Need Help With Cracked Spruce Top

[TheGuitarForum.net]

Hey folks! I was given this guitar for free, and would like to be able to fix it. It's a Fender CD-100 with a laminated spruce top. Yes, it's a cheap guitar, but I'm really more interested in gaining the experience of fixing something like this. Can anyone point me in the direction of a decent tutorial showing me how to do so? All the ones that I found are only showing how to fix cracks that are along the grain.

 

 

 

[curtisa]

Does the crack go all the way through the top, or is it just the top lamination of ply separating from the substrate?

Is that normally how high the saddle sits on that guitar when it's strung up? Seems pretty high. I wonder if that's part of the problem?

[Bizman62]

I've got a somewhat similar issue with a classical guitar. The top laminate looks similar to yours, the two other layers are some very soft mid-brown wood - so soft I could easily poke a finger through! In my case the top layer was strangely cut off from under the bridge and you can just guess how weak the joint is as the bridge is pulling across the grain on that veneer!

As there's no bridge plate in classicals I ended up trying to make a solid spruce top of the very cheapest wood, the cost was only about €6 for two pieces that glued together will make a top. It's very much under construction at this point, I've only cut the top off and leveled the sides to the linings. And joined the top but not yet leveled it.

If the inner layers of your top are mostly intact you might be able to stabilize that crack by changing the bridge plate to a larger one, made out of some high quality quarter sawn hardwood like padauk. That crack looks like the current bridge plate is the culprit along with a too soft laminate. Removing the old plate and getting a new one in through the soundhole can be a nightmare.

Rosa String Works have some videos where Jerry replaces the bridge plate. This is one of them: https://youtu.be/5Om_xh2ad4U, followed by Part 2: https://youtu.be/tNJvPcdmFSw