Dan Heavin's 1936 Martin 000-28 after Mike's period correct bridge was installed, before the other extensive work began.

One of our most interesting repairs of the last few months at Mass St Music has been Dan Heavin’s 1936 000-28 Martin, which our Repair Shop manager, Mike Horan worked on. Dan, who is a civilian fire captain working on a US Military base in Afghanistan, received this amazing vintage Martin from his mother in 1996. It was originally purchased by Dan’s grandfather, new, back in 1936. It’s been well-loved and well-played over the years. At some point in the ’50s it had a significant amount of work done to it – most likely by Martin Guitars. They did a refret, replaced the inlay with larger pieces, refinished the instrument, and possibly did a neck reset. They also installed new tuners, which was the definitive clue that the repairs were done in the ’50s.

Note the refinishing done by Martin in the 50s - much darker and flatter, both on the neck and headstock

The back of the neck in particular had an unusual flat, darker opaque finish. The bridge also had been replaced with an oversized one which had been shaved away over the years to compensate for the neck angle, which over time often needs to be reset. Why the new, larger inlays, larger bridge and darker finish?

“You have to keep in mind that back in the 50s, this guitar was maybe just 20 years old and had some real wear and scratches,” Mike explained. “They weren’t envisioning it being a valued vintage piece, they just wanted to make the guitar look and play like new again.”

We emailed this photo to Dan to let him know the guitar arrived just fine & that Mike was about to start the restoration process

As Dan was overseas, he wanted a little reassurance we had received the guitar in once piece (even though we were about to take it apart!). We kept in contact with him, as we were able, throughout the journey of the restoration process. Mike gave Dan a ‘thumbs up’ in the photo above that everything was looking fine so far. We also documented the serial # markings for posterity.

The serial number marking

Mike set about restoring the instrument, removing the neck from the body, and tackling the bridge first. He replaced it with a custom reproduction bridge he crafted in the repair shop himself. He also re-glued 6 back braces.

Mike did a beautiful job creating the new, period correct bridge

Lookin' sharp

Next up in the process was the refinishing of the neck. This was the most time-consuming of all the repairs. Here you can see Mike’s restoration with a more authentic color and a truer, translucent finish that shows the wood beautifully.

The restored neck shows a truer, translucent finish - nice job Mike!

The neck is reattached and ready for some inlay work and the refret

Mike then reattached the neck to the body, then set about first restoring the inlays which were larger from the ’50s repair work. He pulled the inlays, filled them with Ebony, sanded them down and replaced them with smaller inlay correct for a ’36.

The 'before' neck with the larger inlays Martin likely put in when the other work was done in the '50s

Check out the new, period correct inlay work

He then refretted the guitar. (Check out this Bourgeois repair for images of Mike doing a refret). Adding period-correct Waverly tuners was the last major step.

Mike with the restored '36 Martin 000-28. It's ready for a new generation!

All in all, this extensive repair job (balanced with other repairs he was tackling concurrently) took about 8-9 months. We’re happy to report that this ’36 Martin 000-28 was shipped to Dan Heavin’s home last week.

Dan and his mother with his grandfather's newly restored 1936 000-28 Martin guitar

Dan said his mom loves the guitar and that she told him, “Grandpa would be so proud of it.” He added, “Thank you all once again for doing such a wonderful job on it. The sound on it is amazing. I could not have asked for anything else. It is perfect. I played it and then played my 2010 HD-28V and the ’36 sounds so much better.” He also told us that the guitar will stay in the family and he looks forward to giving it to his own son someday.

Check out more info on our great Repair Shop here & more info on available Vintage Guitars at Mass St Music here.

This Washburn Parlor guitar was inexpertly repaired years ago by the owner, when he was a young boy. He received the guitar from his grandfather who originally owned and played it. Mass Street Music Repair Shop Manager Mike Horan shares what work he’s been doing on this rare one….

The label of the Washburn Parlor guitar - the original owner's name and 'Aug. 1903' appear in pencil

I had to take this parlor almost completely apart to remove the badly reglued joints. I installed a new bridgeplate and several braces to replace the original (destroyed) small Spruce bridgeplate.

Clamps hold the new bridgeplate in place til it's dry

The back and sides on this are beautiful Brazilian Rosewood. I’ve reglued all the back braces and glued countless cracks and even spliced in a piece of wood. The back is about to go back on and be refinished.

