Vermonter

Very cool!! What a beauty.

It's definitely ladder braced, and the bracing was all intact. He had to repair a few top cracks... and he put patches along the center seam in the back. It cost plenty to have all this done, but I know it was a labor of love for him and there's no way he charged me for all the time he put into this project. His specialty is vintage Epiphone archtops, but he's repaired lots of Gibson guitars too.

A local auctioneer found this little beauty on top of a woodpile in a garage attached to a house he'd bought the contents of. It was in rough shape when I bought it from him. Someone had stripped the back and sides but, thank goodness, left the top alone. No nut, saddle, or tuners and in dire need of a neck reset and bridge work. Plus... someone had pulled a fret - the wrong fret - presumably to reset the neck. It looked like someone had started trying to restore this guitar and gave up... a very long time ago. A local luthier restored it to its former glory. Check out the before and after picture. It's no longer all original, but it is most definitely rescued from that old woodpile. It plays like a dream and has a sweet little voice. It's a birth year guitar for me so it'll stay in my house as long as I do.