Had a call from my luthier yesterday, my Maton is all fixed and ready to go. He had it about 12 months ago to rectify a few cracks in the soundboard. Whilst I was returning from Darwin the neck decided to separate from the heel. He has managed to re-glue it, so, hopefully it will hold. He did discover that the contact mike under the soundboard has somehow managed to shed one wire. he was not confident with his soldering skills so I said that, provided there is enough wire coming out of said mike, I can fix it. He sent me a photo and there is actually solder tabs on the mike! Easy peasy! I was envisaging just replacing the mike with an under saddle piezo, but will, instead just re-solder it. Provided, of course, I can find my way inside the sound hole! I have yet to see the guitar as he is returning it via a friend. Total cost of this work? Free! I am blessed! I will sling him a couple of bottles of fermented grape juice in appreciation.
We wasted about 1/2 an hour talking about our relative guitar collections. I must go and actually meet him one day, as all of my dealings have been via a mutual friend!