She was very ill for several years, and she lived in Florida. The guitar was exposed to very high humidity and mold without being in a case; after she passed away, her sister retrieved the guitar and kept it for me in her air conditioned house, until it was sent to me a month ago.
When I got it, the tuners were completely trashed and corroded. Needless to say the strings were corroded. But, more importantly, it had dried out warping the soundboard. The area between the sound hole and saddle had dished, the saddle had raised on the bottom (but not separated), and there was a bulge below the saddle. Also the finish had corroded in a couple of places.
First and foremost, I took off the tuners, which were not worth saving. I replaced them with the tuners that came on my Koa Limited Edition (I just changed tuners). I vacuumed big dust bunnies out of the body, even retrieving a Jamaican $2, made in 1990 (LOL). I cleaned the entire guitar and defunked the fretboard; I polished all of the frets. Then I put new strings on it. I figured I'd have to refinish the guitar, but I polished the entire guitar with stove top polish that I had on hand; amazingly it evened out the finish and got off the flecks of paint (from when she painted her walls), and other debris. I also polished the guitar with 1 coat of Bruce wax (which I know now, not to do again, from what I've read).
The whole time I was working with the guitar, I kept it humidified. I realized 2 days later, that the saddle started sitting down, so I stuck the guitar humidifier into the sound hole and sealed it off, every night. Now the saddle is almost normal and the top almost flat.
I had to correct the intonation a bit, but the guitar is not only playable, it has a warm tone and good sustain; the intonation is perfect (I spent a couple of hours correcting it).
Sue played the guitar so much that she left ruts in the fretboard. She was so talented that she played the sitar at the Indian Embassy, for dignitaries, even though she was German. I've decided that I want to keep the fretboard as is. There are still some bumps and dings on the guitar, but it just shows that it was loved and played.
When I play the guitar, it's like touching her hands again; I try to play it daily. I think Sue would be very pleased:
BTW, the tag has long fallen off. The guitar has an inlay (which is either bone or Ivory), and although it's faded, it had the picture of a Fibonacci shell. The guitar appears to be laminated mahogany sides and back (but it looks like the base wood is mahogany or rosewood), and the top is solid spruce. I'm sure she picked it up in Europe, but whether it was in Germany, Spain, or another country, we'll never know.
If anyone recognizes the manufacturer that would have used the Fibonacci, please let me know. I didn't take many photos of the guitar before restoration; the second photo of the ridges in the fretboard was taken just after I took off the nasty old strings; you can see a bit of the old tuners that were trash.
Here is the restored guitar:
