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I know this must have come up before, but couldn't find via search. I have an archtop that someone decided to electrify by putting a jack in the rim on the bottom of the lower bout (vs, endpin). does any one have a link on repairing a hole drilled in the side. I was thinking plug cutter a similar piece of wood, glue in the plug and then contour to match the side with a scraper. thanks. GS

We just did a nasty one a week ago but it's gone so no pics.

On the one we just did Dave found a good grain and color match from one of the abandoned, junk rims that we keep and cut a plug from the already finished side. He then matched the hole size in the guitar needing plugging and carefully oriented the plug grain wise and CAed it in. Over time he built up the CA around the plug and then scraped and wet sanded it down. What results is a matching, proper grain orientation plug. The plug was already finished which eliminated any touch-up. This is not structural since no new jack is installed so no backing is required and the fix was completely invisible, I could not find it when he was done.

Thanks Hesh. This is a natural maple rim with a little bit of figuring so I don't think I'll get so lucky as to make it invisible, but I'll get it as close as possible.

Regards, GS

Is this what you are talking about? It is fairly common for guitars to just have a jack drilled thru the side, when something smacks them the side breaks out around the jack. This was a Gretsch thin body



I bought a thin piece of birch plywood at a model shop, don't remember the thickness but I would guess about 1/16 and bent it on a hot pipe to the curve of the side. Drilled a hole in it and made some cross hairs so I could line it up with the big hole, tied a piece of string and practiced pulling it into place



When I was good and ready I smeared some AR glue on it, pulled it into place and "clamped it" by tightening the string with a dowel.



Next I drilled the patch and old hole for clearance around a jack



and wicked some thin CA into those tiny cracks, then mounted the jack with a Les Paul style plate (which they should have used in the first place)



I've used that LP jack trick on several guitars with jacks in their sides, here is a recent archtop - you can see the backing for the jack in the upper left - much easier to do before the box gets closed. The plate by itself might be good enough but with the backing piece inside you've got something to run the screws into.

I get the idea. In this case, there was no jack, it was an acoustic that someone "converted".

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OK, sorry, I have seen so many broken sides like that because they aren't reinforced that I assumed that was what you meant. If you just want to plug the hole, then what Hesh says, but I would still put a backing plate inside and then cut a piece 60 or 80 thousands thick to fill the hole. You should bend both the plug and backing plate unless you want to make the plug thick and sand it down. Whatever you do, I think it would be very hard to hide (but then I'm not Hesh's partner David)

I guess if it was mine, I would leave the pickup - might want to plug it in someday

No apology needed. That was a great post. Don't worry, I'll use it at some point. Thank you.

Regards,
GS