How on repairing open cracks on guitar.

musicalstash · May 2023

Any ideas on the best way to stabalsise the cracks on this 130 year old tenor guitar?

The cracks are open and don't look as anyone has attempted a repair 8n the past.

I was going to cleat it and run glue I the cracks but they look too "open", haven't got the skills to splice wood in.

Any help with would be appreciated

WezV · May 2023

The basic process is to hydrate, glue, cleat.

Given the age it may be quite difficult to get them to close on their own just from hydration and clamps, so it may be with cutting thin slivers of spruce to go in the cracks before cleating the inside.

musicalstash · May 2023

WezV said:

The basic process is to hydrate, glue, cleat.

Given the age it may be quite difficult to get them to close on their own just from hydration and clamps, so it may be with cutting thin slivers of spruce to go in the cracks before cleating the inside.

Thanks, what would be the best way to hydrate the wood?

TTony · May 2023

It looks like the binding is still intact, undamaged, so wondering (I'm no expert here!) whether that would act against any pressure you could apply to push the split together?

Image: https://i.ibb.co/2FZbHn6/IMG-20230517-181051-edit-2336543586621.jpg

Presumably, there's some bracing internally too, which would might also act in a similar way.

If it's solid/stable as-is (helped by the binding and bracing), I'd be tempted to leave it alone and accept the splits as part of the history of guitar. You'd need some skills, or need to spend some ££s, to splice something into the cracks, and then get it to look anything other than really obvious.

But I'd not be leaving it in sunlight or anywhere where it'd dry out any more.

WezV · May 2023

musicalstash said:

WezV said:

The basic process is to hydrate, glue, cleat.

Given the age it may be quite difficult to get them to close on their own just from hydration and clamps, so it may be with cutting thin slivers of spruce to go in the cracks before cleating the inside.

Thanks, what would be the best way to hydrate the wood?

lay it on its back and put a small plate through the sound hole,. Put a damp sponge in there for a few days.

However, wood does lose its hygroscopic ability as it ages, so it may not be as effective here. That is one reason the cracks can start.

You can also inject distilled water directly into the cracks as it may help clean out years of dirt before any other repair is attempted.

]How is the neck angle? The location of those cracks make me think the neck block has moved, but it could all just be age

WezV · May 2023

musicalstash · May 2023

WezV said:

musicalstash said:

WezV said:

The basic process is to hydrate, glue, cleat.

Given the age it may be quite difficult to get them to close on their own just from hydration and clamps, so it may be with cutting thin slivers of spruce to go in the cracks before cleating the inside.

Thanks, what would be the best way to hydrate the wood?

lay it on its back and put a small plate through the sound hole,. Put a damp sponge in there for a few days.

However, wood does lose its hygroscopic ability as it ages, so it may not be as effective here. That is one reason the cracks can start.

You can also inject distilled water directly into the cracks as it may help clean out years of dirt before any other repair is attempted.

]How is the neck angle? The location of those cracks make me think the neck block has moved, but it could all just be age

The neck angle isn't too bad, the action is around 3mm at the 12th fret with I can live with due to the nylon strings. Will try and rehydrate the guitar over the neck few weeks and update.

In the meantime just need to find a set of strings which are suitable , was hoping just to use a partial set off a standard classical music.

https://ibb.co/8ckpwqt

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How on repairing open cracks on guitar.

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