Tragic news for my one year old Martin GPC-16e rosewood

[pjd3]

So a year ago, and very much against my will and best intuitions, I ordered a new Martin GPC16e rosewood, online.

I've been a gigging/recording guitarist for nearly 45 years now and was very, very excited about finally having a real bonified all wood Martin for some gigging and mostly for recording. It was $1699.00 at Zzounds. Going against my opinion that a guitar should never be bought sight unseen, but played in person for many hours to determine its "rightness" for me, I made the online order. This was a choice to ease the financial weight, and do monthly payments over a year.

Upon receiving the guitar I began playing it, and assessing the "rightness" of the guitar, to make sure if anything was blatantly wrong with it, that I would send it back within the 40 days or so, for another one.
The thing I noticed about this was that the high E and B string seemed to be somewhat dead. I fooled myself into believing that 1. The guitar would open up over time, 2.) Putting a thicker gauge string would improve the energy in the two higher strings. Although I may have perceived a slight improvement from upping the gauge from 12's to 12.5's, there remained an odd lack of energy on the two highest strings. Something in me said that I should return the guitar for this "issue" but, the "mature adult" in me said I should just be grateful and not be so picky.

Well, with my new one year old Martin, I just came from John Mouradians in Wilmington, who is a Martin certified repairman and son of Jim Mouradian, the well known luthier that designed and build a bass with and for Chris Squire from Yes. John took a look inside today and informed me that all 4 back braces had become dis-attached from the back of the guitar. He described what he saw as a serious structural failure.

I'm 64 years old and have babied this guitar more than any other instrument I've ever owned. The guitar never even spent a night outside of its case for even a day. It always went back inside the case after I played it. I don't recall anything ever falling on it, leaning on it, no trucks, no parties, nothing. I obsessively took great care of it every step of the way.
So, I don't get it. What happened? Even John was rather perplexed about this and couldn't offer a substantial explanation.

Has anything ever happened to like this to you? And if it did, was there anything the manufacturer was able to do to help you?
I am so disappointed. I build my own amps, pedals, even built a nice electric guitar, and have waited my whole life to own and play an all wood Martin.

Please let me know if anything like this has happened to you and what you finally did to resolve/fix it.

Thank you, and sorry for such a sad story today. Luckily, most everything else is good in life, just not the state of guitar,

Thank you,
Best,
Phil Donovan

[rollypolly]

I'm sorry to hear about your guitar. I hope to God that it's just a fluke thing. Since you purchased it new, I believe you can have it repaired under warranty? Hopefully Martin will do the right thing and fix it for you.

Although that does sound like a serious problem, it doesn't sound like something that would be difficult to repair.

[pagedr]

Do you monitor humidity in the guitar case?

[rmp]

Gee that's a shame..

I used to take my guitars to Jim, he was one of the nicest guys, and hands down the best repair guy I ever met.

If John is certified to repair Martins, I agree that you should be able to this repaired under warranty, since you are the original owner.

[brencat]

I too would like to know if the OP was monitoring humidity, and doing his best to keep it within the 40 - 55 rh range.

Either way, regluing braces should not be a hard repair.

[egordon99]

First off, not sure why you are posting your phone number for the entire internet to see.

Secondly, just have your Martin repairman glue the braces back on. What did he say about the repair? This doesn't sound like that big of a deal to me.

[MakingMusic]

Detached braces are serious indeed but the good news is that loose braces can be reglued. I suppose it could have been a defective build but it's also possible this was caused by low humidity as others have wondered. No way to really know unless you have been monitoring the humidity inside the case.

[RP]

Several years ago I purchased a '13 Taylor 814. I noticed that that the B string in particular sounded "off." I tried a few easy fixes, none of which fixed the problem. While changing the strings, I felt around inside the box and found that one of braces below the bridge was no longer attached. I contacted Taylor's Service Department, described the problem and also added that the date indicated it may have been one of the early revoiced models after Andy Powers arrived on the scene.

