Old Gibson Guitar Repair

I recently finished repairing an old Gibson guitar and thought I'd share a few pictures with you. This is a 1950's LG-1 model. It came to me in very poor condition. All of the top bracing had been removed and they weren't even with the guitar anymore. I don't know if they fell out and someone pitched them, or if they were purposely removed. The top, consequently, had caved in and was badly warped. There was also a small crack in the top next to the fingerboard. Most of the buttons were missing from tuning pegs, but the tuners were still very functional.

To make this instrument playable again, I first had to heat and straighten the top to remove the warping. Then I had to fit and glue in new bracing for the entire top of the guitar. I removed the one white tuning button, then replaced the remainder of the missing buttons with new ebony buttons. A good cleaning and some new strings took care of the rest of the work, and here is the final result: