This old Martin guitar was built before the 2nd world war. The guitar is hard to play because the strings are high above the fretboard. This is called high action. Over time, the tension of the strings alters the geometry of the guitar, much like gravity will settle a house so that doors will stick or not open correctly.
The guitar can't be made easier to play by lowering the ivory saddle in the bridge. To fix this guitar I'll perform a neck reset which is taking the neck off, rebuilding the dovetail neck joint and trimming the joints shoulders in order to put the neck angle back the way it was when the guitar was new. That will allow the action to be low again and the saddle to be a little taller.
Removing the fret over the neck joint. A modified soldering gun and flush ground end nippers pull the fret without damaging the ebony fretboard.
Drilling a hole through the fret slot into the back of the dovetail joint.
Loosening the end of the fretboard from the top of the guitar with heat and a spatula.
Steaming the neck joint loosens the glue in a matter of minutes. A small cappuccino maker with a radiator hose and a basketball inflating needle deliver steam directly to the neck joint.
Carving away the old glue.
Trimming the shoulders of the dovetail joint reset the neck to a better angle which will make the guitar easy to play again.
Making shims for the mortise/dovetail socket. Trimming the tenon shoulders makes the dovetail joint loose.
Gluing in the shims with hot hide glue and clamping them in with wedges will make the dovetail joint tight again.
Refitting the dovetail joint. I pare the shims and the tenon alternately. Blue dental marking strips leave behind a blue color where the mortise and tenon are contacting one another. I'll carve away the blue marks and re-dry fit until the joint is nice and tight and the neck fully seats in the body of the guitar.
Trimming the teonon.
Gluing and clamping the neck to the guitar with hot hide glue, just like the factory used 70 or more years ago.
Ebony plugs fill the holes from the inflating needle.
Trimming the plugs flush to the fretboard after gluing them in with thin super glue.
Truing the fretboard with a scraper plane. Most of the time I refret a guitar after I've reset the neck. Planing and sanding down any high spots in the neck is part of the refret process.
New Frets and a neck reset have this guitar playing easy again.
Tight joinery is paramount to a successful neck reset. The strings on an acoustic guitar will exert upwards of 150 pounds of constant string tension on the joint.
I've made a new, taller bone saddle which will improve the guitar's tone and projection. Because the neck angle has been reset the taller saddle won't make the action too high.