My first guitar, again.
When my dad passed away I inherited his 1945 Martin 00-18. It used to sit near the fireplace in our house in Connecticut and dad used to strum it every now and then and play “Waltzing Matilda” and a few other folk songs. When I was about eleven years old, he showed me how to play a C chord, and the rest is history. I’ve now been playing over 30 years. Yikes.
My dad bought the guitar at a pawn shop, probably in the mid 1950s. He got a good deal because there was a considerable amount of damage to the top. The shopkeeper told him that the previous owner had used the poor helpless instrument to batter his poor helpless wife. If the couple was having money troubles, perhaps they could have gotten more for it without the top being all smashed up? I guess you can’t expect a guy who bludgeons his family members with guitars to be exceptionally bright, though.
When I got the guitar it was in pretty bad shape. The top had been repaired at the Martin factory in the 1970s, but the bridge was starting to bow up again and the action was pretty high and awful. Dad had it sitting in a soft case at his house in New Mexico and I would play it a little and tend to it when I would visit. I had been keeping it detuned somewhat to keep the top from bowing further.
Once I got the guitar back to Tennessee I took it to John LeVan at LeVan Guitar Services here in Nashville for an extreme makeover. John is George Gruhn’s right hand man when it comes to restoring vintage instruments. He’s done a fantastic job on some of my electric guitars in the past and I knew he was the right man for the job.
After spending a couple of months in the shop I got the guitar back today. John reset the bridge, replaced the bridge plate and two of the internal braces. He repaired a couple of cracks that had developed on the sides. He also reset the neck angle and used period-correct hide glue instead of the Tite-Bond that Martin had used for the earlier repair. (Go figure…)
The guitar now plays and sounds like a dream. The top is flat. The action is nice and low, perfect for fingerstyle playing. And it’s LOUD. No longer a closet queen, this one’s a player! For a small guitar, the projection is incredible. It’s much more resonant than before, and John says that with the hide glue, it’ll continue to improve as the years go by. The damage to the top isn’t as noticeable now and doesn’t seem to affect the tone. Playability-wise it’s almost certainly better than new.
With my dad’s help, this little instrument started my life’s musical journey. Now that it’s been restored, I know I’m going to be playing it a lot.
Thanks, Dad.
Gawain– a memo from a long lost cousin. I loved your account of your Dad’s guitar, which I remember him playing on visits to your house in CT. I was thinking about your father (“uncle Bill”) when I was telling someone how he had peaked my interest in hiking and camping–and on a whim decided to see if I could track you down through “google”. I was sorry to hear of his death. It is sad to think that all my relatives in his generation are gone–and I’m the older generation now. I’m not much of a computer person–you clearly are–so I’m not sure if this gets to you directly. But would be interested in hearing from you and learn about family, etc., other involvements.