Free Larrivee, what to do with it??
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:09 am
Heya,
So a customer brought me in a brand new 3000 dollar Larrivee he just got. Apparently he had gotten a rosewood Larrivee back in 2004 and mistreated it. A bandmate of his had bumped it and dropped it off a guitar stand at some point, and the top cracked pretty good I guess, and he called Larrivee, told them what happened and they had him send it to them and they fixed it.
Well, with Minnesota winters that crack reopened, and after that just not watching humidity or caring for the environment. So that one reopened, and it got about 4 more on the top, one from litterally neck end to tail end on the back (Which you can see through the back in the soundhole picture) and 1 other huge on in the back, and the bridge was pulling off so badly, that I was able to pull it off CLEAN by hand.
He had called Larrivee about the guitar and what they decided to do was give him a 2000 dollar discount on a new "flawed" (I believe the "pits" in the finish are the flaw) 3000 dollar guitar. So he has a grand invested. As he brought the new on in for me to setup, he took the strap button off of the neck of the old one and asked me to drill in the new one for it, and as I was doing that I asked him what he was going to do with the old one.
He told me he was feeling generous after getting such a great deal on his guitar, that he'll most likely just donate it. He then continued to ask me if I'd like to have it. Granted, I'm not in the business of turning down free guitars, especially with ebony bridge pins and hardshell cases at stake, so I took it. The deal here is I do the labor of taking out his fishman preamp/pickup system and return it to him, and the guitar/case is mine.
Long story short the top is toasted on this guitar. It's sunked in really hard around the soundhole, from drying out, and the wood is all shrunk, some really big gaps as far as the cracks in the top goes, repairing those are questionable as with how many there are, how big the gaps are, I'm not sure the top would hold up even afterwards..
Anyhow, the question is, what to do with it? A couple scenarios in mind, granted almost none of them are worth it timewise, but I have personally never owned a Larrivee, and to an extend another backpacker/campfire guitar is worth having. Having that high end "beater" guitar has it's role, plus this is a great project guitar for extreme fixes.
So a couple options I've thought up... First one, try to steam the inside of the guitar (mildly) and bag it in a garbage back to boost the humidity, see if it will close the cracks. Then take hideglue saturated linen cloth strips, and brush hide glue all over the cracks on the inside, put the strips down, and hide glue over them. The new glue on the joint, and over them reactivates the glue in the cloth and makes for a very strong crack fix. Whether or not it will work on these extreme cracks, or this many of them on a top, strenghtening the top back to original, I can't say. (This is exactly what I WILL do to the back. The cracks in the back are extreme, and the linen cloth strips will be a great fix for that.)
The other thing goes with that linen cloth fix.. If the top isn't full strength, to try to install the JLD Bridge Doctor that breedloves use in their guitars, to keep the "belly" down flat. I'm projecting that potentially the top will be weak and under string tension will pull the belly up really hard, but the issue there is the fact that the sound hole is so sunken. Pulling up on the belly may make that collapse... It's a trial and see what holds type of thing I believe.
Last/worst case scenario is a new top. If that fails, I'd potentially call Larrivee and see what kind of neck joint is on this guitar and what kind of finish they used. That would tell me if it's easy enough to get off (basic dovetail would be my hopes for a neck reset, as resetting bolt ons/mortise and tenons scare me for some reason).. Also if the guitars lacquer with a new top, it would be a nice (very plausible) challenge to blend a satin finish.
It's a very extreme repair and I'm toying with which route to go. I also juggled testing my first "double top" guitar on this instrument.
If anyone has any ideas for me, throw them my way! I'm very interested in what to do with this. I'd like give this destoyed instrument a second chance to live. Here's the pictures!
So a customer brought me in a brand new 3000 dollar Larrivee he just got. Apparently he had gotten a rosewood Larrivee back in 2004 and mistreated it. A bandmate of his had bumped it and dropped it off a guitar stand at some point, and the top cracked pretty good I guess, and he called Larrivee, told them what happened and they had him send it to them and they fixed it.
Well, with Minnesota winters that crack reopened, and after that just not watching humidity or caring for the environment. So that one reopened, and it got about 4 more on the top, one from litterally neck end to tail end on the back (Which you can see through the back in the soundhole picture) and 1 other huge on in the back, and the bridge was pulling off so badly, that I was able to pull it off CLEAN by hand.
He had called Larrivee about the guitar and what they decided to do was give him a 2000 dollar discount on a new "flawed" (I believe the "pits" in the finish are the flaw) 3000 dollar guitar. So he has a grand invested. As he brought the new on in for me to setup, he took the strap button off of the neck of the old one and asked me to drill in the new one for it, and as I was doing that I asked him what he was going to do with the old one.
He told me he was feeling generous after getting such a great deal on his guitar, that he'll most likely just donate it. He then continued to ask me if I'd like to have it. Granted, I'm not in the business of turning down free guitars, especially with ebony bridge pins and hardshell cases at stake, so I took it. The deal here is I do the labor of taking out his fishman preamp/pickup system and return it to him, and the guitar/case is mine.
Long story short the top is toasted on this guitar. It's sunked in really hard around the soundhole, from drying out, and the wood is all shrunk, some really big gaps as far as the cracks in the top goes, repairing those are questionable as with how many there are, how big the gaps are, I'm not sure the top would hold up even afterwards..
Anyhow, the question is, what to do with it? A couple scenarios in mind, granted almost none of them are worth it timewise, but I have personally never owned a Larrivee, and to an extend another backpacker/campfire guitar is worth having. Having that high end "beater" guitar has it's role, plus this is a great project guitar for extreme fixes.
So a couple options I've thought up... First one, try to steam the inside of the guitar (mildly) and bag it in a garbage back to boost the humidity, see if it will close the cracks. Then take hideglue saturated linen cloth strips, and brush hide glue all over the cracks on the inside, put the strips down, and hide glue over them. The new glue on the joint, and over them reactivates the glue in the cloth and makes for a very strong crack fix. Whether or not it will work on these extreme cracks, or this many of them on a top, strenghtening the top back to original, I can't say. (This is exactly what I WILL do to the back. The cracks in the back are extreme, and the linen cloth strips will be a great fix for that.)
The other thing goes with that linen cloth fix.. If the top isn't full strength, to try to install the JLD Bridge Doctor that breedloves use in their guitars, to keep the "belly" down flat. I'm projecting that potentially the top will be weak and under string tension will pull the belly up really hard, but the issue there is the fact that the sound hole is so sunken. Pulling up on the belly may make that collapse... It's a trial and see what holds type of thing I believe.
Last/worst case scenario is a new top. If that fails, I'd potentially call Larrivee and see what kind of neck joint is on this guitar and what kind of finish they used. That would tell me if it's easy enough to get off (basic dovetail would be my hopes for a neck reset, as resetting bolt ons/mortise and tenons scare me for some reason).. Also if the guitars lacquer with a new top, it would be a nice (very plausible) challenge to blend a satin finish.
It's a very extreme repair and I'm toying with which route to go. I also juggled testing my first "double top" guitar on this instrument.
If anyone has any ideas for me, throw them my way! I'm very interested in what to do with this. I'd like give this destoyed instrument a second chance to live. Here's the pictures!
