Finishing up the Regal

Took off all the clamps this afternoon and got to work cleaning up glue drops and making sure the sides were as even as possible.  Feels solid as a rock now.  A far cry from the warped, delaminated pile of crap it was when it came in.  I don't do painting here, don't have the room for a spray booth, and Lou is an accomplished painter, so I'll let him take care of that if he chooses.  My job was to make it playable and sturdy, and I feel I've done well on this one.

Closer view of the sound hole to show the new bracing.  I wanted to try to find him a new label to replace the original which was in poor condition, but I haven't had any luck yet.

Can't wait to hear some slide on this one.

Almost done

Got the bridge doctor support system and the bridge itself installed last night.  Today I decided to put the back back on.  Went on almost as easy as it came off.  Looks like the only uneven spots are where the wood was chipped/worn away, aside from that its lined up perfectly.   I know when people see this they'll probably think "damn thats a lot of clamps!" but I actually would've prefered to use a few more, that was just all I have at the moment.  Anyway, sometime in the next few days I'll post pics of it finished.

Quick Update

So the other day I worked on the bridge plate/brace.  It was surprisingly very straight considering the overall condition of the rest of them, but it was placed off-center and the string holes were on the edge of it.  I cut out the damaged section, and added a sturdier piece of maple scrap to it.  Last night I popped the bridge off since it was hanging by a thread anyway and it will be easier to do it this way as opposed to trying to get enough glue underneath it.  I got the brace placed where I needed it, and used some screws through the string holes to keep it in place, and then set up a makeshift gobar deck for the edges.  Looking pretty sturdy now.  I'll be reinstalling the bridge in a little while.

Back Bracing DONE

So last night I finished up gluing in the brace wood and let it sit overnight.  I worked all day in shifts today carving these braces by hand with chisels, a small palm plane, and then just sanding by hand to keep the contours rounded.  My hand and arm are sore as hell.   Here's where I'm at now:

*edit*  I meant to add that if they look slightly off center, its due to two factors.  A)I used the lines from the original braces to line up the edges of the new ones, and B)I carved them by hand, so they aren't 100% perfect.

Regal Parlor update

So I talked to Lou, and decided that since the back and braces are so warped, there's no way I can really get it back to its original radius.  I'm just going to try and flatten it out as much as possible and hope for the best.  I bought some hardwood brace blanks and cut them to size and started gluing a little while ago.  Here's the first pic of the progress:

Since I'm not using radiused braces, I'm just going with regular clamps with X braced pressure, seems to be doing the trick so far.  I'm anxious to see how it holds up.

Regal parlor part 2.5

Did a small amount of work last night.  Lou decided on using the Bridge Doctor to stabilize the bellying behind the bridge, so I started some minor work with the bracing.  There were two braces that were loose, but still holding on for dear life, so I glued them down in place.  Also, the end of the fingerboard was loose and there was a crack through the top underneath it, so I glued down the fingerboard, and added a small strip of thin wood to keep the crack stabil.  Is that how you spell it?  Stable?  yeah, that seems better. 

Regal part III

So I decided to post this as a seperate entry.  After taking all the clamps off last night, I got to work on removing the back so I could reattach the braces.  I was worried that I'd have to build a makeshift steamer for the task, but the hide glue was pretty decomposed and it popped right off after 10 minutes of working around it with a hot steak knife.  I'm pausing at this stage for now because there are 3 routes I could go with the restoration.  A)Completely rebrace the top using modern X bracing patterns, B)Install a bridge doctor to lower the beer belly to a playable height, or C) Use the original braces, and install a trapese tailpiece to take the tension off of the belly of the guitar.  I'm waiting for Lou to decide which direction he wants me to go before I continue any futher with the top. 

As far as the back goes, I should be able to use 3 of the 4 original braces that were inside the guitar.  One was cracked, so I'm debating whether to glue it, or cut a new one.  I may just cut a new set out of some spruce boards I have laying around so I can try to reduce the amount of warping on the back, but I'll have to get my chisels sharpened before doing that.  Either way, its going smoothly and I'm 100% confident this will be playable again very soon.

Regal part II

So last night I started on Lou's Regal.  Taking the strings off proved to be a project in itself.  Several of the tuning pegs appear to be made of JB weld, and the strings themself appear to be as old as the guitar.  To make matters worse, whatever idiot strung it up before tied the strings to the tuners like a classical guitar and were rusted together.  Took me an hour to get them off, and once the last string came out, the bridge block/brace fell off.  heh.  So after I got all of those off and pulled out the braces that were loose and bouncing around inside, I started by securing the top down so the whole thing wouldn't implode while removing the back.  It went pretty well, there are 2 spots that are slightly uneven, but its sturdy as shit now.

What a mess...

I must thank my friend Lou for being addicted to guitars and keeping me in business. He brought me a Regal student model parlor he got on ebay recently. I've actually seen this one floating around for awhile, but I guess nobody was ready to tackle the project. I'm trying to figure out where to start myself. Looks like it was left out in the rain. The top and back are half off, half of the braces are missing or loose, causing the neck to pull forward. Its just a mess. On the other hand, I welcome a challenge, and he said I did a good job on his kingston that was splitting apart and is letting me try to work my magic. I'm thinking that I'm going to remove the back and rebrace it with new braces to try to reverse the warping, and if all else fails, put a new back on if I can't straighten it out enough.

Without further ado, here's the before:

pray for mojo....