And so it begins.....F-50R repair/resurrection.

[bobouz]

Stew-Mac sells a more brownish-aged nitro, as well as an amber & clear. I’ve use them all & getting a good match is super dicey. Trouble is, it’s very easy to go too dark or too amber. Personally, I’d error on the side of leaving the new wood just a hair lighter if necessary - it might age in a bit & seems to draw less attention to itself.

And this is why early on I had mentioned the thought of selecting your own personalized shade of sunburst!

 

[chazmo]

Kostas, he did an impressive job matching the grain. Very nice.

By the way, looking a little toward the neck, near the soundhole, is that a new scratch running with the grain that I didn't notice before, or is that some residue from the clamps?

This is impressive.

 

[GardMan]

By the way, looking a little toward the neck, near the soundhole, is that a new scratch running with the grain that I didn't notice before, or is that some residue from the clamps?

I think I see those in the very image in the original post...

 

[chazmo]

Dave, you're absolutely right! Same big scratch, and there are others too. I guess that was part of the reason I was thinking this would be a top refin job.... Anyway, Kostas, the wood matching is terrific. Super nice job so far!

 

[kostask]

p.s. - what I'm seeing in the color of the old wood are hints of gray and beige (or brown). So when you put an aged lacquer over the new wood it's gonna come up way more yellow. Might try doing some gray/beige tones on the new wood to match the old and then try the aged lacquer over both on samples. I'm sure he knows what he's doing, but I'm seeing some light gray/beige tint over the new pieces to bring them closer to the old spruce. Just throwing that out there.....

i have forwarded your post to the luthier. I think it will help him figure out the tint for the new soruce.

 

[kostask]

I think I see those in the very image in the original post...

There are a few new scratches, which are a by product of the scraping/planing process. They will be addressed before the final finish is applied.

 

[ezstrummer]

Cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[Br1ck]

Wood is a tricky business when it comes to matching a finish. I have a hundred year old house, and we had the floor furnaces removed when we went to central heating and AC. They patched the oak with reclaimed wood, but we freaked when it turned out lighter. They said not to worry, it would darken. Well, it took about three years, but you can't tell at all now.

 

[DThomasC]

When I was a cabinet maker we needed to match some old walnut trim in a bank and ended up using teak instead because walnut lightens with age. That was more than 30 years ago... I ought to go visit that bank to see what it looks like today.

 

[Badger]

Who says a repair has to be invisible?

Kintsugi: the art of precious scars - LifeGate

By repairing broken ceramics it’s possible to give a new lease of life to pottery that becomes even more refined thanks to its “scars”. The Japanese art of kintsugi teaches that broken objects are not something to hide but to display with pride.

www.lifegate.com

 

[chazmo]

That is really beautiful, Badger. Kintsugi may never catch on for guitars, but those bowls and vases are really spectacular.

 

[chazmo]

Y'know, I was thinking... It used to be that wildly figured wood grain wasn't particularly popular with guitar players, but tastes did change over the years -- probably mostly due to Bob Taylor and his education of the public about this subject and eye-popping builds. So, maybe someday scarred / repaired wood could become popular. I could certainly see it out of necessity with reclaimed or repaired wood species that are endangered and all but unavailable... On the more mundane side, I remember Taylor's "pallet" guitars, made of oak pallets... The nail holes were preserved for a variety of reasons, but my point is that you could imagine value coming from battle scars.

 

[Aarfy]

I wonder how much mixing tonewoods would impact sound?

mix hog with rosewood on the top and see what happens ? I think it could be an interesting experiment.

 

[davismanLV]

I wonder how much mixing tonewoods would impact sound?

mix hog with rosewood on the top and see what happens ? I think it could be an interesting experiment.

You have to understand that this is a fairly old art... guitars. What you can think and what others can achieve is work that's been done before. I don't discourage experiementation but i understand that most of what i could think up has been tried before. If rosewood make a good soundboard .... they'd make them. And what would you create the body of?? It's all been tried. Top woods need to be softer and a bit more resonant and resonating.... back and sides to reflect and project... that's my take.

 

[kostask]

Who says a repair has to be invisible?

Kintsugi: the art of precious scars - LifeGate

By repairing broken ceramics it’s possible to give a new lease of life to pottery that becomes even more refined thanks to its “scars”. The Japanese art of kintsugi teaches that broken objects are not something to hide but to display with pride.

www.lifegate.com

i don't insist that the repairs be invisible; the luthier wants them to be invisible (he considers it to be a challenge). I never thought the repairs would be invisible, and will make it a point to let anybody who asks about the guitar that it has been repaired, and how extensive the repairs are.

interesting link, a different oerspective on things,

i am visiting my luthier buddy tomorrow, and we will be discussing the F-50R.

 

[SFIV1967]

...and we will be discussing the F+59R.

A new project ???

 

[bobouz]

I wonder how much mixing tonewoods would impact sound?
mix hog with rosewood on the top and see what happens ? I think it could be an interesting experiment.

I recall seeing instruments many years ago in a book or magazine being built by a fellow who mixed two very different top halves for the soundboard. Don’t recall any comments regarding tone, but it certainly made you visually sit up & take notice!

 

[Br1ck]

I have to once again relate that the best sounding guitar I've ever played came into Sylvan in Santa Cruz in a cardboard box in many pieces. A late 30s J 35 I would have passed up playing if it had not been left out on a guitar stand. It had conservatively speaking, a dozen major crack repairs, headstock and neck heal cracks, and a 5x5 patch in the upper side bout, right there where you could see it all the time. The luthier had to extensively splice wood into the top. He scoured the world finding enough old Gibson top pieces he could use so all wood was late 30s Gibson. Some months later. I mentioned to him how much I liked the guitar. He said it was the best sounding guitar he'd ever had in the shop. Still, it was $7500 I didn't have.

Who knows what it would have sounded like with 25% of the top new wood.

 

[kostask]

A new project ???

No, just a typo.

 

[kostask]

I did hang out with the luthier today. We did a bunch of stuff, and we talked about some of the stuff he has going on in his shop.

He will be going back to work on my F-50R this week. He is waiting on some grey, tan, and red tints to come in to try to colour match the new wood to the old wood, again, as per Davisman DV’s observations in post #99.