Okay, I', going to answer everyone's questions regarding the scale length.
The 1947 000-28 is indeed a short scale, 24.9. However, this guitar, with the neck as is, didn't fit short scale. To further confuse, they put a
long scale fretboard on the guitar. My initial gut instinct was that this was a short scale, but the measurements, using the neck as is and seeing the fretboard, suggested otherwise.
Before doing anything that couldn't be undone, I called John Hall, who spent quite a bit of time with me on the phone. The neck is the original neck. The serial number and model are still visible (barely) on the bottom of the dovetail. John was concerned that the previous owners had changed out the neck, but this doesn't seem to be the case. So the question is, what's happened?
Well, someone did a "neck reset". Instead of taking off a small amount of wood on the tail only, they took off wood on the entire bottom of the neck, which in turn, allowed the dovetail to sink into the pocket. This made the 14th fret sink below the shoulders of the guitar by a good 1/4".
Why they ever put a long scale fretboard on the guitar, will forever remain a mystery. My mistake was not checking Martin's specs for a '47 000.
So, checking the measurements of the bracing on the box, verified that this is a short scale. Also, taking measurements of the neck, ignoring the changes made, verifies a short scale.
The lesson learned is to always check for the original specifications if there is a question. Lesson learned.
I made a new short scale fretboard today, and I worked further on the box. Even with sanding, when I wipe the box with naphtha, the area at the top of the box, which had the hideous "wings", darkens more than the rest of the guitar. This is counter intuitive, considering that this area was under the plastic, and therefore you would think that it would be lighter colored. I've concluded that the glue used, must have left a chemical footprint that reacts with finishes. So, I darkened the area below this area more and sanded the top of the bout more. It's resulted in what will be as close to a homogeneous color, as I can get. Some blotching will happen, but then, it's an old guitar.
I'll work with the neck tomorrow. We'll see what needs to be done to keep the 14th fret above the body, using the short scale fretboard. They did a butcher job on the neck.
Tomorrow, I'll start french polishing again. Some of the blotchiness in the photo is because the naphtha is evaporating.
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