'd do it differently next time...

https://i.imgur.com/fF1dh2U.jpg

Bought a fret-slotting mitre box from Stewmac, and started work on the replacement rosewood fretboard. I only messed up one slot, which I filled with a little sliver of rosewood and re-cut. The fret covers it pretty well, and even I have to look pretty hard to find it.

https://i.imgur.com/t5sJnd0.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/42H1jPz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QtJ9FjF.jpg

I don't have pics, but I also bought some mother of pearl inlay dots, and a brad-point bit to drill the holes for them. I used a hand drill, but didn't do too badly with the inlay

Gluing the fretboard. Drilled little pilot holes in the centre of the first and twelfth fret, and had corresponding holes in the neck. Used little brass rods to guide it into place:

https://i.imgur.com/oLgNtj9.jpg

Finishing with Tru Oil. Note the weird blemish on the side - turns out that even though I sanded and sanded and sanded, I didn't know what I was looking for in terms of surface finish pre-stain, and there are a few weird blotches. The front and back are pretty smooth, but the sides have evident grain.

https://i.imgur.com/LrOoBtl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EKRxCDA.jpg

Neat resto. I think a job on something like this is a great way to build on skills and experience.

That's really nice. A shame about the few little blotches. It's like you've sanded through some finish that was still in the surface layer of the wood, especially on that bottom forward shoulder, so the stain's taken better in that part. It's very easy to sand more off on edges and convex bends.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by enikoy

Neat resto. I think a job on something like this is a great way to build on skills and experience.

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Yeah, totally. And the guitars are so cheap there’s no stress if it doesn’t work out lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

That's really nice. A shame about the few little blotches. It's like you've sanded through some finish that was still in the surface layer of the wood, especially on that bottom forward shoulder, so the stain's taken better in that part. It's very easy to sand more off on edges and convex bends.

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Thanks Simon. The blotches are less obvious now they’re under a few layers of oil, but they are still annoying. To be honest I don’t even think I really noticed them at the time. I’m currently sanding off the finish from the parlour sized guitar I rescued from the skip, and I’m determined to do a better finish on it (though there’s a lot of work to be done to it; I’ll document it here)

Forgot the final photo!

Attached all the hardware, and then altered a bridge from another guitar to fit. Strung it up with the two E strings so I could figure out the string spacing, and bought myself some nut files to slot it. My first attempt at both bridge and nut were passable, but didn't look the best, so I've since re-done them (and am about to do them again)

https://i.imgur.com/c1qXpEC.jpg

Penultimate photo, surely? ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Penultimate photo, surely? ;)

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Ha ha ha, true

The great thing about this journey is in the end the guitar you've modified ends up better and you gain some great experience. Plus you get to share it with an "in House" audience. Looks terrific.

I'll second JB's comments and try to stay out of Cashies LOL

Thanks guys!

After all the time I spent on that first guitar repair, I decided to tackle an easier one for the second. This 'Barclay' brand nylon string wasn't too beat up - it needed a new nut, and had some grime on the frets...

https://i.imgur.com/4lTCspw.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ONRngYP.jpg

...and also a cracked headstock. I bought some little plastic pipettes and used them to squeeze Titebond into the cracks through the screw holes. Then clamped the buggery out of it for a day or two.

https://i.imgur.com/a276lt9.jpg

Then replaced the tuners with this pretty set I found on eBay. Not the highest quality, but they work fine and look nice.

https://i.imgur.com/OWuYbpG.jpg

It still needs a new nut, but I've been putting it off until I had a couple to do at once. There hasn't been any real rush - I don't play classical guitar at all, and when it's fixed I'll probably either give it away or sell it for the cost of the tuners on gumtree lol

And this pretty much catches me up to where I'm at with my pile o' repairs. This is the parlour sized guitar I pulled from the skip at work. I'd been looking for another one - not because I wanted another parlour guitar, but because I wanted an octave mandolin (and my googling informed me that parlour-to-octave mando conversions were possible).

It was in a terrible state when I found it. Three cracks on the front of the body, each about two inches long, plus one huge crack that ran two-thirds the length of the back. The bracing was coming away from the back too, and the tuners were missing knobs. The previous owner had carved some 'art' into the surface, and it was dusty and manky as f***. All of this on top of the fact that it was a pretty cheap and nasty instrument to begin with.

https://i.imgur.com/a4LVB43.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LRuu3lp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/22rtC0F.jpg

The first thing I did was strip as much of the finish off as I could off the front, so I could see how bad the cracks and the carving were going to be to fix and refinish. Again, paint stripper plus sanding + elbow grease.

https://i.imgur.com/Y79DsZN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RLq7zs1.jpg

Then threw some Timbermate into the 'art'...

https://i.imgur.com/ESORovS.jpg

I decided that the back was unsalvageable, at least with my minimal skill level. The crack was so long and wide, and it had created a really significant warp in the back plate. I'm really glad I tried pulling the back off this before I ever had a go at a guitar I cared about, because I did a god awful job (even though I was being super careful)

https://i.imgur.com/Mg8GnyS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZgDsGIj.jpg

The label...

https://i.imgur.com/YrmBtSS.jpg

A few shots of the inside. There is glue just about everywhere, so I spent some time scraping it back. I didn't get much done; it was taking forever, and I lost interest.

https://i.imgur.com/H1oHTC6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RLbDKVE.jpg

And that was were I left it. It must have been about four years since I put all of these into storage - we moved house a few times in a few years, and then had kids.

