Acoustic Guitar Repair. You Can Do The Simple Stuff and Then Some!

Do you need an acoustic guitar repair?

You can do many repairs yourself just by taking your time and following a simple set of instructions.

Start out with the small simple stuff and move on to the more difficult and tedious areas. To a beginner an acoustic guitar repair is often scary to attempt.

As you do small repairs, you will build your confidence and get prepared for the larger more complex ones.

Also, the more experienced repairman sometime needs just a bit more confidence and a bit more information for his acoustic guitar repair.

I have repaired numerous acoustic guitars and acoustic instruments and built about 50 acoustic guitars. I have done many set-ups on both acoustic and electric guitars.

I have always done small repairs and adjustments to my own instruments and helped on my picking buddies' instruments.

Let me tell you the story of how I got into luthiery.

I have a Martin D12X1. It is an HPL 12 string with a Sitka top. It has a fantastic sound but the playability wasn't exactly where I wanted it. The action was a little high from the 5th fret up.

I took it down to Wayne at Mary's Music in Dickson, TN where I purchased it used to get some help with the adjustment.

Wayne loosened the truss rod nut and tightened it back down and got most of the bow out but the action still wasn't exactly where I wanted it.

Wayne did not want to tighten the nut any more in fear of breaking the rod. Of course, the big I, (me) stepped up and said, "I think I can take it a little farther".

Wayne just shook his head and grimaced.

I grabbed the truss rod wrench and gave it a twist. Pop!!!!!!! It sounded like a .22 rifle going off. I broke it.

Wayne just shook his head and said, "I told you!"

Later that afternoon I called Martin in Nazareth, PA and they would not fix my guitar under warranty because it was used when I bought it.

I got a quick quote from them and the cost for repair was estimated at $600 to $800, almost as much as the cost of a new one.

At that point I asked what the cost of a truss rod was and they told me $12.00. I had them send me one.

The next day, I ordered a guitar repair manual off of Amazon.com and when the rod came in the mail, I was ready. I had studied and knew what I needed to do.

I heated the fingerboard with an infared lamp, loosened the glue, removed the fingerboard and the truss rod, installed the new truss rod and fingerboard, restrung the guitar and adjusted the truss rod out.

I guess I was lucky because my 12 string played like a dream.

The repair took 3 or 4 days to complete with only a few hours of real work. The rest of the time was drying time.

After getting my feet wet with that, I ordered a couple of Martin guitar kits, learned the parts and construction sequence and started building acoustic guitars.

I could have saved myself a lot of headaches if I had of listened to Wayne, but on the other hand, I came through it building guitars, something I truely love to do.

So, in doing an acoustic guitar repair, research the issue and take advice from folks that know what they are doing and have a good track record.

It will save you a lot of grief!

In the following pages, I discuss many pertinent subjects concerning acoustic guitar repair such as cleaning, touch-ups, neck evaluation and adjustment, set-ups, fret repairs, nut repair, saddle repair, and maintenance.

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