08/27/2026
This one was worth saving.
This Gibson came into the shop after being in a flood—and it was in bad shape. The owner had taken it to other luthiers and was told it was beyond repair. The electronics were supposedly destroyed from the water damage, the guitar itself was considered unfixable, and one person even offered to buy it for parts.
I saw something different.
After months of work, we rebuilt it one piece at a time: re-gluing every brace, repairing multiple cracks in the top, repairing the cracked bridge, performing a neck reset, bringing the electronics back to life, and using a few other tricks learned over the years.
Today, it went back into the hands of its owner—playing again.
There is a difference between repair and restoration.
Repair fixes what is broken.
Restoration removes what is preventing something from becoming what it was always meant to be.
That is why we decided not to refinish this guitar. Its checking, discoloration, marks, and scars belong to it. They tell the story of what it survived.
We didn’t erase them.
We left them as a badge of honor.
Some instruments don’t need to look new again. They simply need someone willing to see what is still there beneath the damage.
This one was nearly written off as parts.
Today, it makes music again. Thank uoh Dan J. Morris for allowing me to work on this gem.
