Top Crack
 

I have an ovation guitar from the seventies, I recently took it out of the cupboard to get it back into playable condition.

It has always had a rather long crack on the top, about (8) inches.

Over the last couple of days I have been playing around with the humidity
levels within the case/guitar included.

This morning I opened the case and the H/L was 40% which I thought was really good because the RH in my area lately has been 65/70% however I immediately noticed that the crack had opened up much more than I had witnessed before.

I thought the low humidity would help to shrink/close the crack not open it?

When is the best time to repair the crack ( when the crack is (like now naturally open) (then force close with clamps and glue) Or try to get it to return to minimum crack width IE - re adjust the humidity level.

Thanks

Brian

The lower humidity will actually cause the crack to grow because the drier wood is not as "swollen" so to speak... though 40% is pretty close to where most manufacturers build and recommend the guitar be stored. There's a thread in the Custom Shop of a guitar made with an Ovation style bowl, you may want to ask the builder about your issue.

Dependant on which ovation, some of them came out with incredibly thick finishes, the crack may be just in the finish

Steve

The model is 1121 and yes it is surface only. I can see and feel some surface separation between the wood top and the finish about half inch each side of the crack.
This crack runs from the guitar lower bout up to the start of the saddle just off center. There is another smaller one which runs from the other side of the saddle different location and runs to the sound hole inlay.

Brian

Pics would help. Like Steve said ovation has made some guitars with impressively thick finishes.

Thank you for the follow up.

I will try again to upload some photos, had no luck last time.

Brian

Thing is, you don't upload photos to this forum. You simply link photos that are already posted somewhere else on the net.

Regarding the cracks, I prefer to glue cracks at target humidity. Anything else doesn't make sense.