Taking A Martin Top Off With The Binding Attached
Why Take The Top Off?
Taking a plate off of a guitar should never be done lightly. It is a big project with high risk and rarely is the juice worth the economic squeeze.
The top came off this guitar for a few reasons. One, it’s valuable. Two, the work needed to remedy it’s ails would be difficult to do through the sound hole in a meaningful way. Three, taking the top off of this guitar and putting it back on is aided by the fact that it is hide glue construction and rosewood binding.
DAMP, HEAT, FORCE, TIME
Before I started to try taking this top off, I placed damp paper towel where the top meets the neck block for a day.
After a day of damp, I put the heat lamp over the area, for some long deep heating.
I also put two scissor jacks on either side of the neck block in order to to apply some nice light destructive force to the glue joint between the top of the kerfing and the top.
ONCE YOU GET IT GOING, JUST WORK IT AROUND
This came off about as well as can be expected. On a scale from one to two, I give this about a one point nine.
That’s some tasty loothin’
Beautiful guitar and masterful work! Can’t wait to see your process on fixing that top damage.
As they say, the patience of a saint.. Along with some heavy breathing of course. Nice job!
Unreal. I was holding my breath about halfway through! I never saw a hint of doubt as you gently convinced that top to come off. Not a job for the faint-hearted. Maybe I’ll just stick to changing strings.