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I began to ask myself this question after someone I know recently got into a car accident with his guitar inside the car and out of a case. He asked me to take a look at it, and though I'm a novice, I told him to bring it to me so that I could at least evaluate the damage and what might have to be done... I will post a picture of it tomorrow when I have my camera with me, but to me, the damage looks pretty significant... Basically the guitar a part of the side caved in where it was hot, the top is detached at that location, the binding broken, and a small piece of the back went missing where it is supposed to meet the side...

Fortunately for this person, the guitar is a $200 Yamaha FG700S, but it just got me thinking... It could have easily been someone else and a much more valuable guitar. The owner of the guitar realizes that much like his car, the guitar might as well be junked since the cost for such a repair would obviously exceed the $200 the guitar initially cost, but he asked me if there was anything I could do. I promised I'd give it some honest thought and effort as he agreed to pay whatever material costs were involved if I do feel there is some good I can do. I will probably leave this project off until I finish the first guitar I'm working on and I get back from Vermont Instrument Makers and of course I will not take any money if I feel I cannot do any good, but I was curious about how far one should go in a similar situation if the guitar was more valuable...

For instance, if the sides and back were not salvageable, is it unheard of to bend a new set of sides and a back? If you start to replace parts like that, at what point does it stop becoming a repair job and become something else entirely? I know in the case of electrics, it's not unheard of to replace a neck or a bridge or pickups, but when does the resulting product cease to be the instrument you began with? How much of the original instrument can/should one sacrifice in order to make it function if such a need arises? Is it sometimes better to patch a guitar together with only its original parts even despite having holes from missing pieces of wood? At what point do you give up altogether (even on a vintage guitar) and say that it's completely a lost cause? What kind of guidelines do you use when faced with a repair to determine how much to do and how to go about doing it?

What do you all think?

All of your questions are based on making decisions based on different types of values. Someone who might love a certain guitar and want the challenge of repairing it as hobby should have fun and do it! Someone who is dealing with repairing guitars daily for a living for others should make a true estimate of time and materials. Then let the owner decide. That said, large grafts of a cheap broken guitar of the same style are possibly cheaper than fabrication? That will require luck, patience, and time. My suggestion is to fall in love with another guitar. If its a sentimental deal - hang it on the wall - and cheers to good old life.

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Tom Krebs

I'm pretty sure everyone will tell you to toss it in the dumpster as it's not worth fixing, BUT...

If you want to learn guitar repair, I'm sure this would help you if you're motivated. If your friend thinks he'll just toss it out and you have the time to putter around with it, no guarantees of course, maybe he would give it to you and you could try your hand at fixing it. If it gets to difficult than you can decide to toss it and he will still be in the same place he was. If you fix it and he's already replaced the guitar with another $200+/- guitar than he'll have two, one to leave in the car out of case and one at home.

I'm sure you know this but most people who own even a $1500 guitar don't leave them in a car out of a case. Now many may leave it in a car in a case and that can be bad too, especially on hot days.

Repair of inexpensive guitar can be a tough one to determine. Usually they are not worth any effort as the labour alone will usually out weight the value of the guitar in good condition. Sometimes though even an inexpensive guitar has value (not necessarily $$ value) and it's worth fixing. My father in law and I fixed a friends Seagull 12 string which was stuck in a basement flood for 3 days before it (and the basement) was discovered. The guitar was his dead grandfather's who was a stellar musician and a great mentor to the man. Of course the instrument had no monetary value but the sentimental value to the owner was nearly priceless. We fixed it because it was worth the effort to save (even a cheap) family heirloom and we did it because we love the family. Of course no other guitar repairman would have touched it, well they would have but the price would have been way to much and a couple of them just said it wasn't worth the effort.

So, you have to decide if it's worth the effort or if it's just a $200 guitar ready for the fire pit singalong on a new guitar for your friend.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Well, in this instance, I told him that I'd hang on to it and get around to it when I felt confident that I can do some good. I also made sure the he understood that I offered no guarantees as I am not an experienced luthier that is making money. I welcome all junkers if only as a learning experience for myself and he understands that even if I were to fail horribly, he'd essentially be in the same position he is now...

Of course I understand that MOST owners of $1000+ guitars wouldn't carry around a guitar in a car without a case (although I personally know plenty that do), but this was more of questions of how far SHOULD one go in terms of repair. For instance, some people would replace the neck of a Stratocaster without much of a thought, but what about changing the top or back and sides? Would something like that even be considered a "repair"?

Also, how much of a guitar can you change and still consider it the same guitar afterward?