Anyway, now the kids are getting a little bigger and I have a bit more time to dedicate to these things, I've pulled them all back out.

I spent an hour or so today going back around the body of this guitar, trying to sand off as much of the previous finish as I could. It needs another go over, and the neck is only 80% stripped, but it's getting there.

https://i.imgur.com/yoPaP82.jpg

The list of jobs now goes something like this:

- Buy wood to replace the back
- Bookmatch, plane, cut, and glue the new back (and new back braces, which I already have the timber for)
- Plug all the existing screw and tuner holes
- Extend the two cavities in the headstock to accommodate the extra length of a set of mandolin tuners
- Re-drill the tuner holes, for a set of mandolin tuners (which I also already have)
- Remove the fretboard
- Make a new fretboard (keen to try a wood alternative, such as this)
- Cut binding and rosette channels (and also fix the sound hole so it's actually round lol)
- Install binding and rosette (I already bought these too - I'm going to try to bind it in wood, but also have some plastic binding kicking around as a fallback)
- Re-stain
- Finish
- Install hardware, etc...

Inspirational stuff John. The finished one looks great.

I know I lack the skill to make an acoustic guitar, but you have got me thinking outside the box now.

Looking forward to see how they all progress.

rob

For those inspired and looking for a project next Wednesday...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by robin

Inspirational stuff John. The finished one looks great.

I know I lack the skill to make an acoustic guitar, but you have got me thinking outside the box now.

Looking forward to see how they all progress.

rob

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Thanks Rob. I also don't think I could tackle an acoustic build, but I have some hope that if I keep pluggin away at these strange side-projects then someday I'll accidentally find I've acquired all the skills I need!

I'm a huge fan of your builds too, by the way

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WeirdBits

For those inspired and looking for a project next Wednesday...

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Woo! Cheap at twice the price

Went through my old notes last night to reacquaint myself with octave mandolin specs.

The skip guitar has a scale length of 608mm (23.9"), and a nut width of 46mm. Octave mandolins don't seem to have a standardised scale length, but can sit anywhere between 20.5" and 23.5" (though I also found some as short as 19"), so the guitar is at the longer end, but will work.

The final instrument will be double strung and tuned GDAE (one octave below a mandolin), with the extra strings on the bass side being an octave higher (like on a 12 string guitar). I'm probably going to down tune to GDGD, as all the traditional Chinese instruments I play are tuned this way and it feels more comfortable for me.

Because it's double strung, I'm a bit worried about the tension on the neck. I have previously used Thomastik flat wound strings on my older, antique mandolins because even though they're expensive they have really low tension and so they protect the neck. I don't know if there is a longer version available, but will investigate. Will also think about adding in a truss rod.

Also, if I can get this to work, I'm quite likely to end up performing with it and so would like to be able to plug it into an amp.

Spent part of last night researching preamps, etc... and think I've settled on something like this:

https://guitarfetish.3dcartstores.co...em_p_6417.html

It will fit (just - it'll mean cutting slightly into the kerfed lining), provided the shape of the unit will conform to the curve of the guitar shoulder.

Just realised the 'Redstone' Richlite fingerboards from ALS are on sale, so have ordered one. I'm very keen to embrace wood alternatives, so I look forward to seeing what they feel like, and what the colour is like in real life.

In the meantime I'll have to rescue my fret mitre-box from the deepest, darkest bowels of the back shed.

And find my packet of left over inlay dots.

And decide whether to radius the board.

And (the list goes on...)

Some nice rescue work John, they will come up a treat.

Thanks Stan!

It took me forever, but I eventually found my inlay dots, fret mitre box, these two rosettes, and a couple of cool headstock face plates.

https://i.imgur.com/4pQQ4m5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QPSYrJ0.jpg

I also found the brace wood, though only enough to make two of the three braces. I was pretty sure I had bought more than that, but who knows - it probably got given to someone, or used for something, or it's hiding in an incredibly obvious spot. No drama to buy more.

I was also pretty sure I had already bought these tuners, but it seems I was mistaken. I have lots of mandolin tuners lying about, but none for a slotted headstock. Again, no real drama.

I did get some actual work in on the guitar today, plugging the tuner holes. I had some 8mm Tassie oak dowel lying around, and the tuner holes were 7mm (give or take), so I drilled them out, put some glue in and hammered the dowel in. I really, really should have used a different (and a new) drill bit. I got four out of the six holes drilled fine, but two had some epic tear out. The little bit of blue tape is holding in a piece I had to glue back on.

https://i.imgur.com/1dU0aNt.jpg

It looks pretty manky, but I didn’t see much point finishing the job of removing all the finish only to have to sand it again once the dowel was cut

Hmm, links to Imgur images don't seem to be working. Shall have a play and see if I can fix it...

EDIT: seems fine now. Who knows.

Got some more done today. Trimmed the dowel plugs and sanded them flush, and sanded the last of the old finish off. I just need to get some skewers or tooth picks to plug the screw holes, and also need to glue and cleat a couple of small cracks in the soundboard.

https://i.imgur.com/w9jhX2l.jpg

Also got the Richlite in the mail last week, and am marking it up for slot-cutting. I obviously can't give it a review as I've still not cut or used it yet, but I have to say it feels pretty nice. Dense and uniform, and a much nicer colour than the sample swatch on the ALS website.

https://i.imgur.com/MvOlF4v.jpg