Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a cutaway koa side (that I bought during the swap meet) that has a cracked side. I knew it was cracked when I bought it. It's not severely cracked. Yesterday I put it in the mold and in trying to position it in the mold I heard more cracking. So I carefully took it out of the mold and used some CA to stablize the crack. What I'm wondering is, should I place some reinforcement behind the crack? Should I glue a thin piece of wood behind the crack? If so, what type of wood and what thickness? ...or any other suggestions would be appreciated...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

If you look inside old Martin guitars, and in some of the up-market new ones too, you will see some strips of dark brown silk ribbon glued vertically on the sides. (There are about six each side).

That sounds like it might be a good preventative measure if your sides have a tendency to crack.

Rod

I am referring to an existing crack. I'd like suggestions for how to keep the side from breaking completely...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Backing up won't hurt. Hard to say more without seeing it.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I'd think about making a laminate side using koa veneer. You could epoxy the veneer with the grain running perpendicular. This could be done on both sides, or just to reinforce the broken area.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Hi,
have a look at frank fords site, frets.com - its fantastic:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier ... plint.html

cheers

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com