Another fixing project

[Bizman62]

The saga continues! For those not knowing/remembering, here's where it started at:

 

First, here's the crack fix, ugly but solid - and obviously the dye was a mistake:

During last Spring after having finished my last actual build I spent the last few Saturdays of the Spring semester trying to fix this guitar to somewhat playable - a guitar playable at a fireplace and finally burned if you will...

It had so happened that both I and a fellow builder had ordered a thin piece of spruce (sold as "practicing material") within a group order. It appeared that they were single pieces instead of pairs so I bought his piece and glued them together. Unfortunately there's no thickness sander in our class so I used a hand plane and a scraper to thin the board. Unfortunately the tools aren't in top shape which led to an uneven result... Hopefully good enough though for the purpose.

Then I removed the fret right above the rim and cut the fretboard after which I simply cut the top off with a knife. Continuing the brutality I then used the big belt sander to reveal the kerfing for the most part, fine tuning with rasps and files. I also drilled holes to the original top to be used as a template for the fanned braces. I even reused most of the braces!

After cutting the sound hole with a steel compass (yes, spruce is that soft!) and gluing all the braces I then glued the top in place. With a straightedge along the fretboard I adjusted the neck angle for a decent action. That part went quite well if I may say so! I also managed to glue and clamp the bridge in place. What didn't go that well was dealing with the overlapping edges of the top: A file seemed too tedious so I went to the bandsaw to cut the excess off. What I didn't take into account was that the sides weren't quite vertical to the top! Why didn't I use the belt sander??? Foolish me! Some super glue fixed those scars neatly enough, though.

Well, it so happened that I had forgot to clamp the braces! No big deal other than when I put the first string on for testing, I heard a crack and one of the braces fell off and another could also be wiggled. There was also a dip on the bass side so I added one brace and reattached the two - not the easiest task to do through the sound hole with my ham fists. But I managed to straighten the top with that extra brace. As it shows I also glued the cut piece of the fretboard in and even used the original fret, secured with some glue. There's a significant fallaway which doesn't matter...

A couple of layers of Crimson Guitar Finishing Oil will be added as well as an ebony bridge. I do have a bone but as it was too thick I asked for an offcut of ebony from the headstock plate of a fellow builder. Let's see, next Saturday it should be stringed!

[Bizman62]

Alright, I'll call this one finished, more or less! Today I applied another coat of Crimson Oil, the high build stuff this time. Then I strung her up, only to notice that the high E was missing. Most likely it had sprung out of the coil under the workbench last weekend. Oh well... I also had to unstring her as a brace got loose when I pressed the corner of the bridge. I should have ripped all the braces off before gluing the top as I had forgot to clamp them in the Spring! Oh well... The top is wavy like the sea, most likely it's too thin. But the bridge didn't pop off with the strings which I consider a win! And the saw marks on the sides look solid. Not perfect but fixed.