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I have '30's Washburn 00, on which over it's life someone moved the bridge. There are four holes that look like bridge pin holes about 1/2" behind the bridge. Somewhere along the way someone filled them with wood filler or dust and glue. I'd like to make them less visible. Was thinking of trying to match the spruce grain and either cutting round spruce plugs or routing a short channel on an incline, to avoid a sharp edge to the repair, and gluing in a spruce spine, then sanding flat (but I think this would show run out). Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'll test this on a scrap piece and see how each look.

Regards, GS

Got any pictures?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Here you go.

Here's a classic technique for that:

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Structural/SpruceHole/sprucehole.html

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Cheers,

Frank Ford

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HomeShopTech
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Interesting , Makes me wonder why they were there in the first place ?

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Frank
This is great thank you. Now if I can do it with a portion of the aplomb, you demonstrate I'm the link, I'll be in great shape.
GS

Wud, the approximate location of the holes would be for about 26" scale, so I wonder if this one started out life as a Plectrum Guitar and was converted at some point, but the holes are not really evenly spaced, and the neck (6 string) looks period appropriate. . . so maybe a home brew operation that was reversed. The bridge looks like a recent StewMac prepare.
It is a Washburn/Tonk, and has a 5237 stamp on the neck block, and Tonka Bros wood label inside - which is a rosewood 00. Another oddity is most of the Washburn/Tonks are EIR, this one is clearly Brazilian. The top has had it rough, but the sides and back are in great shape, no cracks. Of course it has the obligatory three holes by the endpin where someone had a tailpiece for a while.
GS

Well, not bad, the grain is close, now I need to decide if I want to wait 80 years for it to age, or tint it. Thanks to Frank for the tip.

I would think that the holes were made to put screws through a caul to clamp down the bridge while gluing it back on, so I would not trust the repair itself. It is not the worst attempt at repair I have seen, there is much worse. A simple but artistic inlay will do the trick, and hide it for sure.

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