- 12" fretboard radius

- celluloid pickguard under the finish

- celluloid bindings and purflings

- ivory nut and saddle

- Zipper back strip of course

- bridgeplate and braces tucked into the X

- 100% nitro finish with no vinyl primer

Most of these suggestions Martin was able to accommodate. Thanks again Henk & Willi!

I made a “surprise” visit to Nazareth with the Arnold top (held here, still in the shipping wrap, by Carmen Cortez)









and shortly thereafter the real work began. . . .



Neck removal by Milt Hess, Jr





While Milt starts the top bracing (forward position X Brace; tucked, ¼ “ Sitka braces and maple bridge plate; single finger braces; no popsicle brace--all taken directly from the 'henkogram' of the '33 00-18) and modifies the kerfing to accommodate the new bracing,

Dan Pacenti begins the back preparation (a couple of back cracks repaired and the cleats removed)









Here we go again.(A portion of this material was posted earlier in my Guitar Gallery thread but I felt it belonged here, with its cousin, the 000-28)Just about the time we had finished the final editing tweaks for the Fretboard Journal article on the Re-birth of the 000-28 (see the UMGF Technical Info section), I happened to see this tasty set of Brazilian RW on a 1960 00-28G at Dexter Johnson’s web-shop, Carmel Music.Dexter is known as having a fine eye for Brazilian (he’s rumored to have a fantastic stash of old growth wood that he has, on occasion, supplied to Collings for custom orders) and the fact that he was raving about this set further peaked my interest. Still, I have this nice group of guitars and needed another one like a hole in the head, but. . . this started to become one of those itches that might eventually have to be scratched.About a week later, while on a visit to TJ Thompson’s West Concord workshop I dragged him over to his computer, brought up the Carmel web sit and asked for his take on the wood. His response put me over the edge ---- I called Dexter the next day. We cut a deal contingent upon Martin’s repair gurus giving the thumbs up to a project utilizing this ‘carcass’. Martin needed an in hand review so Dexter shipped it to them with the understanding that it was sold or that I’d cover shipping both ways if Martin gave a thumbs down (since there may have been a prior refinish that resulted in thinned wood—particularly on the sides).The Martin repair heavyweights (Dave Strunk, Carmen Cortez, Lon Werner, Milt Hess, Jr.-and in the second shot- Dave Doll and Fred Castner) examined the guitar after which Carmen emailed me to say, “Steve, we have got a winner!”.Now started (what to Carmen must seem to be) the endless series of slightly, shall we say, ‘irregular’ requests. The first was whether we could use one of John Arnold’s 400 yr old “Smokies” red spruce tops. Carmen allowed that if I managed to get ahold of one AND just happened to show up in Nazareth with wood in hand, we’d work something out.Next came the call to John. He had been kind enough to sell me an OM top from this mythical log, which set has been sitting at Kim Walker’s place for a few years. I hated to take that from Kim and asked John if maybe, by chance, there was a smaller first cousin to that magnificent set still available. John graciously agreed to part with his best 00 set from a limited remaining supply.John was also kind enough to comment on my photos of the 'carcass', “that is my favorite look for Brazilian RW”. From a master, music to my ears.I realized that we had an opportunity to fill one of the few voids in Martin’s history. When the 14-fret guitar body morphed from the OM to the 000 (and other body sizes) in the early 30’s, for some reason there were no 00s done in style 28. The 14 fret 00-18s from the 30s have an awesome reputation---why not try recreating a 1930s, 14-fret 00-28.I badly needed Willi Henkes and Henk (FoolforWood) to help me ------ starting with the bracing. Henk’s Bracing Library here at UMGF contained a “henkogram” of tpbiii’s 1933 00-18. UMGF also was the resource for a ‘blueprint’ of ‘paw paw’s’ rear shifted,’38 00-18 that John Arnold reproduced for Steven (Toyota884runner).Henk argued strongly and persuasively for the forward X brace position of the ’33 00-18 and Willi offered a multitude of great ideas such as:The back strip was replaced with a zig zag from remaining D-28 Authentic stock:The finished top:I asked that everyone sign this one, meaning the whole repair department, but Chris Martin was nice enough to add his John Hancock:And into the press she goes. . .Milt went to his secret drawer for some material to use for the endpiece and heel cap:and came up with a piece of old, grained celluloid. .The nearly completed body was then handed over to Tracey Humanick to start the binding.Meet some new faces: Sherri Lotti who is trimming the top and Steve Kern who does the freizing to prepare the guitar for binding:Tracey goes to work:It's a wrap:Once the binding has set, the body is off to Fred Castner for scraping and prep. There was some minor grain softness at the center join which Fred disappears with a "secret" swirl technique:In the meanwhile, the neck billet and fingerboard were prepared. This is a one-off, 12" radius, 00-28 Authentic T-bar neck --with the fingerboard inlays coming from an old stash of Milt's green pearl:Strunky (Dave Strunk) starts the neck/body pre-fit (working music provided by Dave Doll) and later cuts and glues the heelcap (from the same piece of celluloid used for the end piece).The nice piece of Brazilian selected for the headplate ran into trouble--but---we found and even nicer piece--a perfect match for the back and sides!Back to Milt Hess for T bar install and gluing up the fingerboard:Here, Milt Hess demonstrates an alternative neck reset method to Dave Strunk:More to come. . . . . stay tuned!