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Yes, I should have just tossed this set of sides when I cracked them bending them. But I didn't. Benedetto's book and video blithely says he superglues the sides together and moves on. So that's what I did. And now I have an obvious crack.

This crack doesn't go all the way through, but it's too much to sand out. I have it backed with a very thick, stable piece of walnut, so I have no worries about structural stability. It just doesn't look good.

Any ideas for either repairing or hiding it? I've thought of an inlay, but this is supposed to be a very austere classical. Sunburst, but this is a classical, so no. I've thought of making a sliding cover for the port, but normally they go inside, and nobody uses them anyway. I will french polish the guitar, so I could use garnet flake to make the sides as dark as possible, which may help. This guitar was built on spec, so I can always make it a "personal" guitar, or sell it as used, I suppose, if it is unfixable.

Any help or ideas?

Roger,

It might be cool if you could get someone like Craig to do you a little shell inlay for you that looks like water bubbling/falling out of the sound port, that joins up to the binding. Doesn't have to be too big and would follow the crack line nicely. A matching one on the opposite soundport and it looks planned!Dave White38827.3404398148

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

I love it as an idea Dave, but not sure it'll fit this guitar. It's a very severely dressed out classical (no side purflings, etc) intended for the bottom of the market.


Here's an idea I have that sort of matches the scheme of the rest of the guitar. It's kind of silly, in that you'd never normally choose to do this, but it'd get me past this problem:



I'd probably go a bit thinner with the trim than in this example.

Roger,

That looks a good fix to me!

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

That will work, but it might look funny on the soundport's edge unless you bind it too (like P. Woolson does his soundholes).

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

If you are using wood, it's too late to bind it now. I wouldn't even try it if I were you as you'll be pulling your hair out trying to get the wood to bend in all directions.
Roger, I like your fix but as Arnt said, might look kind of funny on the edge of the hole. Perhaps stop just shy of the hole and round the edge of the binding to the same shape of the hole. You could also install purfling around it in the same wood vut much thinner and bring the binding to that purfling line. (That probably woudn't be my first choice, I'm just trying to think of options) I'd also consider putting something on the other "ends" of the hole. Same type of thing but maybe bring them to a point. This will make it look less like a cover up.
Also, have you wetted the area with naptha? Sometimes flaws like this look terrible dry but under naptha will just look like a flame line.

I'll bet that with the dark shellac that you suggested it will all but go away.

Al

I've actually bound a port like this after bending. Tedious, but entirely doable. And that was with flamed koa. Easier to hide flaws with ebony.

I drill and sanded this holes after bending, so the sides are parallel. Shouldn't be that hard to bind.

As far as naptha goes, yes I did try. In fact, in the photo there is some shellac that I wiped on to see how it would look. It really magnified the flaw, rather than hid it.

[QUOTE=rlabbe] Yes, I should have just tossed this set of sides when I cracked them bending them. But I didn't. Benedetto's book and video blithely says he superglues the sides together and moves on. So that's what I did. And now I have an obvious crack.


i know bob says superglue, but to be honest i have never found super glue to give good results with cracks in lighter woods, such as maple or cypress, i almost always find hide glue or titebond does a better job.

paddy

Is this a classical patterned after Bobs classical design in the Build uuuur own archtop book?
If so its quite beautiful, I have imagined trying to make one - one day.
Good luck with your crack.
Cheers
Charliewood

Hmm, maybe I'll use some acetone to try to wash out what superglue is in there, and then wick in some thin hide. It's probably too late for that, but you never know.

charliewood, no, it's based on a Romanillos. I just remembered Bob talking about dealing with cracks in maple, so I referenced the book. I didn't even realize he had a classical in that book.

He has one photo in the rear section of the book - the part that illustrates all of his models, its quite a beauty with ports in the upper section of the soundboard, as opposed to a traditional soundhole.
Of course he didnt make a slew of them just a couple or few.
Cheers
Charliewood

If its at all possible to get the superglue out of there and reglue with hide or titebond that would probably give the best result.

If you bound the port, and did the ebony line like you showed in one of the pictures I think it'd actually look quite artistic. Maple and ebony have a beautiful contrast between them.

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When i used superglue to repair a similar crack, I first unbent the offending area to close the crack. Then I rebent and it worked much better.

Al

I think I'll take that advice on the next one, Al.

Superglue on light wood = Bad.
I tried it on some primavera and it really gets dark. Hide glue is much better. MUCH better.
-j.

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