restoring vintage guitars

[viking]

l am not going into which ones but l will give a example. l have seen over the years many 1900 to 20s guitars that have been worked on. some of the things done have ruined a good vintage guitar. the first is the glue never use crazy glue on any body parts (seen it done)use a good horse hyde glue or professional glue stew mac has it and will deliver to your door. l bought a 1900 regal that had work done but used hot glue and all his work was wasted. it literally fell apart l had to do it all over again.another l had to use l used a hot knife to get it apart.
dont use epoxy it may hold but if it needs to be taken apart it wont happen .
just because a guitar has a pin bridge it doesnt mean it was ment for steel strings . particularly if it come from the late 1800s and you use extra lites . compare extra lites with a good high quaulity like savarez , you see the difference in the tension. an example l have a 1884 washburn it uses gut with a pin bridge . someone had steel when l got it which were quickly removed. do your home work if you are going to tackle a 20s or before guitar. check what strings they used and remember that steel strings were not gauged like now. to be safe if its a pin bridge try gut first and see how it sounds. back in the day different builders were arguing about which was best.

[viking]

[viking]

one thing l missed epoxy glue . even tho its strong the one thing is its consistancy. poly epoxy does not transfer sound like a glue intended for instruments . it will affect the transfer sound for example down the neck and more sound is transfer down the neck than from the bridge. hold a high end instrument pluck the string and you can feel the sound going down the neck . on a cheaply made it is not as noticable