Refinish my old D18?

[Shortfinger]

What might it cost to have a pro refinish my beat-up Martin? The top finish is cracked and crazed, there are scratches, and the back has a couple of scrapes.

Lots of people, including me, love the look of an old guitar and would never change it. I find refinished examples comparatively uninteresting, but I accept them if the price is right and the sound is there.

Assuming you mean the '72 D-18 in your signature, the cost would be more than the value of the guitar. Since the neck and bridge have to come off, I would estimate a refinish of the body at $1,500-2,500 depending on where you live and who does the work. Likely more toward the high end of that range.

Here's my '72 D-18. I kinda like it as is.

[Earl49]

What Todd said. Plus if you've ever watched Antiques Roadshow, you'll know that refinishing might destroy any "collectable" or "vintage" value that might be there. That might not be a consideration for a '72 model. Any time a refinish is involved, it seems to ding the resale value.

I take good care of my guitars and even the ones that are over 20 years old still look nearly new. But a well-used instrument with some real mojo is appealing too.

[B. Howard]

Depends on what you want from a refinish. To make it like new will cost about $1000 here. A more economical option may be a simple over-spray without removing the neck which would be about half that price.

[Shortfinger]

Thanks for the replies. My finish crazing on the top looks exactly as the pic above.

Sides and back are acceptable to me except for some scratches on top from pics, and a couple of deep-but-not-all-the-way-to-wood on back gouges.

So what I would like is really some touchup work to improve this a little.

I bought it new in '72 but never progressed beyond chords and strums using the songbooks of the day. Bob Dylan, CSN, etc. Nipped my chording index finger on a jointer in '77 and with the injury, put it away for a long long time.

Paid no attention to proper storage, etc. Lost track of it during our kids' college years and the hard knocks occurred then. Our kids paid a luthier to fix the cracked top and gave it back to me as a present a few years ago. I still did not play it, and without any care for humidification, I just left it in its case.

So after thinking I could play something again and learning a little ukelele strarting three months ago, I got the Martin out of its case and started up again with my somewhat-toughened-from-uke-playing finger, and lo and behold, I can play guitar.

Have been avidly at it for about six weeks now and have not achieved peak callous, but can play a little fingerpicking and strumming. Most recently learned to play Daft Punk's "Get Lucky," and from Jim Nailon's excellent YouTube instructional can play Michael Joncas's "On Eagles Wings."

And I want to fix the dings. So I'll take it to a local shop and see what happens.

[redir]

Wabi-sabi man, All things that age with imperfections are beautiful for what they are

[HHP]

Martins are only original once. While this one may not be avidly collected now, there's a decent chance it may be in the future. If that happens, you would want original finish, even if cracked and worn.

[amyFB]

Originally Posted by redir

Wabi-sabi man, All things that age with imperfections are beautiful for what they are

^^ This echoes my feelings as well.

I've got an old 40s Gibson that's scratched, dented, cracked, repaired well and refinished not so well - but dang it plays the blues like nobody's business but its own!

[ManyMartinMan]

Originally Posted by HHP

Martins are only original once. While this one may not be avidly collected now, there's a decent chance it may be in the future. If that happens, you would want original finish, even if cracked and worn.

Originally Posted by Earl49

... know that refinishing might destroy any "collectable" or "vintage" value that might be there. That might not be a consideration for a '72 model. Any time a refinish is involved, it seems to ding the resale value....

Whether selling as vintage or collectable or...... just old, refinishing will/can diminish value by up to 1/2.

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by Shortfinger

What might it cost to have a pro refinish my beat-up Martin? The top finish is cracked and crazed, there are scratches, and the back has a couple of scrapes.

When repainting an instrument, time is costs, so if it takes longer to prepare the instrument that is more it costs to you the customer.

General rule of thumb, I charge 950 to remove an existing finish and respray, I encourage customers to sand the instrument to bare wood prior to me doing the work as that is time savings and I reduce my price down to 750.

I dis-agree with others that refinishing your instrument devalues it.

Steve

[AcornHouse]

Those type of finish cracks are not easy, or cheap, to fix. Pretty much a total refinish of the top or leave it. No real touch ups will work.

[johntrem]

If I had a 45 year old Martin that had crazing I'd be a happy guy. Leave it alone. No offense to Steve, but yeah, refinishing would devalue it.

[phavriluk]

Fabric-covered airplanes are susceptible to finish cracking, big time, and those finishes are very thick. If organic finishes were used ('dope') there is a steady trade in 'rejuvenators' which when blown onto the broken surface melts the finish and allows the stuff to flow together and resolve the cracking, for a few years at least. Now 'dope', I think, either nitrate based or butyrate based is a variety of lacquer. Can nitrocellulose guitar finishes be saved to some extent by doing the same thing, maybe even applying the same rejuvenator?

[mirwa]

Cotton covered wings and fuselages are a thing of the past, maybe one or two still exist out there, most are polyester covered, pretty sure from my aviation days (I was a qualified aircraft mechanic) that they were phased out during the 50's and cotton fuselages were only made to last 10 years max.

The ""rejuventors"" for aircraft cracked finishes are really just heavy solvents to reflow the surface, they are not concerned about achieving a mirror finish.

Guitars - Yes, we can added solvents to reflow the surface if it is indeed nitro cellulose lacquer, but the resultant mess can be less than desirable.

Steve