I've been doing research

So, My dad found a guitar in someones trash at a garage sale one day. He took it to a buddy of his and he put a couple of missing parts on it and changed the strings. The neck is warped and it wont stay in tune unless you keep it down a note( E-D, B-A) so on and so forth. Well, we did a little research and he thought it was a 55’ harmony stratotone. Well upon more research I’ve found that it is a 1962 Harmony alden stratotone. It’s a beautiful guitar and it plays very well even with it sitting in the trash. ;D
And yes I do play guitar.

http://www.mainstreetvintageco.com/guitars/20101115/alden-stratotone-1-pu/alden-stratotone-1-pu.html
These aren’t my pics btw.

Daaang son! Im jelly

Nice! Is the neck still warped?

Yea, Ima see if I could eventually get the support rod fixed. It really is a beautiful guitar though. I’m not sure if getting it restored would hurt the value a whole lot, but I don’t ever plan on selling it.

Restorations by professional luthiers can increase the value of a guitar. Restorations by unknown parties not so much.

So yeah, if you take it to a professional, you won’t be hurting the value.

This help a lot. I asked my father and he told me it would just plain hurt the value. He doesn’t know much about guitars :confused:

It depends entirely 100% on the approach to restoration, which is why a professional is the only choice for retaining value.

Even so-called “professionals” who are actually guitar techs that happen to work at a music store aren’t necessarily the right choice, so do your research.

A good luthier will at least run certain decisions by you… “the potentiometer needs replacing; should we try to source the original part?” Decisions like this affect the value… replacing original equipment with new (different) equipment will change the value of the guitar. New pickups that are not identical to the originals will wreck up the value a bit. So all original parts if new parts are needed.

So my dad and I have decided to get the guitar fixed. We’re going to get some of the parts fixed and replaced and get the neck re-positioned. The jack also needs fixed because it doesn’t hold the cord all the way. I think I’ll leave the body the way it is and just get it back into playing shape. Maybe next week or so I’ll get a video up on it or something.