Restorations - thoughts on removing the back

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yourwhathurts69

Posts: 117
Joined: Sep. 16 2009

Restorations - thoughts on removing ...

I often see old guitars with several functional (i.e., not always pretty) repairs throughout. At a certain point, it seems to me like the guitar could benefit from a restoration that involves removing the back to clean things up. What are your thoughts/experiences with restorations that involve removing the back? Is it typically something that is only done when absolutely necessary? Does removing the back often require you to also replace the bindings, and if so, how much do you think that matters for collectible, vintage guitars?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 29 2023 18:02:38

mrstwinkle

Posts: 551
Joined: May 14 2017

RE: Restorations - thoughts on remov... (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

Why remove the back?

Only normal reason within financial sanity is neck reset.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 29 2023 21:49:47

Echi

Posts: 1131
Joined: Jan. 11 2013

RE: Restorations - thoughts on remov... (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

I did it twice, the first time went ok, the second I thoroughly repented.
It really depends on how easy is to remove the back: old instruments assembled with hot hide glue and finished with shellac can be worked much more easily than a Ramirez kind of guitar glued with white glue and finished with a brittle and thick poliuretane.
I would do the job just if the instrument is valuable and I have no other ways to do it.
Once I restored an Esteso: the job was ok but I had to work through the sound hole and I think I should have removed the back to do it as it deserved.
Of course you’ll try to keep all the original parts. At time it can be not possible and then you’ll remade them as identical as possible (same material, fisical property, color etc.).

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 29 2023 21:54:47

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Restorations - thoughts on remov... (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

quote:

ORIGINAL: yourwhathurts69

I often see old guitars with several functional (i.e., not always pretty) repairs throughout. At a certain point, it seems to me like the guitar could benefit from a restoration that involves removing the back to clean things up. What are your thoughts/experiences with restorations that involve removing the back? Is it typically something that is only done when absolutely necessary? Does removing the back often require you to also replace the bindings, and if so, how much do you think that matters for collectible, vintage guitars?

Taking the back off is not a move you take lightly. There are some reasons to do it, for example on a very old important guitar with lots of old repairs and cracks in the top. At some point if the instrument is of significant historical value it’s a good idea to remove ( presumably poor) restorations from the past and re do them with better modern techniques.

Often on instruments that old the way to get in is to remove the binding in such a way that it can be reused. Sometimes that’s possible and sometimes it’s not, but hide glue in old instruments can be reversed, there are techniques.

A lot of the decisions and thinking around taking the back off are very difficult to talk about without a specific instrument with a set of real conditions to respond to. And the decision should probably only be made by an absolute expert restoration person. By expert, someone who’s practiced on minor value instruments or their own instruments first with good success. Once you take the back off the instrument will almost always distort in some way, and only an expert can either anticipate the distortion or understand the consequences of the distortion and how that effects putting the structure back together. That’s just one of the reasons why it’s an expert level task.

If you could see one of these restorations in progress, the repairer might have the guitar clamped to a fixture if some kind that holds the guitar in a certain position so it can’t distort. One of the usual ways it could go is that the ribs change shape, this might not pose a problem, or the repair person might use a dummy set of back braces clamped to across the ribs to hold them when the guitar isn’t being worked on. Another possibility is fastening the guitar to a bar that holds the neck at its original angle while the back is off. There’s a myriad of possibilities.

_____________________________

https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 30 2023 3:21:50