Here's something I did years ago... someone suggested the obvious, old cracked, split wood wasn't suitable for a guitar simply due to structrual considerations... which is correct, IF ya do nothing to adress the issues..
No matter what ya do that's "off the wall", someone will always show up and start flaming whatever ya did as resulting in an inferior whatever, or not capable of superior tone, or any one of a unlimited number of other disses... That's a crock...
after, i don't know how many hundreds, if not thousands of these BarnBusters.. I have never had anyone send one back broken, cracked or otherwise showing signs of succumbing to the beauty marks picture framed in the character... and sound... same thing.... never one gripe...
So I took the most rotten skanky bug eaten (actually this is the stuff the Termites wouldn't touch)... hunk I could find and conducted a test..
Using the slow cure CA ( that's the pedestrian name) the suppliers call it something else...) I "secured" the obvious flaws, let it cure a day or so.. then went at it with a hammer... It did break.. but did so in areas that were sound lumber, not on the repaired faults... showing the repairs were now stronger, more secure, than the bug eaten rotten stuff..
Initially I was using the same "stuff" Museum Conservators use to preserve ancient artifacts.. but my friend that works in the field suggested commercially available CA glues... ( not the hobby grade or DIY) stuff available. They are available in very slow curing solutions so instead of hardening instantly, they can take hours, allowing time for the solution to soak into compromised areas, and once it hardens, it's more dense than a teenagers head....
SO .. yeah... you can get away with using some incredibly "unsuitable" trash and have a stunning guitar...
Ron Kirn