I recently picked up a badly neglected Alrite for a little over $300 with the idea of restoring it as much is practical. I hope to chronicle the process over the next few months. I welcome all advice as the process goes along.
First, a rundown of the pros and cons. The peghead is in good shape and contains “The Gibson” pearl inlay. It is identical to the A-1 inlay. I have not seen any pictures of an Alrite with this inlay. The neck is in good shape and the fret board is level.
Unfortunately, the last few inches have been ground down nearly to the soundboard. The divots in the first few frets have been filled in, and most of the frets have been lowered almost to the level of the fretboard. The fretboard can’t be saved.
The top has a beautifully induced arch…inward! This is the most common problem with the Alrite, and was fully expected. The good news is that there are no cracks in the top. The top is severely sunk at the point where the base side tonebar meets the tail block. But again, no cracks, just major sinking. There are a couple of diamond shaped patches in the top on either side of the bridge location…very unusual.
The back has two splits that run the entire length of the back. These were poorly filled with glue.
The tailpiece might be the original. The arm rest is brass and was brazed to the 3-leaf cloud tailpiece cover. The lower part of the tailpiece appears to be original with no additional screw holes that would indicate that is was a replacement. The original bridge and pickguard are missing.
I pulled the back by using a hot iron and a putty knife. It came off without a problem.
The top bracing has assumed the concave shape of the sunken top. There a a couple of added braces that were installed to stabilize the area below the bridge. They have failed. There are two patches supporting the diamond shaped top patches. Most of the glue linings are loose.
So the plan is to remove all the bracing and attempt to correct the soundboard sink by slowly adding pressure to the affected area over a 4 week period. I also plan on removing the back braces, cleaning off the fill-glue, and regluing the pieces back together. I am thinking of grinding down the fretboard nearly to the level of the top, and gluing down a new ebony fretboard over the old. This will give me a little more height above the soundboard. I am also considering replacing the bracing based on the construction plans from Crystal Forest. I have built a couple flattops based on the plans, and they sound good and are very stable.
Again, all suggestions are greatly appreciated.
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