Fixing splintered holes in guitar top

jfilm

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Searched around youtube etc. looking for this sort of situation, but couldn't find anything - looks like someone stabbed the poor guitar with an ice pick! More likely something heavy got dropped on it, who knows. Anyway, it's a thin bodied F-4, and I can't reach underneath inside the top. Wondering what's a good approach for this? Might also just leave it alone, it doesn't bother me too much... but, on the other hand, like to have a few projects going. Was thinking I could try to pry some of the fibers up, though they'd likely break in places, and I'd have to glue them straight. Should I attempt it?

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davismanLV

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Well, here goes. I think leaving it alone is a good idea because messing with it could easily make it worse. But since it looks like all the wood is still there, you might drop some glue from the top and squish it in sideways. Then from underneath use a small flat piece of wood or something to push it gently up. Don't push with your finger but with something flat that is bigger than the defect. But you'd wanna support it from the bottom while it dries. Then you can scrape or wipe the glue off the top after. But if as you say, it's too shallow to get your hand in there then it becomes even more tricky to reduce the defect from below with enough control to make it work. Or find someone who knows what you're trying to accomplish with much smaller hands and arms. But also, the guitar is a player and not a collector so ...... Proceed with caution.
 

davismanLV

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This video is about removing dents in solid wood, which is not your issue at all but at the beginning he mentions wood that split all the way through with little "fingers" of wood interlaced, and says you have to patch or plug those. I'm still looking but haven't found anything to help you yet.


 

jfilm

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Well, here goes. I think leaving it alone is a good idea because messing with it could easily make it worse. But since it looks like all the wood is still there, you might drop some glue from the top and squish it in sideways. Then from underneath use a small flat piece of wood or something to push it gently up. Don't push with your finger but with something flat that is bigger than the defect. But you'd wanna support it from the bottom while it dries. Then you can scrape or wipe the glue off the top after. But if as you say, it's too shallow to get your hand in there then it becomes even more tricky to reduce the defect from below with enough control to make it work. Or find someone who knows what you're trying to accomplish with much smaller hands and arms. But also, the guitar is a player and not a collector so ...... Proceed with caution.

Thanks! So with the hole closest to the bridge, I am just able to reach that and I did already push it up some before I took the photo. The other one is out of reach. The splinters are such that I'd need to pull the one that is under over the top of the other one so that they'll join, and hope that neither one snaps. And the one that's furthest from the bridge has a curved dented shape- not sure what will happen if I try to pry that out and straighten it. In the video he says filler will be necessary in this case, but I wonder if it's worth trying adding a bit of water and heat to see if the splinters become more flexible. So I'm thinking I should be prepared to reconstruct if/when the pieces snap. Or leave it alone, as you say.
 

geoguy

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If you want to repair it properly, I suspect that a pro would patch in wood of the same species with similar grain spacing. And they might ramp either end of the damaged area that they cut out, so as to have something to glue the patch onto.

The patch would likely be slightly thicker than the guitar top, and then scraped to make it level before touching up the finish.

Or you could come up with a good story about how that guitar helped you fight your way out of a dangerous situation in a biker bar, and you've chosen to keep the dents as a memento of that experience!
 

Rebosbro

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I would go with the biker bar story. When was in high school my buddy rolled his car over while my arm was out the window. Ripped all the flesh off and they grafted skin from my leg. A buddy of mine had bad kidney issues as a kid and had many surgeries, leaving scars on both sides of his body. We were both living at Virginia Beach and came up with a great shark attack story for the ladies. “ Surfing Maui, breaking about 25’, when this great white came out of nowhere......from there it took many variants.
It worked a lot!!
Paul
 

jfilm

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If you want to repair it properly, I suspect that a pro would patch in wood of the same species with similar grain spacing. And they might ramp either end of the damaged area that they cut out, so as to have something to glue the patch onto.

The patch would likely be slightly thicker than the guitar top, and then scraped to make it level before touching up the finish.

Or you could come up with a good story about how that guitar helped you fight your way out of a dangerous situation in a biker bar, and you've chosen to keep the dents as a memento of that experience!

Thanks, that makes sense, was hoping I could salvage the wood that's still there, but it looks like I'll probably make it worse. I'll get working on my story...
 

Neal

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I'd just leave it be and play the heck out of it.

Whatever you do, it's still gonna look like it got stabbed. And if you replace the damaged areas, you are going to see differences in color and grain line in the patched areas, not to mention the challenge of blending in new nitro.

I was able to save a '46 Martin 0-17 that hadn't been played in years. It had a big crunch in the bass-side rim, along with a big hole near the tail block (covered with masking tape!) that needed a patch. My luthier did a great job on the repair, and then handed it back to me to refinish the damaged areas. Blending in stain on mahogany to match the original was easier than it would be with your spruce top. But still hard.
 
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