To repair or not repair?

[MaurysMusic]

Originally Posted by Neil K Walk

it depends. Several questions come to mind:

1: how's the neck angle? Is the action high or the intonation off in any way?
2: are the innards intact, particularly the "Number One" brace?
3: do you like the tone? Is the soundboard otherwise intact?
4: the obvious one: what the heck did you even do to get it to that point?

Personally, if there are structural isssues I'd repair it but I'd also be resigned to the fact that a new top might be in the cards - and as such the tone will be different. If it's not to implode I'd just happily play it until it does. In 10 years it will probably need a neck reset anyway so you could get it repaired then. I'm sure you of all people know a guy (or several) who are qualified. John Hall would be my first choice.

Neck angle is ok, action and intonation are ok.
All innards are ok.
LOVE the tone, soundboard is ok.
I yanked a soundhole feedback buster out and it ripped the already weak rosette,

[MaurysMusic]

Originally Posted by muscmp

i said leave it alone as you haven't mentioned whether it sounds great or not, and, that should the factored in.

play music!

Sorry, I've edited the original post to say the sound is fine.

Originally Posted by MaurysMusic

Neck angle is ok, action and intonation are ok.
All innards are ok.
LOVE the tone, soundboard is ok.
I yanked a soundhole feedback buster out and it ripped the already weak rosette,

In that case, I'd repair it.

[MichaelD23]

Leave it alone. Handle with the care it deserves, but don't do a repair.

[DHart]

That jagged edge just looks fragile and painful to me, so personally, I'd repair if it can be done in such a way as to not have a negative impact on tone.

But there's no right nor wrong answer to this. It seems from your post like you're leaning toward repair.

[George Henry]

I might go with the TR soundhole option. Might raise the resonant frequency some. I did it with a Hoboken Guild D-40, and I liked the results.

[DHart]

As I think more about it, I'd probably trim out some of the jagged area, so that the edge is smoothed out, without jagged edges or pokey angles, and call it good!

[lowrider]

DHart is right. There is no right or wrong here. I would round out that jagged edge, to keep it from getting worse, making the sound hole a little egg shaped.

Right now it looks like an accident waiting to happen.

(Maury, I love, love, love the Road Series GPRSG that Tim sold me!)

[Wade Hampton]

DHart wrote:

Originally Posted by DHart

That jagged edge just looks fragile and painful to me, so personally, I'd repair if it can be done in such a way as to not have a negative impact on tone.

I don't think splicing another piece of spruce in there will hurt the sound any, because there isn't much musical vibration going on right on the edges of the soundhole. Shoring it up will definitely help protect the remaining wood in that area. Maury mentioned that the wood in that area on that guitar is weak, so adding some reinforcement under the rest of the soundhole at the same time might be a good idea, too.

Originally Posted by DHart

But there's no right nor wrong answer to this.

Well, I disagree with you there, in that I think that repairing it is the wiser decision. Leaving it as ragged as it is now is like half breaking off a fingernail, and leaving the remnant dangling from your fingertip instead of trimming it off.

Trimming, sanding and smoothing the jagged soundhole edge and painting that with Superglue is another approach to stabilizing the damaged area, and it will obviously take less time and cost less than replacing the spruce chunk that's missing. But if it was my guitar, Maury, I would go ahead and get it restored completely, or as completely as possible. If you stay with a natural finish on the top you're never going to make the restoration completely invisible, but it can be made so that it's not noticeable unless someone is specifically looking for the line where the wood broke.

Your call, naturally.

But that's what I would do.

If this was one of those $150 Gretsch Jim Dandy models, I'd lean towards the fast and dirty option of sanding down the ragged edges and painting it with Superglue. But this is a very nice Martin guitar, and worth the effort to do the job as completely and correctly as possible. It's an heirloom quality instrument, not a cheapo to take along to play as you're floating down a river on a float trip.

Originally Posted by DHart

It seems from your post like you're leaning toward repair.

It would be the wisest course of action, in my opinion.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Looburst]

Good lord, did you have the feedback buster glued in there?? I really don't see how you did that but I guess it's plausible.

[martingitdave]

Since you're a Martin dealer, you can always save for another guitar that is more cosmetically appealing. But, you can replace mojo once it's gone. I would leave it alone. My second choice would be to enlarge the sound hole. I would do nothing that requires adding cleats or wood to the top. I made the mistake of ruining a lovely guitar with cleats. It never sounded the same again.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by MaurysMusic

Neck angle is ok, action and intonation are ok.
All innards are ok.
LOVE the tone, soundboard is ok.
I yanked a soundhole feedback buster out and it ripped the already weak rosette,

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.

[alien]

Originally Posted by DHart

As I think more about it, I'd probably trim out some of the jagged area, so that the edge is smoothed out, without jagged edges or pokey angles, and call it good!

That's what I would do. I have heard and played this guitar, and it sounds wonderful.

BTW...Who's Maury?

[PiousDevil]

I vote for the Tony Rice approach.

[Athens]

How cleanly did the piece break off? Would it be an easy repair or lots of ragged edges?