1890 Martin restoration

[Robbie O'Brien]

I recently had an old Martin guitar come into the shop for some work. With John Hall's help we were able to determine that this is a model 2 from 1890. It was strung with steel strings which is way too much tension for this little guy. Maybe that is why the left part of the x brace was completely broken in half. Someone has tried to repair it but improperly. With John's help we determined that to do it right the back needed to be removed so that we could get inside the guitar. The bindings, tuner knobs, heel and end caps and rosette rings are ivory. The bridge pins appear to be plastic, , not original. The back and sides are Brazilian rosewood and the top spruce. On a scale of 1 to 10 the pucker factor was a good solid 12 as I removed the back. It took me at least 2 hours to remove it. Care was taken to keep the ivory bindings and the dark/light back purfling veneers intact. Now that the back is off I can get into the restoration of the braces.
Check out my blog for pics of the restoration progress.
http://www.obrienguitars.com/2013/03...n-restoration/

[gitnoob]

Cool little guitar! I'm curious -- what were the dimensions of the failed X-brace? Also, it'd be interesting to know the top thickness.

The structural changes Martin made when they added support for steel string tension isn't well documented.

[Kitchen Guitars]

The old old Brazilian is amazing. Please keep us up to date

[Robbie O'Brien]

Originally Posted by gitnoob

Cool little guitar! I'm curious -- what were the dimensions of the failed X-brace? Also, it'd be interesting to know the top thickness.

The structural changes Martin made when they added support for steel string tension isn't well documented.

The x brace is 6.68mm wide and the highest point at the x is 9.75mm
The top thickness varies from 1.96mm to 2.24mm It doesn't appear that there was any intentional graduating done on the top.
The back is 1.9mm thick.
Here are some more specs.
Body length - 19 1/8
Width at upper bout - 9 1/2
width at lower bout - 13 1/2
Body depth upper 3 3/8
Body depth lower 3 7/8
soundhole diameter 3 5/8

With the research I have done it appears this instrument is a size 0 model 28. That is what I am going with.

[vintageparlors]

You've got my attention on this one.

[gitnoob]

Interesting. A very thin top and fairly low braces.

If you want an idea of value, Gryphon has a slightly earlier one for sale:
http://www.gryphonstrings.com/instpix/39038/index.php

[redir]

That is very very very cool.

Are you going to generate plans for that guitar? Hint hint... it would be really cool to have plans of that guitar.

Interesting too, they braced the hell out of that back didn't they.