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My latest project - the hoopty guitar

dr*audio

dr*audio

Fish fingers and custard!
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I keep an acoustic guitar at work to practice on at lunch. I decided I needed a better one, so with basically no budget I went shopping on Craigslist. I found an ad for a Mountain guitar for $65. I checked it out and found that Mountain was a Japanese guitar maker that made some pretty good guitars,in the 1970's - 1980's, some for other companies and some under the Mountain brand, and they copied Martin. I asked the guy if it had a solid top and he said yes, so off I went to check it out. Turned out to be a really nice guitar with tone out the wazoo, but it had issues. There was a chunk of the binding missing, and the neck needed a reset. Many acoustic guitars have movement in the wood, called "creep" where the neck angles up over the years from tension. This causes the action to be high. You are supposed to remove the neck, do some trimming and add some shims to restore the angle then glue it back together. This repair costs $200 - $300. There is a controversial alternative to this repair. If the bridge is at least 1/4" - 5/16" thick, you can sometimes sand down the bridge to where you can lower the saddle enough to get acceptable action. This is the route I took. So here are some pictures of the progress so far.

Before:
BeforeTopView.jpg
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The missing binding:
MissingBinding.jpg
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The top was loose where the binding was damaged, so I glued it and clamped it.
ClampingtheTop.jpg


Some pictures of the bridge after I sanded it down.
BridgeTopView.jpg
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BridgeSideView.jpg
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The new binding comes in a long strip. You cut the size you need, warm it up a bit with a hair dryer, and bend it to shape. Then glue it with an aliphatic wood glue. The binding is held in place with tape. This is as far as I've gotten. Tomorrow I'll remove the tape, trim any excess binding, and apply touch up finish.

Tapingupthebinding.jpg
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That's a nice looking little axe Warren, and the repairs are coming along nicely. Good job my friend.
 
Thanks, guys! I should have more pics tonight, and next I'll post a sound clip! This thing is awesome! It looks to be a copy of a Martin D45, and sounds better than any Martin I've ever played. It's giving my hand made guitars a run for the money.
 
It's nice to find a little jewel amongst all the stuff that's out there! And a nice job you are doing on it too.
 
Thanks for sharing your project with us.We all can learn that way!That top looks very nice.If its that good I might try to find one myself.All I need is another "knock around".My current hoopty is a '71 Yamaha 280 that did exactly the same thing you describe....luthier recommended neck reset,etc. but I went with filing down the bridge as well.........so far its holding up but intonation is a little off.If it competes with the Martin I would be shocked!
 
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Frank Ford said in an internet article that he uses wood glue to glue the binding on. Didn't work, so tonight I reglued it using Loktite 495 Cyanoacrylate glue. I also used it to fill the gaps. After the glue dried I sanded the binding level with the top and side, fine sanded and used finishing steel wool and then rubbing compound to remove the scratches. Then I touched up the finish, as well as touching up the finish on the 2 hairline cracks in the top. These cracks are just in the finish, but to be sure, when I started working on the guitar I worked glue into the crack you see. The touch up finish will seal it. I don't know how to make it look any better, but it's protected at least. So here are the finished photos as well as a view of the 3 piece back. It's not the work of a master craftsman by far, but not a hack job either.

SideViewNewBinding.jpg
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TopViewnewbinding.jpg
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Back-2.jpg
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Awesome work on a guitar that undoubtedly would not have gotten the care you gave it if someone else had come along.
 
dr*audio said:
Frank Ford said in an internet article that he uses wood glue to glue the binding on. Didn't work, so tonight I reglued it using Loktite 495 Cyanoacrylate glue. I also used it to fill the gaps.
Click to expand...

Those in the know over at TDPRI (The Telecaster forum), almost always use CA for gluing binding and gap filling. There's a bunch of in depth articles and pictures about filling gaps in binding material over there, but the gist is to mix finely ground particles of the material being filled (in this case binding dust) with CA to create a paste, then filling the gap and allowing it to dry. Sand flush and smooth, and you're done.

If you want to read more about it: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/index.php

Some great guitar mechanics over there.
 
I thought about grinding some binding dust and adding it into the CA but I wanted the areas I filled to remain clear. Most of the areas I filled were on the top where a thin piece of black stripping was missing. By making it clear, it looks dark, like the strip did. Look at the top view where the binding is repaired. On the left side of the cut is the original, with the black strip. On the right, the strip is missing but it still looks black.
 
As promised, here is a link to 2 soundfiles of me playing the Mountain guitar. These were recorded with 2 Audio Technica AT-813 mics onto DAT. Unfortunately, on the "Horizons" you can hear our air conditioning roaring away in the background, because I did this in the basement. Anyway, here are:
"Horizons", by Steve Hackett (with apologies for the mistakes)
"Four And Twenty" by Steven Stills.
http://cid-67ae7786e1561d52.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Music/Mountain%20Guitar
 
dr*audio said:
As promised, here is a link to 2 soundfiles of me playing the Mountain guitar. These were recorded with 2 Audio Technica AT-813 mics onto DAT. Unfortunately, on the "Horizons" you can hear our air conditioning roaring away in the background, because I did this in the basement. Anyway, here are:
"Horizons", by Steve Hackett (with apologies for the mistakes)
"Four And Twenty" by Steven Stills.
http://cid-67ae7786e1561d52.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Music/Mountain%20Guitar
Click to expand...

That's wonderful sounding. Well worth the effort, I think. The back of the guitar is really neat too, with the color stripe. Actually, it sounds better than my beater/ruined Yamaha fg-350 (?), a little similar, bright top end, and mellow low.

And I can hardly hear the air conditioner;)
 
Thats a beautiful Mountain. Is it real abalone or mother of peral or plastic imiatation binding. It looks like a top of the line model, with a solid top. Some of the japanese guitars were built better than others. I have two acoustic guitars a Lyle and an Aria with the creep or warping behind the bridge which make them unplayable. I took the top of the Lyle and it was laminated thin layer of spruce over a thicker layer of mahogany with a thin layer or rough, unfinished ash?
 
Looks nice. Not really a Martin copy at all, it's a copy of a Guild D-55. The fretboard inlays, pickguard, and bridge are all direct copies of the Guild parts. Of course, the D-55 didn't have MOP binding around the body or the maple wedge in the back. So it's based on the D-55 with a few typical 70's Japanese flourishes.
 
jim t said:
Thats a beautiful Mountain. Is it real abalone or mother of peral or plastic imiatation binding. It looks like a top of the line model, with a solid top. Some of the japanese guitars were built better than others. I have two acoustic guitars a Lyle and an Aria with the creep or warping behind the bridge which make them unplayable. I took the top of the Lyle and it was laminated thin layer of spruce over a thicker layer of mahogany with a thin layer or rough, unfinished ash?
Click to expand...

Real Abalone and MOP.
 
Pickoid said:
Looks nice. Not really a Martin copy at all, it's a copy of a Guild D-55. The fretboard inlays, pickguard, and bridge are all direct copies of the Guild parts. Of course, the D-55 didn't have MOP binding around the body or the maple wedge in the back. So it's based on the D-55 with a few typical 70's Japanese flourishes.
Click to expand...

Oh, man, you're right, it is a copy of the Guild:
feat_guild.jpg

Even the peg head shape and pick guard shape!
 
A very nice guitar, top of the line, you got a great deal, I bet it sounds and plays as good as it looks. Ive haven't seen many Mountains but that is as good as a Takamine or Yari.
 
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