12 string guitar bellying, ladder bracing

[kirtley2013]

[VintAxe]

Hi kirtley2013.

I have delayed responding since I'm not much of an acoustic guitar expert. However, I will give you my opinion.

I believe that guitars that were built with flawed designs regardless of age are probably not worth the cost of restoring to a better design. If you want a more functional guitar, buy one. Do not put money into a guitar that is fundamentally flawed. You will not be happy with the result and you will never be able to recoup your restoration investment on a resell.

Just accept this guitar as a learning experience and buy a better guitar in the future. Learning isn't cheap, just ask any college student

[viking]

go to stew mac they l believe still have what was called a belly doctor that can fix it what usually happens some one tuned it to a standard and old 12 strings werent made to be tuned to pitch. you were supposed to tune starting with a d not an e then using a capo to bring it to pitch. l had a lot of 12 strings come to the shop with a belly.