Taylor sent me a mailing label, and I was instructed to return it (at their expense). While some companies would have had a local tech glue the errant brace, Taylor opted to remove the neck and completely rebuild the box (also at their expense). It seems that the early revoiced Taylors may have been constructed using a faulty protein glue mixture. Ergo, Taylor didn't want to do a half-way repair. The guitar was returned to me after several months for a total cost to me of $0...

[Humbuster]

After owning purchasing several new Martin guitars over the last 20 years and never having an issue, my 2020 000-18 developed a problem with the binding separating.
Contacted the local dealer from which the guitar was purchased and referred to the local authorized Martin repair center. They were quick to respond and the guitar goes in this week for warranty repair.
Not to difficult.

[baw3]

I guess Im missing something here. Pjd3 said from the very first time he played the guitar that the E and B string sounded dead. That would say to me that he received the guitar with the braces already loose. Feel bad that this happened to you, but like others have said, it shouldnt be to expensive to fix. Maybe Martin would cover the cost.

[dnf777]

Clearly a warranty repair. Re-gluing braces on an assembled guitar is not the most difficult repair in the world, but does require proper clamps and technique to insure a solid union. As you heard here, the exception is damage from extreme humidity (lack of), but unless there are cracks and separations to indicate such lack of care, I doubt any authorized repair shop will make an issue of that.

[L20A]

I have this same guitar in a burst finish. Mine is about a year old now, with no issues.
The guitar is lifetime warrantied, so find an authorized repair shop and get it fixed.

The problem could also be from the saddle not sitting flat in the transduced and the saddle.
The tech will be able to correct any issues.

Sorry that this happened to you and I hope to see a good solution for your problem.

The cost of shipping to a repair shop may be higher than having the guitar repaired locally.

[RP]

Originally Posted by dnf777

Clearly a warranty repair. Re-gluing braces on an assembled guitar is not the most difficult repair in the world, but does require proper clamps and technique to insure a solid union. As you heard here, the exception is damage from extreme humidity (lack of), but unless there are cracks and separations to indicate such lack of care, I doubt any authorized repair shop will make an issue of that.

Doesn't it also require removing the original glue???

[pjd3]

Thanks everyone that responded, I wasn't in a very good mood when I did my first post so, sorry if it came of a bit despondent! I'm better now!

I noticed that a few of you talked about regulating humidity and no, I have never attempted to regulate humidity in my 50 years of playing, and never had a brace pull off to my knowledge (Key phrase - "to my knowledge"?)

It looks like time to start getting serious about that. I am in New England and we experience huge shifts in temperature and humidity. Jon Mouradian has often talked about humidity being a big factor in the varying playability of a guitar which has had a huge bearing on the action of my GPC16e rosewood. I bring it for a set up 2 times a year when it has become "unplayable".

Jon suggested I take a shot at contacting both Martin and the supplier about what happened and if I have no luck he would glue/clamp and take care of the issue. It would run somewhere between 300-600 depending on the severity which was actually better than I had anticipated. That would be worth it for a guitar that was $1700 and a little over a year old. I was having a ball with that guitar! During some of the hard covid times I made a committment to learning a new style of some sort, something I had never done before. That led me to learning a handful of finger style and Celtic tumes (which was far more difficult than I had imagined). So that guitar brings good memories, and tunes.

Thanks again everyone for sharing your stories and guidance. It was very helpful.

Oh, and for the one that asked why I would post my phone number for all the internet to see? I don't post it for all the internet to see. Only under rare circumstance. I know a few people here and pretty much anyone is open to call me for whatever it maybe. Also, I would suspect that there aren't many psychopathic type people at a forum like this. Those types of people are usually too busy wheeling and dealing to commit to the diligent and disciplined task of progressing on a great instrument like and acoustic guitar. But, if there are any psychopaths in this forum, feel free to call me and give the heads up!

Thanks everyone,
Best,
Phil Donovan 617-470-9821 psychopaths pay a fee for calling this #

[UncleJesse]

$300-600 seems on the high side to fix a few loose braces. But I've never had to repair back bracing. I had two braces reglued on a Gibson for like $100.

And humidity monitoring is a good thing. To describe the guitar changing into an "unplayable" position requiring luthier intervention not once, but twice in a single year is not a good thing.