Repair And Restoration
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55’ J-45 basket case
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55’ J-45 basket case
Well, it is what it is, I seem to have found myself “the guy” to bring basket case Gibsons too…..
I have the following 55’ J-45. The top has some serious belly, and has had not one, but two different directions of bridge on it at various points. I’m trying to flatten the top out with Thompson belly reducers. I first tried the standard plates used for the bridge plate n the guitar, and although it helped, I still found the top to have a major sink in front of the bridge, almost exactly where the x-bracelet intersects. I figured I needed to remove the bridge plate(spruce…who wudda thought, oh and it’s in a million splinters now…..and use the Thompson plates for when the bridge plate was removed. I just set it up for its first treatment, but I still fear that it will have a major sink in front of the bridge, leaving the bridge footprint tilted towards the sound hole and sunk in…..any thoughts on a repair like this?!? Photos included
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7 Replies
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That is actually fairly surprising as Gibson’s mostly have radiused braces pointing the top in the other direction. Have you tried the belly reducer yet ? I’m curious if it works.
Are the braces loose ? I cant really see what kind of glue is on the braces. What color is it ?
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There’s a tone bar loose but nothing major is loose.
Like I said, the plates that are used with the plate in did some, but it’s still sunk in pretty noticeably, the photo with the straight edge was taken after two treatments with the “pro-plate” belly reducers.
The photo with the granite plate was yesterday just before posting this, just after I put in the first non-plate belly reducers.
In a few days I’ll pull it apart, but I feel like the whole setup is still sunk in, and I can’t fit a scissor jack and all those clamps at the same time lol
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Probably hide glue
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Are you pulling the neck ?
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If I could flatten the top properly, I don’t think I’d need too. However, looks maybe like pulling the back off and trying to flatten out the top with weights against a radius dish may be the way to go
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I was going to say. If it’s hide glue and you’re pulling the neck, I’ve got a move for pulling the top that is a ton easier than pulling the back. If it was in the cards, I would pull the top and pull that x brace and reshape the braces. I suspect it’s the X hanging up the proceedings.
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IF you have wisdom here, send it my way, looks like this one, and the 46′ I have will have to be opened up and worked with the top and or back off lol
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