Salvador Ibáñez Guitar Restoration

by Sue Johnson

Originally published in American Lutherie #108, 2011



The power of coincidence is strong in my workshop, and so it was with this restoration. The same week that AL#95 arrived, so did a rather sorry guitar. The similarity between my patient and the century-old Spanish factory-made guitar that Tobias Braun wrote about was evident and it was very useful to be able to compare the instruments, particularly where parts were missing or damaged.

The guitar had been in the owner’s family for as long as she could remember. It was given to her over thirty years ago, and her then-boyfriend had offered to fix it. She agreed, much to her father’s concern. The handyman boyfriend worked hard and returned the guitar, but it never sounded the same again. A few years later, the guitar was passed to a guitar-playing friend in order to find a suitable repairer. The owner and her friend lost touch, and it seemed that the instrument might never be seen again. In the intervening years the temporary custodian moved around the country, and although she wanted to return the guitar, it wasn’t until the advent of Friends Reunited that it was possible. My customer was delighted that the instrument had survived and was repairable and she wanted to put right the injustice of what she had inflicted on the guitar (and her father) all those years ago.