The inside of the back which is much stronger now thanks to Mike's expertise.

Gee your braces look beautiful!

Beautiful Brazilian Rosewood on the back of this guitar. It will soon be reunited with the rest of the parlor and refinished for a new lease on life.

(We’ll post more photos when Mike is done resuscitating this beauty!)

Jim's latest fixer upper is this well-loved J-35 from the '40s

This Gibson J-35 is from the 1940s. Mass St. Music co-owner and luthier Jim Baggett below discusses what he called the ‘Ugly Duckling’ and how he’s breathed new life into it. Check out all of our ‘On The Bench’ instruments here.

From Jim:

About six months ago, this not so pretty 1940s Gibson J-35 showed up at Mass St. Music. Frets were worn to the nubs and the top finish had been botched up with some pretty crude finish work and repairs.  I didn’t pay much attention to the guitar at first, but being a J-35 fan, I finally picked it up.  I was pleasantly surprised with the tone and realized that in spite of the cosmetics, the guitar was in pretty decent shape.

The toothy saddle here won't win any beauty contests...

New saddle in place, lookin' good.

The original owner must have appreciated the tonal characteristic, as the play wear was all the way up the neck. I just recently refretted the guitar and replaced the deeply worn, but original saddle. The guitar has completely jumped back to life. I have decided to do nothing about the cosmetic appearance of the top. I may fill the open control knob hole in the top, but realizing that it has no effect on the tone, my current thought is to stick to my original objective of dealing only with the the guitar’s strengths, which are tone and playability. It has become like a comfortable pair of shoes.

The Ugly Duckling 1940s Gibson J-35 'before' photo - new frets are in but saddle yet to be replaced.

Jim at his bench working on the J-35

The homely headstock

Formerly housed control knob, now just a hole.

The J-35 with some spanky new frets

Unmatchable tone and now great playability is restored.

This Hardwood guitar is a customer's, currently in for repairs, but we had to share an image of it with you.

Mike H. in the Repair Shop just shared with me that we happened to have three Harwood instruments from two different customers in for repairs right now. The history of these turn of the 20th century instruments was recently featured in Fretboard Journal. One guitar had the neck off for repairs, but here are photos of the other guitar and one mando – just beautiful and so well made.

Really nice soundhole inlay on this Harwood

One of these belongs to a good friend of the store, who incidentally is related to the folks who ran Jenkins Music in Kansas City, which sold Harwood instruments. These were made in the late 1800s – early 1900s and look like they will stand the test of time after a little TLC from our repair shop.  Fretboard Journal’s fantastic article on the history of Harwood can be found in their Issue 23 which had Gillian Welch on the cover.

This Harwood mandolin is a real beauty.

A closeup of the Harwood mando's decorative pickguard

Mike H. is doing a bridge reglue and refret on this Bourgeois Slope D

Our repair shop manager, Mike Horan, originally was just going to do a bridge reglue but we’re now also doing a refret, so this should be ready around the beginning of April. This Slope D is going to be killer when it’s finished. Here’s a look at the before pics (more posted here, along with other ‘On the Bench’ projects here). We’ll post updated photos when Mike’s done with the job and this beauty is up for sale.

March 2012 – It’s done, and Mike did a spectacular job!  You can see full photos of the completed guitar on our Mass St Music website. Here are some images of Mike in the process of the refret job…

Mike carefully places the fret

Mike often wets the area before placing the fret for a better fit

Mike hammers the fret (carefully!) into place

Mike does some detailed finish work after placing the frets so it's smooth and sounds perfect

Mike also reglued the bridge on this Bourgeois Slope D

The Bourgeois Slope D has a new lease on life now

That's the back...and a hairy one at that.

Well, you just never know what you’re going to see in our store or the repair shop, and this month brought us an Armadillo Charango. The Charango is an Andean instrument with 10 strings – 2 sets of 5, with 4 sets in unison and one set an octave higher. Traditionally the back was made from an armadillo though most no longer are. The one in our shop was a getting a crack repaired (the top, not the armadillo shell).  Here’s what a charanago sounds like in the hands of an expert…or a ninja.

Mike R who fixed this charango questioned if Ovation got an idea for their rounded backs from this perhaps?

Mass St. Music co-owner Jim Baggett explains the next steps in the restoration of the 1939 Martin D-18 that is our latest ‘On the Bench‘ project. It should be finished and ready for sale in June or July 2012. From Jim:

The '39 Martin D-18 before we began work on it.

