Restoration work

[blackalex1952]

It's quite an effort to trawl through all the topics on this forum, but very worthwhile I have found. So I am posting this video from Stewmac with the following comments. Moderator, please move this post, subject to the right part of the forum, eg tutorials. or wherever most appropriate!
I have ,as a long term guitar player (sound like a recidivist don't I) begun my guitar making forays by firstly repairing and setting up my own guitars, then repairing and restoring for kids I taught, to guitar repair and restoration for others. After that, guitar making was obviously next on my list!
Guitar repair is a risky and very specialised area...not for the faint hearted. There are some very highly skilled restoration people who work in museums- cleaning and restoring works of art, antique picture frames,antiques of all descriptions, archeaological items from pre history, preservation experts etc. All specialists in their chosen fields and highly skilled as well as having the ability to think outside the box. These people are often multidisciplinary, having skills drawn from study as physicists, chemists, engineers, forensics and often posessing great knowledge of forgotten methodology. Making guitars from new materials does not necessarily qualify one for restoration and repair work, the other point being that repair work can be a source of income for builders but can also be a distraction. One of the skills I feel, is to understand how to work with clients who have high unrealistic expectations of how repair work will turn out...there can also be a lot of stress when a repair doesn't go quite as planned!
Finish repair and colour matching is to me a very scary thing sometimes. Lots of variables. This vid has some grist for the mill.
Maybe the tutorial section could have a sub section dedicated to restoration work? http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Trade_Sec ... newsletter

[Nick]

I've always respected Dan Erlewine and what he brings to the repair community. His workmanship is top class and I've learnt much from him down through the years since I first started back in *cough cough* (Stewart MacDonalds were mainly drum part suppliers who did a few guitar parts as a sideline when I first started!) in both originally the printed and then the video format.

[Kamusur]

There wouldn't be to many better in the field than him Nick and his repair book from way back when was a good un.

Steve