mairj40

I picked up a 60's Harmony H39 on Craigslist today. It needs a bit of work. It is missing the cable that runs from the control knob to the jack that plugs into an amp. The neck was starting to separate from the body some. I got it home and took all the hardware off and steamed the neck off. The action was HORRIBLE. When I put a straightedge on the fretboard to the bridge, the straightedge is about 1/2" below the top edge of the bridge. Is it the same with an archtop hollow body as it is with other guitars, where the edge of the straightedge should rest on the top of the bridge? Hopefully I am making sense.

I just picked up an old Espana acoustic guitar. The guy I bought it from said that it was his fathers. It is not in too bad of shape. The biggest thing is that it has a ton of crazing on the top. Is there any way to fix this without sanding it down to bare wood? I have sanded acoustics down and refinished them before, but this guitar is pretty cool looking (aside from the crazing). Or should I just leave it? It is the top of the line that Espana made. I see them for sale on Reverb for $200 to $375. I only paid $25 for it, so it isn't a huge deal if it needs to stay the way it is. But, I'd like to make it look as good as possible.

Interesting story about this guitar. I sold it shortly after I posted about it. I got it somewhat playable again and passed it on. The other day I was surfing Craigslist and saw that this guitar was back on there being sold. So, I scooped it back up. I have taken it completely apart and am sanding it down to refinish it. I am going to make a shim to fit under the neck to tip it back to the correct angle. I also bought a Bridge Doctor to install and help out the future desire it might have to belly worse than it is. I find it somewhat strange that these guitars don't have a heel on the back of the neck. I would think that screwing through the neck block into the heel of the neck would be way more effective at keeping the bridge end of the neck from sinking down from the string tension. I thought about making a heel to attach to the neck and into the neck block to help support things a bit, but I think I will wait and see how it all goes back together. There is a lot of sinking that has gone on with the end of the neck. Hopefully I can get it corrected now that I have a little more experience with bigger repairs.

I'm having some issues with the wiring. I ordered a new wiring kit for it, but it didn't come with any schematics. The one below was suggested, but my PRS pickups have three wires, not four. And I also do not know what is north and south start and finish on the PRS pickups. How do I make this work? Any ideas?

I got the bridge located last night. I'll pull the neck back off so that I can wet sand the body and polish it.

Thanks, man. It is far from perfect, but it should play (hopefully). I couldn't rebuild the neck. It was cometely wasted. The back of the neck was cracked open, and the truss rod was bent and sticking completely out of the back. Not to mention half the headstock was missing. I ordered a replacement neck from China. It's the only thing I could really do. I hated to not put an original PRS neck on it, but they aren't the easiest to find.

Here is where the project is at now... The neck is temporarily attached so that I can measure out the bridge location.

Here's the latest project. I had never routed pickup openings before, but I figured that this would be the project to try them on.. They aren't perfect, but that is what they make pickup rings for Lol.

Got most of the shaping done on the horn...

Got the rough shape of the new horn done and glued on. I also got the replacement block sanded down and shaped to the body.

Here's today's progress. I made a Mahogany block to fill in what was missing. It is current;y in the clamps drying. I also started filling in some of the bullet holes with Kwik Wood, an epoxy wood filler.

Nope. It probably desintegrated. Lol.

Yeah, the rest of the neck is toast. The truss rod is bent and sticking out of the back of the neck. It looks like the tuners are $30 to $40 a piece. All three speed knobs are there. One is off and in the case. The switch still turns and feels fine, but who knows if it will actually work. The jack socket is still intact too. Yeah, I didn't figure it would be worth anything when it's done. I just though it might be a way to save a pretty awesome guitar. I love tinkering with this stuff. It's like my therapy. Lol.

One pickup just says "Vintage Bass" on it and the other just says "HFS" (I believe). I haven't looked them up yet to see what they are selling for. The one that says "HFS" is ruined, but the other one may be ok. I need to check it for continuity and make sure that the wires aren't broken.

I bought it for $50. It came with the case. One of the pickups is still good and there are four of the tuners left. I figured, if nothing else, the case, pickup, and tuners were probably worth $50. Even if I can't get it back into shape, I don't think I got hurt too bad on it.