I have this one on my bench for a repair estimate. Attached are photos, but the quality is poor, as the sag is difficult to catch, in a photo(but easy to see with the naked eye). I've been doing some research, and have seen Frank Ford's admirable and instructive photo essays at Frets.com. To properly correct this(and give the back has already been off, and poorly reglued), I believe the back should come off, the top curve corrected, and a small brace added under the bridge area. I suspect it would benefit(in several ways) from a adjustable style bridge, ala Cumberland Acoustics, partly because those are longer than the original, thus spreading the load. The sag is on the bass side at the bridge end.
The neck has excessive upbow. Here, I'm reluctant to simply plane the board straight, because it will remove a relatively noticeable amount of wood & binding. I believe the best fix would be to remove the fingerboard, straighten the neck shaft(and maybe add CF reinforcement), then replace the board and refret(and replace the mostly missing binding).
Whether the owner will want to pay for all that work, is a separate issue...
Can anyone with direct experience comment, or make suggestions?
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