Weissenborn Restoration & Repair

Tony Francis · From: Aotearoa / New Zealand

Although not a rare guitar in Weissenborn terms, historically the Style 1 was the backbone of Weissenborn's musical empire, and still is today. In the same way Martin brought their unsurpassed quality across a range of models and materials, Weissenborn wanted to make his proprietary steel guitars available so the average musician could obtain such an instrument.

This gorgeous Style 1 was produced in the mid 1920s at the height of the Weissenborn Company's success, and features beautiful figured Koa wood, Spirit varnish finish and all the typical construction details we would expect to see on an instrument dating from this era.

When the guitar came to my shop for repair, it had not long left another where it had received a new bridge:

Face view:

Rear view:

Now clearly this does not appear to be the work of an expert, and its unfortunate but its not uncommon to see this kind of work on Weissenborn and related instruments. You can see the saddle was made so tall that it actually cracked the bridge. I couldn't tune this instrument to pitch without it threatening to tear right off.

Here you can see why you should NEVER use slotted pins on your guitar - more on this later:

The repair begins. Heat shield, Aluminum tape, and heat lamp:

The tape is used to come up and over the edges, protecting any finish missed by the somewhat universal shield:

After a few minutes under the heat lamp, the resins in the rosewood begin to bubble. I slide my repair knife underneath, and the bridge comes away without problem:

A close examination and the previous "repair" disaster begins to show. Here you can see what happens if you don't heat the joint sufficiently, or pay attention to grain runout:

The "bellied" or distorted top:

Another view:

The top distortion is of course the most likely reason behind the previous replacement bridge. In an effort to increase action height, the tall saddle was installed, much like how at old Martins they would shave the bridge instead of resetting the neck. The heart of the problem was never addressed and the tall saddle only compounds the problem on an already sensitive instrument.

One of my favorite luthiers, restoration icon T.J Thompson, recently developed a tool to reduce the belly in the old prewar Martins he is associated with, without permanent alterations to the guitar. Of course his tool would never fit a Weissenborn, but I thought it might be possible to take the same idea and custom manufacture one for Weissenborn:

Although they look simple, each tool part is machined as a matching convex / concave set:

They are headed up in my glue pot to 150 degrees:

The top is then dampened, and the hot cauls are clamped into place without delay:

The repair story continues tomorrow!

Tony Francis · From: Aotearoa / New Zealand

With the top under clamps, my focus switched to the new reproduction bridge. Of course the original was Maple, not Rosewood like the former replacement, and so we begin simply with the wood itself. West Virginian Sugar Maple, the finest of which are cut from Mandolin billets.

For restoration work like this where the new must fit the old footprint perfectly - I will make several and pick the best one:

The finish process begins with Gamboge - a resin used by old time violin makers, but also interpreted by other greats such as Lloyd Loar and Weissenborn, under the dye:

Black aniline:

The new bridge will be french polished and distressed to match the old, but more on this later.

Internally the guitar needed several back braces re-glued, and just the X brace patch on the top.
Here you can clearly see the partially loose back brace:

Sticky sandpaper and a feeler gauge preps the brace to be re-glued. You don't want to remove material here, so much as clean out the old dirt and junk:

Different repair situations require different kinds of techniques. For this brace I am using a simple but extremely effective stick jack against the X brace to glue it back in position:

Another brace re-glued. In this case the new glue reactivates the old glue squeeze out:

Where there was no squeeze out originally, you can clean away the excess and without a trace:

Next comes the plugging / rebuilding of the top for the new bridge. Following the previous "repair", there were three critical details in my eyes both from a structural standpoint, but also musically speaking.

1. Repair worn bridge pin hole ball end damage. This is what happens as a result of improperly slotted bridges, or slotted pins. And quite frequently its a combination of the two such as with this guitar.

2. Plug pin holes. The previous replacement bridge had incorrect bridge pin arrangement, which had almost doubled each hole in size, making it almost impossible for the string ball ends to seat properly.

3. Re-glue damage from the previous repairers bridge removal attempt.

These reverse tapered plugs covered issues 1 & 2 in one single operation step. Each plug is cut to fit each pin hole exactly, and glued into place:

Plugs glued and leveled. The damage from original removal was repaired through a partial re-glue of the top, and also filleting slithers of Koa and hide glue into the damaged areas:

The top and new reproduction bridge fitted, and ready to be glued:

The final part in our repair story tomorrow!

