Framus Nylon String – Bridge Re-Glue & Headstock Laminate Repair

 
This was another interesting guitar to walk through my door. An old, nylon-string Framus guitar. While I can’t put an exact year on it’s make, I would assume early to mid 70’s based on its characteristics – most interestingly, the brass Framus logo, peeling off the headstock.

This guitar was passed down to my customer from her mother. While maintained very well over the years, the temperature changes in Austin had taken their toll on this guitar and the glue had deteriorated over 2011’s long summer.

Fortunately, the break was nearly perfect and brought little wood from the guitar top with it, and made for a quick and easy glue job.

Then, came the more challenging repair; A thin piece of brass laminate used for the Framus logo that had begun to peel over time. Most logos that I come across, are either painted on a guitar, then sealed with lacquer (or whatever finish the manufacturer uses) or are a plastic laminate that can be heated (melted) to the surface. In this case, it appeared Framus put finish coats over the entire guitar, laid the strip of brass logo on top of those coats of finish, and then applied a few more over that small section only.

Needless to say, that wasn’t the best idea they utilized in all their guitar manufacturing mastery. But after bending, flattening and more bending, the laminate was ready to be reunited with the guitar’s headstock after some makeshift clamping.