Many years ago I purchased a Martin J18 'jumbo' guitar. I think it was very early internet days (for me anyway). There's a long back-story to my post which I won't go into, but the guitar was a major disappointment & ended up sitting in it's case, unplayed for years. When it arrived it had a serious case of bellying behind the bridge (even with light gauge strings), sinkage in front & it also needed a neck reset. I checked inside the guitar at the time with a mirror & it appeared that someone had taken a pocket knife to the main X-braces & carved a substantial amount of wood away - the scalloping on the main X-braces looked much deeper & longer than it should be, they were flat in profile rather than 'peaked' or rounded, & the upper surfaces - on the bass-side X-brace anyway - were quite rough (see pictures)! The tone bar scalloping also looked longer & deeper that examples I've seen previously.
Aside from the bellying & sinkage, I don't believe the brace modifications (if indeed that's what's occurred) have improved the sound at all. The trebles are more or less intact although less 'sparkly' than I'd expect (I'm comparing with D18s & similar instruments I've owned). However the mids & bass notes are excessively boomy & ill-defined - nothing like the controlled, fundamental sounds a good mahogany/spruce Martin should provide.
My son has expressed interest in the guitar so I'd like to get it - acoustically at least - into something resembling its original state. My plan is to take the neck off (with an eventual neck reset in mind) & then remove the back binding (tortoise celluloid) & back & replace the X-braces, with either minimally scalloped new braces or even just tapered or 'plain' bracing like my old Guild. Maybe the tone bars as well! I still have a stash of quarter-sawn bracing spruce I bought from Lamberti's many years ago that I can use. I probably won't get far with tap-tuning etc, but at least I'd know that the bracing wood is as old as the top!
I'll have to give all of this a lot more thought, but my intended outcome would be long-term structural integrity as much as much improved acoustic qualities. I'm not interested in resale value so 'originality' is not an issue for me, particularly as the guitar already appears so compromised! And I'd very much like to give its rebuild a go. I've built a few dulcimers & rebuilt a couple of banjos & dobros in the past so I have a vague notion of the challenges involved, but I'm quite motivated to get the guitar to a state in which I'd be happy to hand it on to my son.
I'm interested to know what people think of the state of the bracing in the pictures I've posted - modified or not? On a jumbo guitar, I would have expected to see much more substantial bracing that emphasised the mids & trebles & perhaps limited the bass a bit more - that is, much milder scalloping & taller & more substantial shapes. And is this an impossible enterprise for a more-or-less first-time major steel-string repair? I'd mention that I can't afford the thousand-plus dollars or so that a good luthier would probably charge me to remedy the situation. I reckon that with patience & care I could do a decent job. Should I attempt the rescue?
thanks, Sam.
- image11.jpeg (58.45 KiB) Viewed 1009 times
- image8.jpeg (77.26 KiB) Viewed 1009 times
- image6.jpeg (96.54 KiB) Viewed 1009 times
- image1.jpeg (67.66 KiB) Viewed 1009 times
- Upper X Brace 3.jpg (93.98 KiB) Viewed 1009 times
- Upper X Brace 2.jpg (94.56 KiB) Viewed 1009 times
