The following is a bit of a rant, predicated primarily by particularly pathetic pontification on other websites (sorry about the alliteration)
[rant]
That's a HECK of a deal. I charge $300 for a refret, minimum.
OK, first of all, so far no one has come in here bad mouthing Martin. Just to give fair warning, anyone who does so (being serious, so keep your mouth shut
ez_willis) is going to get negative rep from me every chance I get. They have one of the best warranties you will find in ANY business, and to say otherwise is frankly stupid.
That being said, they do not cover humidity damage. And they shouldn't. If you bought your guitar new, you got a little pamphlet which explicitly told you to keep your guitar humidified, and that if you did not the warranty would be VOID. This is, to be frank, as it should be. Humidity damage has nothing to do with their design, workmanship or materials. It is simply because you did not read and follow the manual. That they are offering to do any work for you, once you have show your guitar this kind of neglect, is evidence of their commitment to customer satisfaction and their seriousness with their warranty. To give you an even better idea, our shop has, in the last 6 years or so, done warranty work which considerably exceeded the original retail cost of the guitar on a 1934 Martin D-28. Try to get any other company in the world to do that.
[/rant]
Now, as to what you should DO. I think you should get your guitar fixed. I'm in a professional repair shop, however, so my bias towards fixing guitars should be pretty obvious. That being said, if they have your guitar and have sent you a Repair Quotation (the name of the form they send out on repairs) which is priced the way you mention, then I would do so. What they are suggesting is FAR from being "minimal repairs." If you had to pay for all of that yourself in a good shop [rant](as you rightfully should)[/rant], you would be looking at over $750. The one thing to keep in mind, by the way, is that the repair department at Martin is not what anyone would call timely in their repairs. Minimum wait is usually 6 months. You might get it done faster at a local Martin Warranty center (certainly, you would at my shop, though I hear all kinds of horror stories about other shops have guitars for years with routine stuff like this). And by the by, the guitar does not need a new top. It just needs to be properly humidified, and it needs some repair work. That's it. New tops are not only difficult and expensive, but completely unnecessary 90% of the time, and they are very BAD for the sound of the guitar. The aging effect on guitars happens everywhere, but the effect of on the top has a bigger effect on the sound of the guitar than any other element of the guitar. Unless it is missing, replacing a top is almost never a good idea.
Now, the OTHER important question, which I have not seen you ask, is what you should do when you get your guitar back in good shape. The answer, of course, is to HUMIDIFY YOUR GUITAR. Go out and get a Kyser Lifeguard, throw away that stupid hard plastic ring they included with the packaging, and use it. You don't need it all the time, but you DO need it during the winter. In addition to that, you ALSO should be running a soap dish humidifier in the case. And of course, keep the guitar in the case when you are not playing it. The other part of all of this (the part you probably didn't do well enough) is to keep those sponges damp. When it is really dry, they will dry out in just a couple of days. That's when you have problems.
Oh, and don't take the guitar into the bathroom when you are showering. The sudden changes are not good for the guitar.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
