My Paulino Bernabé Model 20 is broken.

This classical guitar was made in Madrid in 2003, hand made by one of the most well-known Spanish luthiers of our generation. I didn’t play this guitar for at least four years.

You can imagine my face when I opened the guitar case and realized that the guitar had two major cracks on the top and the back.

Also, the guitar neck became uneven, pushed away from the strings with the result of really high action.

The guitar is unplayable! I didn’t know that keeping the guitar closed in a guitar case could break or damage the wood. I am not saying that this will happen to anyone.

I am sure it has to do with a combination of different factors such as humidity and temperature. I had a chance to talk to a luither. He said that the cracks are fixable but the neck is pretty much gone! He could put the guitar under a press machine which will slowly bring the neck to a straight position.

However, he said that once the wood starts to bent like this such treatment is temporary and that the neck will go back to the same uneven position after a while.