Cracked X brace

[pdx]

I recently bought a well used/mildly abused j-45 custom. It was severely dehydrated after rehydrating it and stringing it up, I noticed the top was still sunken in between the waist and the bridge. Looking inside I noticed a brace that has come loose and a crack in the X brace. DIY with titebond and cam clamps, something else or take it to a luthier?

[mirwa]

If you want to give it a go yourself, then yes titebond into the cracks and under all the loose braces with clamps over the top.

Ideally you would clean the surfaces first, if you have a coffee machine with steamer, attach a hose and use that from further cleaning.

By your pictures, I can see a broken x brace, I also notice that the centre of the x appears separated from the top as well, also you have some other brace separations

Steve

[runamuck]

Originally Posted by mirwa

Ideally you would clean the surfaces first, if you have a coffee machine with steamer, attach a hose and use that from further cleaning.

I advise you not to steam it; the wood fibers will swell and the joint will not go back together cleanly.

Jim

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by runamuck

I advise you not to steam it

Jim,

We all repair differently, i use steam for cleaning cracks and joints daily prior to gluing.

Steve

[redir]

Good example of why you should always cap an X-Brace joint.

Not a hard fix but not exactly a novice fix either. So depending on your confidence and experience you'll have to be your own best judge as to DIY or take it in. It won't cost much to have it done by a pro.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by redir

Good example of why you should always cap an X-Brace joint.

Not a hard fix but not exactly a novice fix either. So depending on your confidence and experience you'll have to be your own best judge as to DIY or take it in. It won't cost much to have it done by a pro.

Exactly. My lawsuit Tak had the same design flaw and the same type of crack. The difference here is that my guitar was worth $200 at the time. If this is a Gibson J-45 then it needs to be repaired by either the store where you bought it or by a professional with a good reputation. If you doubt your ability to do it properly, then DON'T attempt it.

[pdx]

******Update******


I got the call from my luthier that it should be ready to pick up tomorrow. Repaired with hide glue for a whopping $40. Hell yah!!!!!

[Alan Carruth]

Did your repair person cap the brace? If not it's likely to crack again. Even a linen patch, such as Martin uses, is very effective in reducing this sort of problem.

[John Arnold]

IMHO, the majority of these cracks do not occur from normal use. I suspect that the guitar suffered an impact or extra pressure on the top from someone leaning or sitting on the guitar. With that in mind, I believe that all you need to do is glue it. While capping the joint will add some strength, I rarely feel it is necessary.

[fazool]

This is a pretty simple repair. I would use CA glue since it's hard to work around in there and titebond is pretty viscous and hard to get worked into the tight crack's gap.

Make sure you jack under the brace sufficiently, so it cures in the proper shape (slightly radiused upward to follow the soundboard).

I do believe those with real experience when they say that capping must help - but I prefer a very thin piece of wood.

[Slight Return]

I had one that looked almost exactly like this recently. However, it was invisible until you put pressure on the top, at which point the crack would be visible.

Pushing down on the top opened up the crack enough to get some Titebond inside. Had to be very careful to open up the crack without making it worse.

For that, I put it in the go bar deck, put an MDF caul over the top, and put a couple go bars on to put some downward pressure on it.

While it was under pressure, and the crack was opened up, I worked as much glue as I could into the joint before taking the go bars off. For that I like using feeler gauges I bend into a shape similar to Stewmac's glue injector (which I also own, but find myself using the feeler gauges more often)...and then using soundhole clamps to close it up.

It's an interesting use of the Go bar deck. Sometimes if there are issues with the bracing I'll very lightly clamp it under the go bar deck and then look inside with a mirror. Sometimes cracks are invisible until there is some pressure on the guitar. And of course keeping that pressure on the guitar and the cracks opened up makes gluing things up easier.

I didn't cap it, but the repair held up, and it was a 12 string too. Not that capping it would be a bad idea.