Aubry Maire Guitar(mid
1700's)
This guitar arrived here in really poor
shape.
It had been in the customers family since it was new. So it also
came with a fantastic story. Her great, great, great grandmother had
"smuggled" it out of South Carolina before General Sherman burned it down.
At times during the repair work, when it was being steamed apart, the smell
of pipe tobacco, and just simply the tangible history of it filled the air.
It was a pleasure to work on.
Before the work.....
It had been in the attic for a long time...
.
Top was warped to the point the sound hole was no longer round.
Inlays were missing/broken.
It had been repaired at some point. A tailpiece was added.
.
The tuners still work!!
During.....
AFTER.....
Disassembly...
I had to figure out where the top had warped, and where I could
add wood and reshape the top to make the sound hole round again
.
Filled the hole with the same wood as the top. (top had some
sort of wax finish/funk of ages, that prevented an exact color
match) Broken braces were repaired when possible, and replaced
if necessary.
New inlays cut and etched with vine design to match the other
pieces, old inlays reinstalled.
The tuners are still working after 100's of years!! (and I
repaired the headstock inlay.)
After all the insides were repaired, I set the neck, and
finished the top. The finish on the back sides and neck only
needed cleaning/polishing.
We decided on a simple replacement for the bridge to keep the
price down, but also to meet a deadline.
More to come...
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