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A friend of mine, a co-worker actually, has a
friend who works for the local sanitation company. He drive one of those trucks that goes
around lifting up and emptying dumpsters. One day he opened up the dumpster lid outside a
local music store and found a pile of Fender acoustic guitars. They were all bottom- and
mid-range dreadnaughts manufactured in China and Indonesia. All of them had their heads
cut off or broken off. (If anyone can tell me why a music store would do this, let me
know.) The sanitation worker, who was also a guitar player, couldn't stand the waste, so
he salvaged the bunch (around a dozen). The Chinese dreadnaughts were fairly well
manufactured and were the mid-range Fender acoustics that sold for around 300 to 350
dollars. The Indonesian Fenders had painted on bindings and plywood tops and sold for
around 125-150 dollars. My friend at work asked if I knew of any way to make new heads and restore the guitars. I thought it would be an interesting challange, so I said I'd try it out. The 6-string on the left is the result. I carved a new head out of a similar mahogony, sliced the neck and new head at an angle, inserted dowels plus a lengthwise plug to join the two pieces, then blended some colorings to match the original finish. I finally sprayed guitar varnish over the head and neck joint then rubbed it out. It turned out great--and the sound was comparable to a Gibson J-45 (to me). This guitar went to my friend's friend (who found the guitars). |
