Re: Restoration of a write-off archtop
Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 5:56 pm
The headstock has at some time sustained a knock and there is a chip out of the plastic facing.
While there were no holes drilled in the soundboard for pots thankfully a makeshift jack plate was attached over a crudely 'drilled' hole on the side of the body. this has been filled and sanded flush.
I removed the old binding and took off the soundboard with a razor saw in order to fix the issue with the braces and to fill the hole left from the pickup aperture (again, described with all it's trials and folly above). further to this i also packed the crack to the f-hole and put a very small spruce patch over the area which succeeded in closing the crack and reinstating the integrity of the top.
I applied apposing force and heat to the neck to correct the back bow in readiness to install binding and re-radius the fingerboard to 12 inches. I have also removed all of the frets.
Because I want the guitar to be more reminiscent of a n L-5 than it already was i had never been happy with the amount that the fingerboard encroaches on the soundboard as these Hofners have 22 frets and a large toe beyond the frets at the top of the fretboard. I have therefore, maybe controversially cut the length of the fingerboard back to 20 (maybe 21 i can't remember) frets and reshaped the underside of the neck/fretboard to accommodate. I just prefer it that way myself.
While there were no holes drilled in the soundboard for pots thankfully a makeshift jack plate was attached over a crudely 'drilled' hole on the side of the body. this has been filled and sanded flush.
I removed the old binding and took off the soundboard with a razor saw in order to fix the issue with the braces and to fill the hole left from the pickup aperture (again, described with all it's trials and folly above). further to this i also packed the crack to the f-hole and put a very small spruce patch over the area which succeeded in closing the crack and reinstating the integrity of the top.
I applied apposing force and heat to the neck to correct the back bow in readiness to install binding and re-radius the fingerboard to 12 inches. I have also removed all of the frets.
Because I want the guitar to be more reminiscent of a n L-5 than it already was i had never been happy with the amount that the fingerboard encroaches on the soundboard as these Hofners have 22 frets and a large toe beyond the frets at the top of the fretboard. I have therefore, maybe controversially cut the length of the fingerboard back to 20 (maybe 21 i can't remember) frets and reshaped the underside of the neck/fretboard to accommodate. I just prefer it that way myself.