Norman B20 guitar (1976/1980)
The Esprit Guitare lutherie workshop had another visit from a grandmother! This old handmade Norman B20 left the Canadian workshops between 1976 and 1980. At the time, Normand Boucher’s company was still called Norman Guitars Inc. Today, the company belongs to Robert Godin (everyone knows the famous Canadian Godin guitars…) but the “Les Guitares Norman” branch is still managed by the descendants of Normand Boucher. But enough of the story, what happened to this guitar?
She arrived at the workshop with the fingerboard and bridge detached!! The result of temperature variations, probably. In the 70s, Canadians often used white wood glue which does not tolerate high temperatures and humidity levels… Result: it peels off. Furthermore, the truss rod was particularly tight, which helped to lift the fingerboard when pushing it from the inside of the neck.
The program is therefore simple: repair by gluing the bridge and the fingerboard (with real modern glue), maintenance of the fingerboard, fret leveling, polishing of the frets, maintenance of the fingerboard, complete cleaning, new strings, adjustment and testing.
Once restored, it is a guitar that has a warm, precise and powerful sound. A real pleasure.
Here we go again for at least forty more years! 🙂
