Old acoustic restoration

[ShatnersBassoon]

I’ve recently come in to possession of a really old Hohner acoustic (I’m thinking 50s or 60s).

Will be attempting to get this in to playable condition, cos why not? It was free and seems a shame for it to not be used. Importantly, it has no truss rod. At the moment the strings are sky high and the relief, well I would say it’s at least a millimetre, perhaps 2

Thing is I could straighten it, using a replacement fretboard clamped to it as a way of the neck conforming to the straightness (thanks Bizman). Or I could simply take the fretboard off, plane it flat and install a truss rod in there. Question is, with the warping/bending that has been happening over many many years, would that be an issue

Decisions...

[Bizman62]

That's a pretty instrument and as you said, why not make it playable again!

A fellow builder had a similar oldie, not expensive at the date of building, yet part of Finnish guitar building history. He ended up removing the original fretboard and straightening the warps - the neck was thick enough to allow the amount of scraping/planing required. Instead of a truss rod he added a couple of 3 mm thick carbon fibre rods.

If the original fretboard and frets are intact, reusing the original fretboard should not be a biggie.

And if the original neck is straight, the "lazy man's neck reset" by loosening the back down to the waist and then gluing it back so that a tiny lip protrudes might be an option. If there's binding on the bottom side, the difficulty level will raise exponentially.

[henrim]

17 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

yet part of Finnish guitar building history

Now that you mentioned it, I’m wondering where the heck did I lose my Landola.

[ShatnersBassoon]

36 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That's a pretty instrument and as you said, why not make it playable again!

A fellow builder had a similar oldie, not expensive at the date of building, yet part of Finnish guitar building history. He ended up removing the original fretboard and straightening the warps - the neck was thick enough to allow the amount of scraping/planing required. Instead of a truss rod he added a couple of 3 mm thick carbon fibre rods.

If the original fretboard and frets are intact, reusing the original fretboard should not be a biggie.

And if the original neck is straight, the "lazy man's neck reset" by loosening the back down to the waist and then gluing it back so that a tiny lip protrudes might be an option. If there's binding on the bottom side, the difficulty level will raise exponentially.

I might replace the fretboard. It seems to be painted with a fairly poor quality black paint (maybe old nitro?) It’s rough to the touch and it’s flaking off in areas. Might be easier to replace it but would be nice to keep it original I suppose. And the guitar has a bit of a back story (from a semi famous family). Frets are very low  and tarnished green, but maybe there is still some life left in them. We will see! 

[Bizman62]

36 minutes ago, ShatnersBassoon said:

We will see! 

Eagerly waiting for visual evidence known as photos!

[ShatnersBassoon]

Just now, Bizman62 said:

Eagerly waiting for visual evidence known as photos!

I need a good belting to get my ass in to gear! Or arse to my British brethren  

[Bizman62]

Should I use CAPs?

 

[ShatnersBassoon]

Pop a cap in ones proverbial posterior  

[Bizman62]

Plopp!

[curtisa]

Is the neck bowed or is the top collapsed? Both result in excessive action but require different approaches to correct.

[ShatnersBassoon]

6 minutes ago, curtisa said:

Is the neck bowed or is the top collapsed? Both result in excessive action but require different approaches to correct.

The top looked ok but I will check again. It definitely has a massive amount of relief in the neck. I also noticed that the string height was a lot worse on the higher strings than the low. Right up to the nut area. To me this suggests that the neck may be twisted. Really hard to play at the moment! 

[ADFinlayson]

have you had a good look at the top? over time the top can bugle around the bridge from string tension, also check if the bridge is lift off at all, both those things are common on old acoustics and will raise action and could also be down to a split or delaminated brace. You should take the strings off for a few days and see what the straightness of the neck is like, You could also see what happens when you go down a gauge or two, switch down from 12 or 13 to 10 or 11 is a big reduction in tension and thus height of the bridge relative to the fretboard. 

You could totally remove the fretboard and plane out a bit of the relief in the neck, I would be up for routing a truss rod channel too, that would definitely help to future proof it but you'd probably need to get the neck fairly flat before hand. The other common thing which I haven't had to do yet is a neck reset which usually involves shaving a bit off the bottom of the heel and shimming under the fretboard, providing you can safely remove it.

 I recommend checking out Ted Woodford on youtube, that dude is a wizard. https://www.youtube.com/@twoodfrd

 

[ShatnersBassoon]

15 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

have you had a good look at the top? over time the top can bugle around the bridge from string tension, also check if the bridge is lift off at all, both those things are common on old acoustics and will raise action and could also be down to a split or delaminated brace. You should take the strings off for a few days and see what the straightness of the neck is like, You could also see what happens when you go down a gauge or two, switch down from 12 or 13 to 10 or 11 is a big reduction in tension and thus height of the bridge relative to the fretboard. 

You could totally remove the fretboard and plane out a bit of the relief in the neck, I would be up for routing a truss rod channel too, that would definitely help to future proof it but you'd probably need to get the neck fairly flat before hand. The other common thing which I haven't had to do yet is a neck reset which usually involves shaving a bit off the bottom of the heel and shimming under the fretboard, providing you can safely remove it.

 I recommend checking out Ted Woodford on youtube, that dude is a wizard. https://www.youtube.com/@twoodfrd

 

Yes, definitely worth following that guy. He reminds me a bit of the guy from Highline Guitars. Goes in to lots of detail, which I like. Been watching him on and off for ages now but didn’t realise I wasn’t subscribed.