L. Mazzani guitars

[StarSailor12]

A friend of mine recently picked up one of these [a classical guitar] at an auction for $20 USD. She wanted to have it restored and give it to her son for Christmas. I am not a luthier, but from what I could see, the only problems were a couple of cracks in the top. The bracing was still sound, there was no bellying or sinking in the top, and the neck did not show any signs of warping. The top is solid spruce and the backs and sides appear to be solid rosewood. In spite of the cracks, it had an excellent tone.
A friend of mine who has been playing and teaching classical guitar for almost 40 years had not heard of this make, but said the repairs should be fairly easy and not that expensive as long as there is no problem with the bracing.
Has anybody here had any experience with this make of guitar?
Muttley600, if you have any wisdom to add to this I would welcome hearing it.
BTW, I did see the same model, on Elderly Instruments' web site and they were asking $750 USD for it.

 

[muttley600]

Cracks in the top is something I would always be wary of but there are certain things to check exactly how involved the fix would be.

I am assuming this is fan braced? Where are the cracks? How far do they run? How "open" are they? Do they close with slight pressure from the side?

All those things will give an indication of how long they have been open for and how easy it will go back. The longer a crack has been open the less likely it will go back easily. Where a crack starts and ends will tell you a lot about whether any of the braces have popped. Where they are will dictate how easily you can get proper closing clamps on them.

You say that the bracing is sound but that would be unlikely if the cracks are longer than about an inch or two. If the braces are sound the crack will stop right where the brace is glued to the top.

If the person doing the repair is unfamiliar with a fix on a cracked top have them drop by and I'll pass on some tips..