I think I'm going to throw up!!

A good friend who has taught me many great Blues licks- he started playing at age 8-- took a Church group on a summer tour to Nashville- his "roadie" axe is a Takamine- cut away- full 25.25 scale fretboard- D body like the Martin Dreadnoughts and the Gibson Sunburst- the neck has warped a bit- he had a Gospel gig in two days- took the Taka to Gruen's in Nashville- Guess what- they told him: "We send all our guitars up to Elderly's in Lansing, MI for repair, etc." He borrowed a Songbird from a local friend and used that-

Stan Werblin started that great operation about 25-30 years ago, in an old school stroage building on Washington St. in downtown Lansing- right near the LCC and the Capital Bldg.- It is called "Elderly' for the "Vintage" guitars and other stringed instruments, both new and used, they sell and service. They may well be the largest retailer of new Martins in the US of A- not sure.

I had them put a Fishman pickup in my HD-35 and they did a first class job- they also did a neck and re-fretting on the HD-28- I don't too much about the new Gibson in Nashville, believe they went out to MT. first- also heard they bought the Dobro (Dopera Brothers- National Guitar Chicago era) patent rights. I play a Scheerhorn Dobro (resonator guitar) as I have known Tim for years and helped him pack up the machinery (from Steelcase) when he first left Grand Rapids and went to Nashville-

Nashville is a great area indeed, but a bit tricky to get "inside of"- IMO--

[Double Play]

Francis,
I hope I don't have to go thru this again but if I do I will keep Elderly's in mind.

[Dean Romig]

Rich, sell them before they get any worse and invest the proceeds in fine old Parkers.

[VH20]

A gun of that Grade and value deserves the very best craftsman available. There's no doubt in my mind that the culprit is that beautifully figured wood. Always a trade-off between beauty and utility in that department. It definitely needs reinforcement during the repair. Either a very hard wood dowel, or pins. I really like the use of 4130 chrome-moly aircraft tubing for that. MAKE SURE YOU SAVE EVERY LITTLE SLIVER AND SPLINTER FOR THE REPAIRMAN. If you think you missed any, go back to the scene of the crime (I know - if you can find it again) and look for them. Even those little pieces that seem inconsequential will make the repair job much easier. The easier it is, the better it will look!

Richard Flanders - Holy Cow man! Are you not keeping a hygrometer and case humidifier in the case with those Martins up there in that arid deep freeze you call a state?? A Braz D-28 is Holy Grail stuff. Get with the program, son! (But DON'T use the Planet Waves humidifier that comes in the squishy bags that fit into a cloth sleeve. When they dry out they crystallize, rupture open and leak all over the guitar and case lining. They nearly ruined a high-end Taylor of mine. I think/hope they've been taken off the market).

Edit: I forgot to say how jealous I am. This thing started out about a Grade 4 Parker and now we've added vintage Martins to the mix. Just how much is a guy expected to endure in one thread?

[Richard Flanders]

I know the Dampits. I used to have several and have one left of fiddle size. I used to work at Elderly Instruments when they were getting started. Learned a lot there....

[ch]

Ok what in sam hill is "caveat emptor" ch

[Autumn Daze]

Calvin,I means "Buyer Beware"

[Dean Romig]

Brian, Charles A. King, Superintendant of the Parker Bros. Gun Works invented and patented on September 10, 1895 the Buttstock Reinforcing Rod.
I quote from page 127, Vol. 1 of Ther Parker Story King's own words:

"The use of woods of the so-called "curly" varieties is a well-known desideratum in the manufacture of stocks for shotguns and rifles, in order to get the peculiar ornamental effect thereof. In making a gunstock of wood of one of these curly varieties it is a matter of very frequent occurence that the grain of the wood at the neck or grip of the stock does not run lengthwise of that neck , but across it , which is something that renders the neck very liable indeed to breakage. So great is this liability of breakage in cases where the grain runs across rather than with the length of the neck or grip, manufactures of guns reject and refrain from using a large percentage of the very handsomest gunstocks they produce, and the loss resulting therefrom is a serious matter."

It would appear that not an awful lot of Parkers had this reinforcing rod installed. There is a 1907 DHE with the patent stamp in the stockwood immediately behind the grip cap indicating it had the rod installed and there are a number of Parkers with skeleton buttplates where the end of the rod appears in the correct position of an in-line boring for this rod but most of these lack the patent stamp.
It is unknown when this practice was discontinued but, in the case of this CH example, it had obviously been discontinued by then . . . how very unfortunately.

[VH20]

Dampits are probably the way to go with what's available now. If you haven't seen them before, Bob Taylor offers some great videos on their website about humidifying. These show the restoration of a severely dehydrated/damaged guitar:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/see-hea...t.aspx?id=1004

There are three videos on humidity. One that shows the effects, another that shows restoring a dry guitar, and another where they intentionally dry one out in a humidity chamber. Very interesting.

Edit: Well, that link doesn't take you there directly. There's a menu on the right side and the humidity videos can be found under the Performance/Maintenance Tips tab of that menu.

Jim

[Pa SxS]

The use of the hickory reinforcing rod will not necessarily prevent the stock from cracking or breaking. I have a 1925 PH fluid steel that was my grandfathers. As far back as I can remember this stock had cracked behind the top tang and across both sides of the pistol grip deep enough that with a little twisting, the cracks would widen. It is possible however that this rod kept the stock from completely breaking over the years of shooting it. This stock had the hickory reinforcing rod in it along with the patent stamp behind the grip cap. According to Stockfixers, they had never seen this modification on any of the Parkers they've worked on so it must have been pretty rare. I suspect that my stock was an old one from years ago that Parker decided to use up. Either the time and expense to install the rod or possibly that it didn't work as planned resulted in Parker not doing all the stocks that way. I sent the stock to Stockfixers in Wyoming for repair.