Amos -- two months! Jeezum!!

In the course of preparing for this brief "hospitalization," talking about it with family, etc., I learned that my brother-in-law has a small pre-1900 Martin that he was given by a family friend at too early an age -- he hit his brother over the head with it and cracked it (!) but apparently (and amazingly) still has all the pieces, more or less intact.

I mentioned this to the luthier and he said, yeah, he can reconstruct just about anything and would be glad to check it out and give a price. He warned me that the instrument might actually be *too old* to be really valuable -- which surprised me. He says Martin had not yet become the excellent maker that they would eventually be, that they may not yet have begun using really select woods, etc. Still in all, it would be nice to have such an old guitar rebuilt, even if were more a luxury and conversation piece than an investment.