July 2019 – Angry Viking Artisan

July 8, 2019July 17, 2019

OUCH!

No one ever said Rock and Roll was an easy gig.

I picked up this classical guitar from one of my three friends.

Hey it’s not a million dollar guitar (That’s why he brought it to me.), but it is a sentimental instrument. So I have to take it serious. Which is a very hard thing for me to do.

Apparently some crazy cat got a little to wild on the acoustic and knocked the head right off. It looks like it broke parallel to the original seam. I may be able to fix it.

Here are a few pictures to see what we are starting with.

I will keep you updated. AV

Dry tested the placement of the head today.

After the first couple of tests I planed the top edges of the laminate. I used a razor blade and added to strips of tape on either side to give it a little space between the blade and the wood. I also cleaned the edges of the broken surface.

Here I have glued the head on. The only seam you can see is the original, not the seam where the neck was broken. I did not glue the laminate, I will wait until the neck is dry and clean up the laminate and use a different glue.
After working on it I took it back into the house, the guitar has been in the AC and not acclimated to the garage. Also the AC will minimize the humidity and help the glue to dry.

Have the head reattached . Now I will start cleaning up the frets. They are not bad, but could use a little rounding and remove the sharp corners. Then polish them up.

It is missing the bridge so I will make one out of bone.

I have cut the bone and sanded it to the correct thickness. Now I need to cut the length and the radius to match the neck.

Started to clean and polish the frets today

There now the frets are touched up and polished. No they just need a little cleaning and buffing.

Cleaned and polished frets. I put conditioner on the fretboard which I will do again later.

Got the hand shaped bone added to the bridge.

I cleaned and conditioned the body and the bridge. Added a little lacquer to the head, which I will sand down with 0000 steel wool to match the old lacquer.
Now I to add strings and do a setup and we will be done.