Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Bad Sound Board; What to do?


Recommended Posts

I have a 1970 Gibson LG-12 that I acquired a few months ago. The tuners had been spray painted gold (with overspray to the headstock) and it had some old somewhat crudely repaired damage to the sound board that looked as if someone had once tried to install electronics which is why I got it as cheaply as I did ($150). The first thing I did was clean the tuners and put new strings on it (medium/light electric Ernie Balls). It played easy and sounded good but then I decided to replace the wood bridge saddle with a bone one before putting on a set of medium gauge acoustic strings. At that stage I found the action was way too high and so I tightened the truss rod. But it was still too high even though I'd set the saddle as low as I could. That's when I noticed that the lower bout (where the original damage was) was bellying up causing the bridge to rise and that the old repaired cracks were opening. I've tried taking photos with my phone but they don't clearly illustrate what's going on. The first two show the original crude repairs (dowels supporting the soundboard?)

 

new007.jpg

 

new004.jpg

 

046a.jpg

 

048a.jpg

 

And so, my question is what are my options? Will I need to completely replace the soundboard or what?

 

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you check for loose braces? There are a lot of cracks in the soundboard that are hard to diagnose without a look inside. The truss rod is for adjusting neck relief not the action (string height). Action would have to be adjusted at the saddle and nut but that would be nearly impossible if the top is not stable.

Have a go at it. It's not ever going to be collectable so what's the harm. Get it properly humidifier, some popsicle sticks, cleats, a couple clamps and some Titebond and see what you can do. There is a lot of info at Frank Ford's frets.com as well as YouTube.

Good luck and check back with the progress you've made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...