Restoration of a Selmer guitar

It comes in a quite deplorable state. A previous owner attempted to install a microphone with nails embedded directly in the table, and there is a hole in a side . Then the guitar spent several decades in a humid place and all glues became moldy.

We took the back off. Bars and linings are loosened, but the top is intact except a small split along the fingerboard and the nail holes. The fingerboard is removed also what allows us to observe the mounting dovetail of the neck made of massive rosewood. The big job is to clean moldy or damaged glues and re-glue all the pieces in their various locations. We put a splice on the top along the fingerboard and filled the nail holes. While the guitar is open we can easly repositioned a piece of wood and filled the hole in the side .

We closed the instrument, then we restored the purflings and glued the fingerboard which was not damaged. We made a mustache resting and copy and put the original bridge miraculously intact. We gently cleaned the varnish which, as usual at Selmer's, is all very fine, retouched the varnish on filled holes and the splice, adjusted the nut and the tailpiece, and tuned the strings.

This guitar is now again ready to play.