warped top

[edbanas]

My 50 year old Goya has a warped top. It has sunken in so much from the sound hole to the bridge that the strings have been lowered to the point that they buzz. I was going to remove the old top and replace it with a new one, but a friend of mine said it sounded as though it had loose bracing. He said it could be repaired without removing the top. Is that possible? Can anyone give be some info on how to do that?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Ed

[tippie53]

Yes a loose brace can cause this. First off. do you know what brace style is in it? X Ladder ? H ? Often this is typical of older guitars and you may need a neck reset if your braces are ok.
Can you post some pictures and we can try and help you diagnose your guitar and get you on the correct path.

[edbanas]

Thanks for replying. The bracing pattern for this classical guitar (I should have said it was a classical guitar) is I believe called a Cordoba pattern. On the top there are two parallel braces perpendicular to the neck in the upper bout and the lower bout has another brace parallel to these braces. From this lower bout brace, there are 7 long fingers fanning out toward the end block. The back braces are just the normal few braces perpendicular to the neck with short braces between them at the center line. I have determined that one end of one back brace is detached and has separated from the back for about 4". On the top, both braces near the sound hole have separated from the front. The one in the upper bout is separated at one end and the one in the lower bout is separated at both ends. I am sure this last one is causing most of the trouble. The top has two parallel splits with the grain mainly in the lower bout. Do you have any suggestions on repairing them? I started sanding the top. It obviously will be refinished. Here are a couple of pictures. I think you can easily see the problems.

Thanks for the help.

[tippie53]

it appears that the guitar was overly stress by dry RH. Once you get the braces back where they belong it may look better . You can tell once you get things dry fit before gluing