Gitane D-500 crack

ultra_novice

Josh Hegg wrote:

Novice,

Looking at your picture... Yep that's a crack. And a full one too. Wish you were closer to me so I could help you out. I think most repair techs are going to charge you about $150 - $250 to fix it. If you like the guitar it's worth it if not... PM me. I'm always looking fro fixer uppers.

Cheers,
Josh

It's a year old $500 plus investment so I think $200 might be worth it. What happens to the guitar quality after fixing a crack like that? Does it sound the same? Is it liable to crack again?

Again, thanks to you and everyone else for their support. And thanks to Jack for posting the picture.

Josh Hegg

I don't think you will be able to hear a difference if the repair is done correctly. Plus your guitar will look great! Sort of like having a kick ass scar. Every one knows you've been places....


Let me know if I can help you out with any more info.

Cheers,
Josh

Shawn

Josh Hegg wrote:

I have said it before and I'll say it again... The Sel/Mac Guitar is not even a guitar! Most everything we know about guitars does not apply to a Selemer style build. From set up to repair it's a strange duck.

Hey Josh, can you explain why this is? I am a little curious to hear. Or if you have a link to an explanation. Thanks.

Josh Hegg

When I say the "these are not even guitars" I'm saying it tung in cheek. Of course they are guitars but they are so different not only in the way they are made but in playing, technique, tone, set up, strings... The list goes on and on. When I was in repair school we never learned how to work on Selmer style guitars. We touched very shortly on them at one point but never had any in hand to look at or work on. It was not until I was in luthiery school that we really had a chance to know about them. And that was in the context of violin! It took me going to a violin building school to learn about the Selmer. So that is why I say it is not even a guitar! What we learn in school about flat top and archtop guitars gives use little knowledge as to working with the Selemr style. The basic idea of strings on a box... that is the same but when it comes to bracing, plat thickness, back and sides!... The best Selmer style guitars have laminated back and sides! In the world of flat top you only get laminated back and side on the cheep stuff.

My point is not that those of us that work on these guitars hold some special key. Rather... As an owner of this style guitar know that most techs have no idea how to approach a Selmer when it come to repairs or set up. Not that they are bad techs they just don't know how different these beasts are.

Cheers,
Josh

Ken Bloom

Too true, too true!! When I embarked on the project to make myself the guitar I'm playing now, I had the Charle blueprint but was having a hard time believing what I was seeing, especially with regard to how thin the top was! Thanks to the many patient and kind answers I got to my many questions on this list, I slowly began to understand how these animals worked. I came from the same sort of background of knowing a bit about flat top and archtop guitars but I had only seen one Selmer and that was back in 1972. The combination of very light strings, thin soundboard and a high action did give me that sound that had eluded me for so long. I'm sure my second guitar will be much better. Maybe I'll be braver in how thin to make the top!

Duozona

On the subject of humidifiers, I live in Phoenix AZ, about as bone dry year round as one can imagine, and own several instruments, have had some issue over the years with about each and every one of them due to humidity, so its been a long struggle with a sharp learning curve. Here are two things that now work very well, consistently for me.

1. Oasis Humidifiers-fairly cheap ($15), wont scratch anything, contain a gel crystal that maintains the moisture longer than anything else, and are plain as day to see when they dry out, they shrivel up like an old tube of toothpaste.

http://www.stringsbymail.com/catalog/ac ... ifiers.asp

2. After using the large house sized humidifiers from Sears etc. for years, always dealing with maintenance, cleaning, crap buildup, funky smells, I have found that a pair of smaller room humidifiers working in tandem is easier to maintain, and actually keeps it more consistently at 45%, they are offset with one another, so the both never run out at once. Plus, the newer generation by Bionare can be washed in the dishwasher weekly to avoid buildup and crud.

I actually keep the majority of my instruments out of there case on wall hangers, so as to allow the even distribution of humidity. Some of my really nice axes I just cant bear to, so I leave them in case with an Oasis, with an in case humidity gauge.

Just my 2cents

-Chuck

just the bassplayer

I must tell you that reading about cracked instruments from excessive dryness put the fear of God in me. I found that my old trusted German hygrometer was stuck on 55% RH, after I purchased a digital hygrometer and compared the readings. After a week of running a humidifier in the house, I got the humidity level up to 22%! I resurrected an old Dampit pierced rubber tube with a sponge inside, and after a few days, found that my action was rising, and the buzzes on my fretboard were going away. Still, in the case, the humidity was only at 24% with the Dampit in use.
After a week, the tone of the instrument thickened, and I had to use my lower bridge for playability, and there were no buzzes.
I've since recalibrated the German hygrometer, and ordered case humidifiers for each of my basses. The digital hygrometer will stay in my case. This is a serious lesson to learn late in my playing career.