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View Poll Results: What would you do with this soundhole?
Nothing: leave it alone 70 57.85%
Replace & repair the missing piece 42 34.71%
Convert it to a large soundhole OM-28"LSV" 9 7.44%
Voters: 121. You may not vote on this poll

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  #46  
Old 08-16-2017, 09:25 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Sell it to Willie...
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  #47  
Old 08-16-2017, 09:39 PM
akwingnut akwingnut is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Winch2017 View Post
WWWD??
What would Willie do??
This was going to be my response.

I'd have it repaired. No reason not to.
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  #48  
Old 08-17-2017, 01:15 AM
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil K Walk View Post
Then I'd say leave it alone and never stick anything in the soundhole ever again. Otherwise, have the soundhole enlarged and the edge beveled and the finish spot repaired. I would NOT pull the neck off and replace the top of splice in new material. That will change its tone.
Neil, you're completely overestimating the complexity and difficulty of that repair. The neck wouldn't need to come off - all that's necessary is that the strings be removed, and if you wanted to save those, you could just loosen them, take them off the tuners and coil them up so they're out of the way.

As for replacing the wood that broke with a new piece "changing the tone," that's very doubtful. Here's a photo showing the underside of the bracing of a guitar top:



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That's not a Martin OM, but the bracing around the soundhole is similar, as you can see in this photo that DOES show the underside of a Martin. It's braced the same way:



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The wood that's missing from the soundhole of Maury's guitar is very small, and none of the wood in that immediate area does much vibrating or add much to the musical tone of the instrument. So replacing the chunk of wood that's missing with a small replacement piece that's been carefully sized and glued into place isn't going to hurt ANYTHING. On the contrary, it will help protect the instrument.

Gluing a thin little reinforcement pad underneath the new wood piece will not add any significant mass to the guitar's top, either. Sure, if you were going to use cast iron for this repair instead of thin little pieces of spruce, it would probably have a negative impact on the tone. But the amount of weight that these small wood pieces will add is negligible.

The only drawback at all to going forward with fixing it is the fee that a guitar repair tech will have to charge for the work, and even that is likely to be fairly small: I'd guess you'd be looking at a shop charge of $150-$200. Since the new piece of spruce needed to replace what was lost is so small, brush lacquer can be used for the finish repair instead of the luthier having to crank up the shop air compressor to shoot spray lacquer.

It's a minor operation, a minor repair and the shop fees are likely to be very reasonable as a result.

Hope that makes more sense.


Wade Hampton Miller
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  #49  
Old 08-17-2017, 10:11 AM
Edgar Poe Edgar Poe is offline
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Since it is not actually playing damage, IF I had the original piece, I would replace it.

Ed
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  #50  
Old 08-17-2017, 11:58 AM
PhilNBend PhilNBend is offline
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Could it be repaired by just making the sound hole bigger?

If it were mine, I'd see about getting it repaired.
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  #51  
Old 08-17-2017, 03:05 PM
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilNBend View Post
Could it be repaired by just making the sound hole bigger?

If it were mine, I'd see about getting it repaired.
Yes, the guitar could easily be converted to a large soundhole instrument, as with the Martin formerly owned by Clarence White that Tony Rice has since turned into an object of cult veneration. If Maury decides to get the soundhole expanded to the next ring of the rosette, there might be a slight change in tone and projection due to the somewhat larger aperture that will result. But any resulting change would be extremely subtle, if it's even discernible at all.



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Getting the soundhole enlarged is the easiest, fastest and thus least expensive repair option Maury has. As I've already explained in my previous posts, I think the best course to follow would be to replace the missing wood, but that's Maury's call, naturally.


whm
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  #52  
Old 08-18-2017, 05:49 PM
MaurysMusic MaurysMusic is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by martingitdave View Post
That's a lovely story. Perhaps, besides your own, the most important opinion would be that of your dear wife who gifted the guitar. I'd be curious to know what she thinks you should do.
She's ok with whatever I decide, but she'd leave as-is, if it's not structurally in danger.
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