Martin D35 Repair

This D35 came to me with a myriad of problems. It had taken a fall from a wall hanger and gravity took over from there, causing a broken neck, broken X brace, and two loose finger braces.  There was a nice little ding on the side that (thank goodness) didn't develop into a crack and run along the grain of the side.  And last, but not least, was a crack in the top.

1. After using a syringe to inject glue deeply into the crack, I band clamped the broken neck back together.

2. Here's a little contraption I made using a syringe and a wooden wedge to get glue underneath a loose brace.

3. The two fingerbraces of each side of the guitar and the Xbrace glued and clamped. They will be stronger than ever before.

4. Here I've prepped the top to get ready to create the tapered void to fit a spline into the top. It will be almost invisible when finished.

5. The installed spline. Came out very nicely.

6. The ding in the side getting ready to be steamed out and filled with superglue to stop it from becoming a crack. Luckily the ding was on the edge of the kerfing, which further helped it to not run and become a crack. When the superglue is dried, it will be leveled and buffed out like lacquer. It won't be very noticeable.

7. The frets after being leveled and dressed.

8. Here, the cross grained cleat is glued underneath the soundboard to reinforce the area of the cracked top.

9. The neck after refinishing in the broken area. I had the damaged neck down to bare wood, and I wish I had taken pictures of it at that stage. The customer was blown away with its near invisibility.

10. The splined crack area after coloring and refinishing. It too came out very well. It was hard to tell anything was done unless you knew what you were looking for.

11. Here's the finished instrument ready to go home, and hopefully never to find itself in a wall hanger again. Thanks to Jay my customer for bringing her in.

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