Loose Back Brace.

[JuanCarlosVejar]

Folks,

One of the back bracings has come loose after 10 years on my 200.

 

I can get a business card through a part of the brace.This should be an easy fix , right?

Went ahead and removed the strings until I can have it serviced. 

 

JC

 

[j45nick]

It should be easy for a good repair person. Don't be tempted to do it yourself.  Essentially, the repair person has to decide whether to only re-glue the part that is obviously separated, or to open the joint and completely re-glue that brace.

Every luthier has his/her own tools and approach to cleaning the old glue out of the joint. It's then relatively easy to inject glue under the brace and insert a couple of small jack screws through the soundhole to hold the brace while the glue sets. He/she will also clean up the excess glue before it gels.

If this is one of your custom orders, this should be done under warranty by an authorized Gibson service center, your would think.

Ross Teigen re-glued four back braces on my "new" 1950 J-45 a couple of months ago. He had previously re-glued a number of loose braces on my "old" 1950 J-45. 

This is a pretty common issue on vintage Gibsons with knife-edge back braces, as there is very little gluing surface. The J-200 probably has the wider lower braces, more similar to Martin-style back bracing.

All in all, this falls under the heading of a "standard" repair, unless someone has previously tried to repair it themselves and made a hash of it. I plead guilty to having done that in the dim dark past, before I knew better. Now I pay someone who knows what he/she is doing.