Hey all,
Just was given a kids acoustic guitar from a neighbor and thought I might try to repair it so my two boys can have fun with it. It has lots of problems.
1. It was kept in a garage and is pretty darn dried out. I put a soapbox humidifier into it, hopefully it can humidify the wood.
2. probably the biggest problem that I see is the neck is warped a bit. The fret board warps towards the back. I suppose this is due to the fact it hasn't had strings on it for a while--my guess is years.
3. the bottom fretboard, closest to the sound hole has unseated.
4. The frets and fretboard are in serious need of dressing up.
my question is: Will the neck eventually straighten out--even slightly after I put on the strings or will it forever be warped? It is an old cheap guitar so there is no truss rod and the neck reinforcement is not all that great. Its a beater for sure, but I would like to get the most out of it for them and don't mind doing some surgery.
thanks
IMHO....that neck will never straighten up....you might be able to use it as a practise slide guitar.
The intonation problem on a bad neck is permanent. :(
Again, that's just based on every bad necked guitar I've ever encountered, and they all HAD truss rods. :(
"A child of five could understand this...send someone to fetch a child of five !"--Groucho Marx
i dunno but it sounds like firewood to me
#4491....
I suppose you could make it into a 'project guitar' and take the frets out, reglue that area of the fretboard near the soundhole (with clamps I guess), then resurface the fretboard with a curved sanding block (matching the curve of the original fretboard radius, and then refret and dress the frets.
If you're into woodworking and stuff it might be fun; if not...lotsa work. You might put a set of light strings on it for a few days, tuned up to maybe C standard, and put it someplace safe so that if the neck completely pops out, it won't hurt anybody.
I thought about the firewood :twisted: :D
just thought it would make a great beater for my two small boys to get acquainted with the guitar, for it seems they can get their fingers around the neck fairly well.
I cringe when they touch my guitars...too expensive to let kids bang them around...but they do love to play.
thanks for the replies, guess I am going to get to work trying to repair it as much as possible.
peace
Suggestion,
If you don't care about really trying to save or restore this piece of firewood, it's time for some advanced guitar repair lessons!
What I would do is evaluate what's good and bad about it, I would start with why the fretboard is lifting off the guitar, is the neck coming loose from the body? Is it because the fretboard is warping up from the top? Find out what is going on and correct that stuff.
If the warp isn't too bad, pull the frets and plane the fretboard down to just about straight, use a thin jewelers saw, cut the slots deeper and tap the frets back in and see what happens. Can't hurt.
When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming......
like the passengers in his car.
One thing I wanted to address is that you are wanting to use this for your kids; I can tell you from personal experience that if you start out on a bad guitar that is unpleasant to play, you'll lose interest. I started at 12 with a guitar that had high action, even for a lap steel- and noone to tell me that guitars can be set up to play properly. You'd be better off paying about $99 and gettin a starter guitar at GC. Many of those guitars play great and, though not stellar in the tone department, can actually encourage your kids to play.
ya know most people post pictures of their new acquisitions, but I think I am going to change that tradition. I have been fiddling around with that little guitar and I think as others have stated it just won't ever be playable. So, having said all that, and having spent the last week and most of this morning trying to iron out just some of the problems I have decide to torch the damn thing. A nice funeral pyre. Stay Tuned for the pics. :twisted:
