Stan Alexander from The Darts came into the workshop over the weekend. He called to collect his Michigan Jazz guitar which has been restored.
The guitar has been in Stan’s possession for many years and remained stored in his attic for several decades.
It was in a bad way:
The neck had parted company with the body
The soundboard and back were both loose
The internal bass bars* were cracked and loose
The ribs were split and cracked
The fingerboard inlays were beginning to lift and curl up
The end on the neck was split and cracked
The machine heads weren’t working
The bridge was missing
All in all it was a sad case. However, over the course of a few weeks work commenced on the old jazz veteran and the guitar was put back together piece by piece.
With the soundboard removed the repair to the ribs was made so much easier. The splits were repaired and reinforced from the inside.
The back was then re-glued to the ribs.
The soundboard re-fitted to the ribs.
Once the body was whole again the edge bindings were cleaned up and stained where necessary.
The neck was re-aligned and re-glued to the body.
The splits and misaligned holes at the end of the fingerboard repaired and plugged
The whole of the completed body work was cleaned and polished.
The new machine heads and bridge fitted.
The pick-up and electrics were overhauled and re-installed
The guitar was strung up with heavy gauge jazz strings.
The guitar played like a dream. It had a low action without any buzzing on the frets, it intonated very well and sounded great acoustically, just what you would expect from a vintage jazz guitar. And when it was plugged in to an amp it sounded fantastic.
Stan was delighted and used the old vintage jazzer at a jazz gig that evening.
Job done!
October 14, 2009 at 10:24 am
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October 14, 2009 at 11:18 am
Graham-Thanks for a great job! It plays like dream! I play bass as well, and put it thru a small Warwick bass combo-Really warm sound-If anyone out there knows anything about these guitars..let me know! it originally had a scratch plate..i’d like to add one that was authentic
Thanks again.I’m delighyed
Stan
October 14, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Thanks Stan, I hope the guitar gives many more years of delight. I’m anticipating some feedback on the scratchplate soon.
Best regards
Graham
October 23, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Did you get the scratchplate sorted as a matter of interest ?
If not, I can send a photo(s) of my Mitchigan for inspection,
Hope this is helpful ?
May 8, 2010 at 7:32 pm
hello i have one of these and it has a crack in it…how much would it cost to repair? is it worth it? do you know how old the guitar is?
thanx m
May 9, 2010 at 10:26 am
Hi,
Email some photos of the guitar and the split and we’ll try to help. Contact details can be found on the Contact page.
Thanks
Graham
March 25, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Can you tell me how much the Michigan is worth? I have one in original and good condition without pick-up and looking to sell it.