We recently acquired a 1939 Martin D-18 (serial #73525). Always one of our favorite guitars. This is one of the dirtiest guitars I have seen in a while but, though worn through in the expected normal areas, the original finish remains intact.  The bridge is not original and the neck has been previously reset and is in need of a fresh reset and refret. Since the bridge would not be reused and there was no way of knowing the type of glue that was used, we elected to plane the bridge down very thin before removing it. This can be done with a small hand plane or a router and jig. I had just reset and sharpened my planes, and was not all that interested in spraying the shop with ebony dust, so I decided to do it the old fashioned way.

Jim (very carefully!) shaves the bridge down on the Martin before removing it.

The bridge shaving in process...

The bridge shaved down as low as Jim would go before heating and removal.

Once I had the bridge down to about .080″, very little heat was required to free it up. It came off slowly, but not a splinter of Spruce came with it. The surface should clean up nicely, and even though the bridge that was removed was a tiny bit oversized (as is common), I don’t think it will be much of a challenge to make a new bridge that is the correct size and profile. The fact that the original bridge plate is clean and nice should make for a great tone sandwich.

After heating, Jim gently brought the bridge up with no damage to the soundboard.

Success!

The next step was to remove the neck. The previous neck set was a bit sloppy and had excess glue, requiring patience, but it has paid off as the beautiful heel of the 30s Martins remains uncracked. The original finish, though chipped and scratched, has a great look that goes with the rest of the guitar.

A little patience helped Jim remove the neck, which had excess glue from a previous reset.

Off and ready for a reset...

The neck pocket

The guitar and neck are now ready for our Repair Shop Manager and luthier Mike Horan to get busy on. Making a prewar style bridge is harder than one might imagine, but having lots of original prewars at the shop and having made dozens, Mike has it down. We also have a secret stash of beautiful, naturally dark Ebony set aside for these special and deserving instruments.

The lower bass bout is just one of the areas on this '39 Martin that definitely needs a little TLC cleaning!

The lower treble bout is another area that will get some TLC clean up!

I wanted to share some pics of the guitar in the dirty phase and will try to remember to update with more photos as the cleaning goes along. We have learned that patience pays off in this process. There is just no easy, quick way to get through 70 years of sweat and dirt, but I have always found the end result of a worn, honest finish to be worth all the effort. – Jim Baggett

Mike and Josh in the Repair Shop clamping an acoustic

We’re extending a special discount to our repairs customers – if your repair is over $40, you can take 10% off accessories at Mass St. Music the same day as your repair is paid for. This includes strings, apparel, coffee mugs, cables, stands and more. Just present your repair receipt when you’re checking out. The fine print: the discount covers only additional items and is not applicable to the repair or any materials used in the repair, nor can it be used in conjunction with any other discounts. Also purchases must be made the same day. We’re happy to also extend this offer to our  Tom Wagner Underground Sounds Amp Repair and Flint Hills Music Band Instrument Repair customers who pick up and drop off at Mass St. Music!

How cool is this!?

It’s finished! And we can tell you it sounds even better than we expected. This was our repair shop mad scientist Matt Harmon‘s pick for March – he took  an already very cool sounding Gretsch Junior Jet I ((NOTE – WAS on sale at $239 when this article was written, but sorry folks, it’s at MAP at $325 now) and swapped out the Gretsch mini hum with a Fralin Dogear P-90. It wasn’t just a swap-out actually, as it required some routing, tweaking, and pickguard reconfiguring, but the result is an absolutely killer Junior Jet I, hot-rodded with a Fralin and sonically fantastic.  It looks pretty dang cool too, eh? This was so cool it sold, plus our own boss, John Flynn has signed up for one too, which Matt is working on now. We have just a few more of these sale Gretsch guitars left – if you want to know more or know you need one too, give us call at 1-800-747-9980 while we still have ‘em. I’m having Matt do the same to my Junior Jet II.

Oh yes.

check the sweet pickguard work - Matt did an amazing job on this!

I was passing through the repair shop when I spied Josh doing a little work on this incredible ten string Prat bass that belongs to our good friend Mark R.  I’ll have to ask Mark to demonstrate how one might go about playing this beast (hardy har… ‘very carefully!’.  Really nice wood and fan fretboard. Take a look…

saddle view