Introduction:

Since a great portion of the work described on other pages of this site, on the topic of repair, apply to both acoustic and electric instruments, this page only covers those repairs unique to acoustic instruments.  If you can not find what you are looking for here, it can be found via one of the links to the right.

Many luthiers specialize in acoustic instruments, but few offer the same quality work for electric instruments, so I have focused most of my time and money towards electrics to fill the gap, and I am not equipped with some of the many specialized tools needed to work on acoustics, so I do not cover the full spectrum of acoustic repairs.  I am trying to faze out repair work altogether in order to focus on building quality electric instruments, so I can not see good reason to invest large amounts of money for major specialized tools only used for acoustic instruments.

The following paragraphs describe the jobs I can do, and how I approach them, followed by the ones you should find someone else to do the job, who is better equipped and experienced in.

Bracing:

When braces break or come unglued I can fix them or make new ones, as long as I can reach them efficiently through the sound hole to do so.  In some cases a cracked brace can be glued back together, and in others not so much, it depends on weather there are pieces missing, and how well the pieces fit together.  Repairing braces can be a tedious task that requires working through the sound hole, which is not easy.  There is a lot of preparation prior to gluing, and in many cases cauls have to be made to support and hold the braces in place during gluing, so it is time consuming.  It can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hour for each brace. When there are more than one brace in need of repair, they may have to be done one at a time, so your instrument may have to spend a few days in my care.

Bridge and saddle repair:

When the bridge lifts off the top or breaks off altogether, it needs to be glued back into place, which sounds easy, but clamping pressure is necessary when ever gluing woods together, and given the location of the bridge, and the shape of the braces and bridge plate underneath the top, it becomes a very difficult task.  Add to that, removing the old glue and dealing with damaged wood also comes into play.

Since the need does not come up often enough in my shop to justify the high price of specialized tools, and the making of tooling to work around the many different bracing arrangements I may encounter, I only offer re-glues to acoustic bridges that use string pins, as the holes allow me to use screws and wood blocks to apply significant pressure to do the job right.  To re-attache a bridge can take anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours.

Speaking of string pins, they or the holes they seat in can wear out, and reaming out the tapered holes, replacement of the pins or both may be needed, depending on the amount of wear.  I have seen fairly new instruments, where the holes were reamed out so far from the get go, that the string pins could not be pushed down far enough to hold the strings in place.  Thanks to oversized replacement pins, it is an easy fix that you can most likely perform yourself, without the help of a luthier.  If all fails, I will still be available for service, and replacement does not take much longer than a string change.

The high string pressure on the saddle, can cause it to distort or break, and in some cases to stretch out its slot in the bridge.  Of course it can also wear down to the point that it causes fret buzz, but that is rare.  When installation of a new saddle is in order, it is a good time to consider using better material than the cheap plastic most instruments are equipped with from the factory, as it is not only a question of durability, but also one of sound.  Bone is the most common material, but corian or micarta are great artificial alternatives.  I don't like to use cheap pre-made plastic saddles.  Making and fitting a new saddle takes around 1 to 2 hours if its slot in the bridge does not need any work.

The best way to fix a worn or stretched out saddle groove in the bridge, is to fill it in with wood, and re-cut a new slot, or cut it out to hold a wider saddle, keeping its sides straight in both cases to avoid problems down the road.  Since one of the main goals of these operations is to achieve correct intonation, the intonation prior to the repair dictates the method used.  A wider saddle seats better and prevents the same wear from recurring, and it also makes room for more accurate intonation adjustment.  Making and fitting a new saddle including reworking its slot in the bridge takes around 1 1/2 to 3 hours

Lowering a saddle to improve the action is the most common procedure, but also the least amount of work and takes from 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours.

Every once in a while I come across those height adjustable saddles on acoustic instruments, and although adjustment is easy and only takes a few minutes, they are not good at transferring string vibrations to the top of the instrument.  If you show up with one of those, I may beg you to have me make a real saddle to replace it, as the difference in sound and volume is almost always significant.