David Matzenik · From: Cairns, on the Coral Sea

Tony,thank you for sharing this process with us. As a woodworker I really do appreciate how thorough your analysis and your work is. I especially love the way the original finish is complete right up to the bridge. Aloha Nui Loa.
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Mark Mansueto · From: Michigan, USA

Who could ever guess how much work and craftsmanship goes into a repair like this. The heat shield, metal cauls in the glue pot, custom made plugs, etc, etc.

Awesome. Great pictures.
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Richard Sevigny · From: Salmon Arm, BC, Canada

This thread would make an excellent chapter in a master's book of lutherie Very Happy

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John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Enjoyed that! Thanks!
JB

James Williamson · From: California & Hawaii

Always appreciate these illuminating repair tutorials Tony....it's really great how you share your knowledge with the rest of us mere mortals...who simply pick up bits and pieces about handling and care and pluck away happily knowing folks like you are there.

Tony Francis · From: Aotearoa / New Zealand

Thanks guys - happy to hear you find it interesting! At the end of the day, although there is a lot of detail when you break it down like this, ultimately its just about returning the instrument to how its maker intended, another voice in the musicians toolkit.

Economically you can see why restoration hasn't been at a high level on these guitars if you compare to vintage round-neck acoustics, which I never understood because musically they are as good as it gets. So if I can preserve whats there by bringing whats happening in the high end vintage round-neck market to the acoustic Weissenborn's, then I feel its more than worth it.

Tony Francis · From: Aotearoa / New Zealand

The repair continues!

These are my reproduction pins that I had custom manufactured in Germany. They were made as a direct replacement for vintage Weissenborn's, as well as my modern reproductions. Unlike the originals however, these are individually turned, not molded, so I have been working on an antiquing process to better match the look of the original pin when used in restoration.

Scribing the pin heads:

After an acetone bath, they are have lost much their gloss, and developed a slight patina:

Because these are unslotted pins, the bridge must be slotted to fit each individual string. Before the 1970s this was just a standard detail. Nowadays you will only see this at high end acoustics. Here you can see the pin holes being reamed:

Setup complete, back to original specifications:

Inside you can see each string ball is seated how they should be, on the repaired bridge plate:

Weissenborn's bat-wing bridge is some of the highest quality bridge work performed at any guitar. Aesthetically it remained highly refined signature of his work through the production years, and is still one of the hardest and most critical details to get right today:

This is a great shot of the distressed french polish / varnish finish:

Following the repair, its hard to compare the sound of the restored instrument to how it came into the shop. I could barely tune it without fear of the previous bridge tearing off. Technically and functionally acceptable (more or less), but perhaps most obviously the previous (and no doubt well meaning) repairman missed the details that are so critical to the instruments voice musically.

I took these last few shots before the instrument was shipped back to its home in the US. A gorgeous sounding instrument.

Thanks for looking and please feel free to comment or if you have any questions.

Peter Lindelauf · From: Penticton, BC

Excellent series of photos, Tony, and fine workmanship. Thanks.
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George Noe · From: Washington, USA

Tony,

I thoroughly enjoyed this series of restoration photos and commentary. Thank you! You are truly an artist!

Tom Noe

Orville Johnson · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Thanks for sharing that with us! A beautiful job and very well documented.

Mike D · From: Phx, Az

Such nice work Tony!
Love the flatsawn back braces they used....don't wanna waste wood! Mr. Green

Alan Hamley · From: Queensland, Australia

G'day Tony,

Enjoyed the repair story and documentation very much. We can see first hand the fine details that need to be addressed to restore an instrument like that to it's former glory.

Cheers for now

Alan

Darrell Urbien · From: Echo Park, California

Thanks for the great photos!

Question: What was the original saddle height (the one with the first repairman's repro bridge and bone saddle) compared to your new one? Is your new bridge significantly thicker than the old one, or was most of the difference because of the bellying deformation?

Tony Francis · From: Aotearoa / New Zealand

Thanks again everyone for your comments - Its great to hear you find it interesting!

Mike - you are quite correct, several braces at this guitar were flat sawn, including one of the X braces (which you can partly see in the photo). There are many exceptional sounding and very expensive vintage guitars by many makers where you will see this. And I don't think for a moment at that time they were worried about it, simply pushing wood through the saw in an economical manner.

Darrell, you know I never even thought to measure the previous bridge, because it was inconsequential. With the top bellied as far as it was, the string angle would bottom out at the 14th/15th fret hump. Weissenborn bridge spec for this era is 0.5 inch and so my concern was to reduce the belly enough to ensure correct string angle and playability.

The heated cauls allowed me to do that, and without any need for modification to the originality of the instrument.

String and neck angles on Weissenborn's are a whole other topic...

Best,

Tony Francis

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