Guitar crack repair

Stripping and refinishing the entire panel to render an invisible repair on a small crack would be overkill to say the least. Depending on the crack, finish repair may not be advisable or necessary. Glued cracks still leave a small valley in the finish. When repairing cracks it is usually a two part process; repairing the crack in the wood, and then repairing the finish. When repairing lacquer finishes a new lacquer "fill" is placed in the finish crack.

This lacquer fill will begin to shrink almost immediately and a small depression is likely to appear, even after weeks of patient waiting. Lacquer is very high in solvents and it shrinks quite a bit. For this reason small chips, sink marks and cracks can reappear after a flawless repair days or even weeks after it has been done. I try and educate my customers to the nature of wood and lacquer so they understand what is possible. Taylor guitar damaged by impact.

Photo of completed repair. More often than not, cracks that have spread open and will not close with humidity are spliced, filled with a inlay of wood. This dilemma is usually only found on older, very dry instruments, perhaps something that was left in a very poor environment.

But there are other causes that can create the need for a splice, like something that has been damaged and wood is now missing or an area that is under so much stress that closure is not possible.

A splice is an insert of wood, like a filler strip, that is inserted into the area that is open. If the crack that is being repaired does not follow a straight line but runs across the grain the splice is much wider as a symmetrical splice must be used.

The pickguards on these guitars tend to shrink a small amount over the years, but due to their extremely strong adhesion, the top often cracks just behind the soundhole. How serious is it? The first thing to ascertain is whether your guitar is cracked all the way through the wood. Any crack in the wood is serious and can upset the delicate structural integrity of the instrument. One way that cracks can frequently be identified is that they tend to follow the grain wood cracks that cross the grain usually come from a severe blow, and this will be obvious.

Cracks in the top wood are of particular concern because the top is generally a softer wood than the back and sides, and a crack can interfere with the sound-producing ability of the guitar. A finish crack tends to wander across the grain, and most often is best left alone. A repair of such damage is possible but very time-consuming, which usually makes it cost-prohibitive it involves repeated applications of a strong solvent and often more lacquer, allowing it to dry for a month or more, then leveling and repolishing.

It is possible that cracks that are very old or dirty will never fully close. It is likely that the repair will be visible, and the wood will need to be filled with similar material. Next, the luthier will need to glue small wooden cleats inside the guitar that span the crack to prevent it from cracking.

Thus, when an acoustic guitar has a crack, it will affect how it transmits sound. The impact of cracks is usually less sustain how long a note can be heard , and less resonance.

Cracking only occurs when the signs of dryness are completely ignored and no preventive measures are undertaken. Let us now learn how can dryness lead to such deep cracks on your acoustic guitar.

Basically, the top of the guitars is constructed with an arch or a radius. So, as the guitar tends to dry out, this particular radius or arch starts to widen and the washboard-like appearance of the top starts to get prominent. Apart from this, if the humidity of the environment is very low and the guitar starts to dry, the arch-like structure tends to widen out and starts to acquire a concave shape when the entire structure becomes extremely dry. So, if you find that your guitar is starting to acquire a dip and concave like structure, but, without any signs of cracking, it is time for initiating the humidifying process.

There is a very common pattern for cracking of the acoustic guitars due to dryness. The instruments which are dry will tend to crack at the top end initially, and the instruments which are completely dried out will crack at the seam or sidelines of the equipment. Following are some of the most common indications of dryness of an acoustic guitar:.

To be precise, the initial step in order to repair any kind of cracks on your acoustic guitar is to identify and assess the extent of the crack on your guitar.

Most commonly, the problem appears due to the uneven separation of the central seam line because of excessive stress and strain. Hence, in such cases, both the housing of the guitar, which forms the top land of the equipment tends to become loose and consequently, leave a disturbing clearance.