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View Full Version : bowlback repair saga II



brunello97
Dec-28-2005, 3:07pm
I read with great interest a previous thread re: bowlback repairs. The luthiers on the board were generous with their advice and frank in their assessment of the financial incentive/logic behind substantive repairs on bowlbacks.

I was inspired by Dave's great website to take some of the matter into my own, albeit clumsy hands.

I have bought a couple nominally inexpensive, probably low-end American and Italian bowlbacks to tinker with.

Learning to shim a fingerboard to make a neck playable would be a huge success for me. I've got that underway on an old Galiano.

I also have an extremely beat Puglisi that I am hoping to work/learn on. The neck has come completely loose. I've taken the fingerboard off (gentley using an iron) but like an earlier posting informed, the neck is set beneath the top (table?). The top will have to come off. The edge binding is wood and appears pretty fragile.

What is a good procedure for smoothly getting a top off a bowlback? Can the binding be saved?

I realize asking for techinical advice on the board is really asking luthiers for free service. Any advice though would be greatly appreciated. No threat of me cutting into anyone's business. There's a guy here in Ann Arbor who I take my Gibsons to, so I try to support the general craft.

Thanks for any help,

Mick

PaulD
Dec-28-2005, 4:15pm
Sounds like a cool project, Mick. I'm not a luthier, so nobody would pay me for my advice anyway... but I had come across a discussion on MIMF (http://www.mimf.com/library/bowlback_neckreset.htm) awhile back about resetting the neck on a bowlback. You'll have to register on MIMF.com (free) before you can access the library of archived discussions. The discussion states that some bowlbacks have a dowelled joint that can be pulled straight out, cleaned up, and reglued (Mario Proulx contributed photos). It sounds like others have opted to remove a section of the top from over the dovetail rather than removing the whole top. It makes sense as you will cover the patched top with the fingerboard anyway... beats removing the entire top and trashing the binding.

Best of luck with it... I'm curious to learn how it goes.

Paul Doubek