Guildedagain
Enlightened Member
Had two slightly daunting repairs for the novice, got tired of waiting on myself or taking it to a pro, grabbed the bull by the horns and got 'em done.
One was a F30CE that got here on on a 108º June day last year, after being stuck on the truck undelivered the day before because I wasn't there to sign, driver said it hit 118º by the end of his route that day. The guitar had a soundhole crack when I inspected it, quite wide, and no amount of hydration would close it. I toyed with the idea of having someone cleat it professionally, only $50, but was leery of the guitar coming back with something unexpected, some finish flaw in the area, so eventually I forgot all about it.
My luthier neighbor was going to give me a cleat and some hide glue, but then he got Covid, and again I forgot all about it.
So it'd been early a year and I decided to fix it today so I could play it. Found a Spruce scrap in my wood bits drawer, trimmed it, thinned it, beveled it, fitted it, hydrated the area heavily with a sponge, the crack went past the brace slightly and squeezing a wet sponge into the area was making water come up past the rosette.
Perfect for introducing some slightly waterthinned Titebond from the top and I got the cleat up in there and just held it super tight with middle finger squeezing out glue, wiping and squeezing until dry, my fingertip still hurts.
Nice repair, it's not going anywhere.
Before
After
The other repair was a weak output jack area on 1969 Italian hollow body bass. I was selling it as "needing to be pro repaired" in the area, and decided to just do it myself after a guy offered me $450 off my already lowered price because of the weakened - but not broken - area as I made it very clear with buyers on weakened state and needing to be properly repaired before it got tragically worse from being stepped on by someone who also doesn't know how to loop the cord over the strap button under the strap.
I brainstormed a clamp and some cauls - wooden spoons - for pushing it all back together after generous applications of slightly waterthinned Titebond and voila, by morning, solid as a rock.
The clamp was a motorcycle tie down, not the junky ratchet style, the kind you tug on to tighten, and the handlebar loop went locked into the output jack while the wooden spoons pushed areas that were trying to bulge out back in. Awkward but highly effective. After testing it, I decided to pull the ad and never sell it. It just has too good of tone to part with.
Happy gluing all ;]
One was a F30CE that got here on on a 108º June day last year, after being stuck on the truck undelivered the day before because I wasn't there to sign, driver said it hit 118º by the end of his route that day. The guitar had a soundhole crack when I inspected it, quite wide, and no amount of hydration would close it. I toyed with the idea of having someone cleat it professionally, only $50, but was leery of the guitar coming back with something unexpected, some finish flaw in the area, so eventually I forgot all about it.
My luthier neighbor was going to give me a cleat and some hide glue, but then he got Covid, and again I forgot all about it.
So it'd been early a year and I decided to fix it today so I could play it. Found a Spruce scrap in my wood bits drawer, trimmed it, thinned it, beveled it, fitted it, hydrated the area heavily with a sponge, the crack went past the brace slightly and squeezing a wet sponge into the area was making water come up past the rosette.
Perfect for introducing some slightly waterthinned Titebond from the top and I got the cleat up in there and just held it super tight with middle finger squeezing out glue, wiping and squeezing until dry, my fingertip still hurts.
Nice repair, it's not going anywhere.
Before
After
The other repair was a weak output jack area on 1969 Italian hollow body bass. I was selling it as "needing to be pro repaired" in the area, and decided to just do it myself after a guy offered me $450 off my already lowered price because of the weakened - but not broken - area as I made it very clear with buyers on weakened state and needing to be properly repaired before it got tragically worse from being stepped on by someone who also doesn't know how to loop the cord over the strap button under the strap.
I brainstormed a clamp and some cauls - wooden spoons - for pushing it all back together after generous applications of slightly waterthinned Titebond and voila, by morning, solid as a rock.
The clamp was a motorcycle tie down, not the junky ratchet style, the kind you tug on to tighten, and the handlebar loop went locked into the output jack while the wooden spoons pushed areas that were trying to bulge out back in. Awkward but highly effective. After testing it, I decided to pull the ad and never sell it. It just has too good of tone to part with.
Happy gluing all ;]
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