Top crack repair Guitarlele

hello people · #1 05-22-2016, 07:59 PM

My friend gave me quite a nice 1/3 size guitar...kind of like a ukulele but with 6 strings. The sound hole is an ornate carving design...not a hole as such but like a lattice of flowery art so there's no access.

It has 2 sound ports on the shoulder. The crack is on the top from past the bridge to up near the start of the sound hole area. The crack is true and some of the sound board has risen...so the crack is pronounced.

Given that I can't get inside the body...can anyone suggest a way to fix/ rejoin the crack?

It's possible I can go in via the sound port on the shoulder...but that would be super, super tough.

thanks

fazool · #2 05-22-2016, 09:03 PM

Its very hard to advise without seeing it. Can you post pictures so some of the good folks here might have a better idea to give you some advice.

hello people · #3 05-22-2016, 11:51 PM

Yeah I'll post some pics in a few hours. Cheers.

hello people · #4 05-23-2016, 01:38 AM

There's a shot of it. First arrow at shoulder showing two sound ports.

Second arrow shows location of crack. Crack is disjointed...one side of the crack is higher than the other.

The guitar is about a third the size of a normal guitar

I can take better shots of the crack later.

Note the ornate sound hole....so no access that way.

Edit: Crack doesn't appear so problematic in this shot...but it is very pronounced in reality...which better pictures would show.

The problem is how to get at it to rejoin the crack

mirwa · #5 05-23-2016, 02:06 AM

Is the ornate piece in the sound hole integral with the top, or possibly inserted and glued, hard to tell by the pictures

Assuming you cannot remove the sound hole section.

Couple of things you can do,

First option is long clamps, LMI make a nice multi angle unit that can bend and cantilever all the way down to there no problems

Second Option - not my favorite, but if its your personal guitar its your call thread a 9 thou string through the crack and up to the port hole, thread it through a piece of patch wood covered in glue and then pull it down into place, use another piece of wood (wrapped in wax paper) on the top surface to draw it up and tie it of - again not my preferred method as it sometimes leaves a black 9" string hole left over

Steve

hello people · #6 05-23-2016, 07:45 AM

Thanks Steve, it's part of the top. I'll think about your second idea...a 9 thou hole should be no worries to fill.

Not sure I'm fully understanding though....you say I could:

1. force/ run a 9 thou guitar string down through the crack
2. Work it then our through the sound port hole
3. Attach it to a piece of wood covered in glue...
4. Pull that piece of wood back towards the crack
5. Kind of pull up on that piece of wood and...
6. Press down on the top with another piece of wood to kind of...
7. Sandwich the crack together and seal it?/

mirwa · #7 05-23-2016, 08:10 AM

Spot on,

Old school guys, and I am old school, we use to take broken classical guitar headstocks and cut them up, this would leave us with a mounted machine head, using the machine head we would draw that string up nice and tight against the top

Steve

redir · #8 05-23-2016, 09:51 AM

I still use the machine head clamp trick. It works better then anything else I've ever tried.

Bax Burgess · #9 05-23-2016, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redir

I still use the machine head clamp trick. It works better then anything else I've ever tried.

It's one item of StewMac's crack repair kit. Worked well.

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools...air_Tools.html

hello people · #10 05-23-2016, 11:54 PM

So the piece of wood that you attach to the string that goes inside the body needs to be similar to the length of the crack?

Bax Burgess · #11 05-24-2016, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hello people

So the piece of wood that you attach to the string that goes inside the body needs to be similar to the length of the crack?

It would be nice, but is it necessary? If the crack is more or less two inches, I might only use a single piece of material (similar to the top wood) guaranteed to span the split, at the most uneven point. One or two cleats, your best judgement.

hello people · #12 05-24-2016, 01:58 AM

Ok. And whats the best way to attach the 9 thou string to the piece of wood with glue? You poke it through that piece of wood and have the ring thing at the end of the string as an anchor?

redir · #13 05-24-2016, 06:54 AM

No not the ring thing because it is tied off there and as such will be wider then .09 and make the hole in your top bigger, in fact it will rasp it out a bit. What I do is cut the ring off then tie it on with a square knot that way you do not have that twisted braided end to it that will widen the hole. Make sure you wax the heck out of it too or else it may be really difficult to remove. In fact you may want to tie in a string through the ring thing to use as a removal tool of sorts.

Once dry use needle nose pliers and try and push the string through by gripping the string a millimeter or two above the soundboard and pushing it through. If you wired the removal string tool as I mentioned then you may get away with just pulling that out through the sound port.

CaffeinatedOne · #14 05-24-2016, 07:05 AM

Here's a you tube vid that illustrates the concept pretty well. The crack is hard to see but went all the way through the side. Pretty cool way to stabilize it.

I wonder if you may have some brace separation if the top wood is displaced, Might want to look for that.

https://youtu.be/0gjhTYHRtMg

hello people · #15 05-24-2016, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redir

No not the ring thing because it is tied off there and as such will be wider then .09 and make the hole in your top bigger, in fact it will rasp it out a bit. What I do is cut the ring off then tie it on with a square knot that way you do not have that twisted braided end to it that will widen the hole. Make sure you wax the heck out of it too or else it may be really difficult to remove. In fact you may want to tie in a string through the ring thing to use as a removal tool of sorts.

Once dry use needle nose pliers and try and push the string through by gripping the string a millimeter or two above the soundboard and pushing it through. If you wired the removal string tool as I mentioned then you may get away with just pulling that out through the sound port.

You tie it on with a square knot...the piece of wood you use has a hole somewhere in the middle and you thread the string through and then tie it off underneath?