OK, here's the luthier's verdict.



The truss rod is stripped, not sheared. It is stripped at the headstock end. A repair involves removing the fingerboard. If it comes off easy, under heatlamps, cost of repair £80 ish.

If it doesn't, then it can be approximated by putting thicker frets in to use the fingerboard as an expansion rod. It costs more and only sometimes works.

Ottherwise, you have to de-fret, shave the fingerboard off sliver by sliver, fix or replace the truss rod, and then make a new fingerboard. Very expensive.

To do the essentials inside - existing splits and broken ladderstrut, about £50 ish.

This will not straighten the front. Nor will it replace the lump of plywood that has been slapped on inside the bridgeplate.

To remove the inner bridgeplate - easy. To replace it, hard. This guitar never had an inner bridgeplate. The ball ends rested on the inside of the top. The struts are of course on the inside of the top, and an inner bridgeplate would have to be fitted by trial and error round the struts. Cost, anything from £50 to £150.

To straighten the front (or even approximately straighten the front) means taking the back or top off - cost upwards of £200. It's had too many previous splits and repairs to be done any other way.

The saddle slot can be shaved or filled without too much trouble - £15/20.

New Saddle, lift nut, re-cut and setup. £40.

It won't be possible to tell if it needs a neck set until the truss rod and front have been done according to their respective standards. Neck set, about £60.

So the minimum to get a playable guitar with a badly bowed front, but set up, if a neck set is not needed - is £170, and I reckon that the saddle slot will be essential too, which makes £190. Add what I paid - £246, and the total is £436.

With the bowed front and the plywood inner bridge plate, I reckon its resale value is nil, even after that work. To be frank, I think that the value at the time of sale was also nil.

With the front or the back off, the bridgeplate would be easy, but the extra cost about £250, making a total cost for a nice guitar (but still with a badly marked finish by the neck) about £440 plus £246, so £706.

Re-finishing, a neck set, or a problem with the fingerboard removal would keep it going up...

With a neck set, £746. Re-finish would take it to about £900. I'm ignoring my two £10 train-fares to London to get it to and back from the luthier.

There is a tailpiece one in Hobgoblin in Nottingham at a sticker price of £550.

I think my day job as a lawyer may get some exercise.