Finally I can also relieve a saddle, which is a procedure used to raise the volume of the instrument slightly by cutting grooves into the saddle in between the strings, making the saddle more flexible across its length, and by scalloping the saddle in strategic locations, one can raise or lower the volume of individual strings to correct volume issues.  There are very few luthiers that even know about this procedure, and fewer who know how to do it right.  It can add up to an hour to any other saddle work.

Warped tops:

Although proven to be not entirely true, the thinner the top of an acoustic instrument, the better the sound, and most acoustic builders adhere to making the tops of their instruments thin.

For most instruments that have no tail piece, and the strings terminate at the bridge, the high string tension pulling on the top, forces it to warp sooner or later.  Based on the direction of pull, the forces lift the top at the bridge, causing high action and sharp intonation, and sometimes string buzz, as the bridge is often rotated in the direction of pull, and saddle pressure is reduced.

The bad news is that there is no actual fix besides a new top, where buying a new guitar is normally more cost effective.  You may have heard of the use of steam and counter pressure as a common repair procedure, but that only fatigues the wood, and it will warp again, only in less time.  I do not recommend, nor do I have the equipment to offer this costly and futile procedure.

An alternative procedure is to lower the saddle, and sometimes replace it with a wider one to restore intonation, sometimes including adjusting the height of the bridge below the strings to lower the action and restore playability.  It may even be necessary to cut grooves behind the saddle into the bridge towards the string holding pins where present, to restore string pressure on the saddle.  I do offer the procedure, but it can only buy you a few years of playability, as the top will continue to warp.  the time it takes depends on how high the action is and then some, and varies between 1 1/2 to 4 hours of work

The tops of Jazz arch top instruments with tail pieces can also warp, but normally it is climate related, and as for repair, the same as above holds true, and adjustment of the bridge is the best alternative.  The procedure is different on arch tops, as the entire bridge is either lowered or may in rare cases need to be replaced by a lower one, which may not be available for purchase, where I can make a new one.

Although the work itself is guaranteed, it in no way implies that the cause for the need of the repair is corrected, as the top will most likely continue to warp over time.

Woodwork:

I repair small cracks in the top, back and sides, even going as far as grafting in wood to replace larger gaps, but only where I can access the area needing repair.  Where a wood graft is needed it may be hard to find wood that matches closely in species, grain and color.  If I have to search all four corners of the earth to find some, It can get expensive, so you have the option to search yourself, or live with the closest match I can make.  Once I covered a clean hole caused by a stray arrow in an acoustic guitar top with an inlay, but inlays can also get very expensive too.  I have had great success in closing cracks and filling holes, but since these types of repairs are rare for me and can vary widely, I can not give you even a rough time frame of the procedure, until I have the instrument in hand.

If a portion of the top or back comes apart from the side, I can normally glue it back together with no problems, and it only requires me from 30 to 50 minutes to fix, unless it has been like that for a long time and the side is distorted badly or caked in dirt.  If it is distorted badly, it can add an hour or more to make a clamping rig to force the side into submission, and hold it in shape during gluing.

Work I do not do:

Although I have already covered some of the work I do not do on acoustic instruments on this page, I will re-cap them here and add the ones I have not mentioned yet:

I do not straighten out warped tops, or fix major cracks or holes in the top, back and sides, or any other work that requires me to go through the sound hole and reach deep enough into the instrument that special tools are required or I can not get a good view of the area in question.  This includes some bracing, the bridge plate, the neck and end blocks, and kerfing which is the notched edging that holds the top and back to the sides.

I am currently not equipped to spray finishes, although I can do some spot repairs to them.  See the section on finishes for more information on the subject.

Of course I still do all electronic work to acoustic instruments, and know all the tricks when it comes to coaxing controls through f-holes and the like.  My knowledge and skills with electronics surpasses that of most luthiers specializing in acoustic instruments.  Here are a few places you can go for that: Electronics repair and Custom, click on the "electronics" link from there.