Maton ERC90C Dreadnought cutaway acoustic.

I wrote this message to the upset owner of this beautiful Maton ERC90C Dreadnought cutaway acoustic guitar.

"I think the guitar has been over humidified in its case which may have had some residual moisture spilled in it, or a shower of rain in the open case.

The whole guitar has been over humidified resulting in expansion of most of the timber it is made from. I did some more measurements and geometry checks and found that the bridge area is 3+mm (under string tension) higher than it should be.

I've shaved the bridge and lowered the saddle by 1.5 mm so that the string height will be close to normal again.

The neck angle is within tolerance and does not justify a neck re-set. The hairline crack around the neck joint is the result of expansion of all the exposed wood in that area.

I'm going to leave the case open in the sun for a few days to ensure it is properly dry.

I'm going to remove the fingerboard and re-fair the neck to the sound hole then reattach the fingerboard, level and crown the frets. This was done on Andy's Maton with great results and also on an early Maton of another friend, the neck of which could not be removed. 

It deserves the right treatment."

Maton ERC90C Dreadnought cutaway acoustic.
Looks good right? Unplayable neck, the result of over humidification.
There was a distinct V in the finger board where the neck joins the body.

The hairline expansion cracks can be seen here.

...and here

More expansion cracking

... and here.

There was no way the neck joint had been compromised.
These lines are the result of timber expansion and contraction

Here I'm glueing a .5mm walnut veneer to the neck and sound board to
begin the process of re-fairing the neck and body surfaces to take the finger board.

Here the veneer is ready for beam sanding.

The neck ready for fairing

The Faired neck. I relived the veneer at the neck joint in case a luthier
needs to remove / re-set the neck in the future.

A view of the truss rod nut.

Finger board glued back on and it is perfectly level!

Frets levelled and crowned.

Frets polished.

bridge and saddle. These are very generously proportioned on a Maton.
I shaved a couple of mm off the bridge and did the same with the bone saddle.
This keeps the string break angle consistent.

Maton ERC90C Dreadnought cutaway acoustic. Looks and plays like new!

Once this guitar was re strung the string tension pulled the expected amount of belly up. Factoring in all my alterations the ideal string height was achieved for my client.

This guitar aged 10 years during its humidification ordeal. Now it is good for another 10 years at least!