Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirty Bill
Since the binding is cracked on my Martin D-35 I will probably change it.What do you guys think of using abalone instead of the white binding that's on it now? The white is plastic.
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Well, it's physically possible to perform that work, but done in the correct Martin style it'll be fairly expensive. Perhaps Todd can correct me if I'm out of date on this, but the abalone trim on Martin has traditionally been made up of small strips of abalone shell cut and inlaid by hand.
There is a modern product called Ablam that is a laminated abalone, which is fairly inexpensive to buy and much less time-consuming to inlay along the edges of the top and in the rosette. Which is why there are now guitars on the market that cost less than $500 retail yet have flashy abalone trim on them: Ablam was used.
Neither traditional abalone strips or Ablam would be correct for a D-35, but if you have no intention of ever selling the guitar, that would be irrelevant. However, if you ever
do decide to sell the guitar, not only would you never gain back the cost of fancying it up with abalone, you might even take a severe hit on the market value of a similar, unmodified D-35.
Annother factor that has to be considered is the extensive finish work that would be required whether you went with traditional abalone or Ablam. At the very least, the top would have to be refinished, and if you had abalone around the edge of the back, the entire guitar body would require it. So that would add another $700 or $800 to the project, completely aside from the material and labor costs from the abalone work.
Another issue: the original rosette would have to chiseled out and replaced by abalone.
So the costs and effort to do all that work would be considerable.
By contrast, regluing the original binding is far less expensive and time-consuming. Yes, once the binding was back in place there'd need to be a bit of spot lacquer applied and buffed to a shine, but it doesn't cost much to do that.
What's more, it doesn't need to be done by a Martin Authorized Repair station: I've needed to have this done a few times (though not on any of the Martins I've owned.) In each instance I've taken the guitar to an experienced local repair tech, and in every case the shop fee has been in the $50-$75 range.
One more thing that theDrake should consider, and that is that sending the guitar off to either the Martin factory or an Authorized Martin Repair center will entail more time, trouble and expense than having a competent local tech do the work. Even if the shop charges aren't too much, there's the cost and risk that automatically comes when shipping an instrument to a distant city. If you go local with this, not only will your turnaround time be faster but you can take it and pick it up yourself. It's safer and cheaper that way.
What I should mention before I close is that on the three occasions I've needed to have this work done, not only was it a fast, easy and inexpensive repair, but those repairs have held ever since; I've never needed to have the same work done twice on the same guitar.
So Drake and Bill, despite some of the vibe you might be getting from this thread, getting this work done is
no big deal. If it's only a short section of the binding that needs to be fixed, the finish work required is just a touch-up, not a major project.
Hope that makes sense.
Wade Hampton Miller