soundboard repair

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

soundboard repair

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>Lutherie >>

Page: [1]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

AndrewE

Posts: 56
Joined: Oct. 6 2004

soundboard repair

Any suggestions on patching an accidental nick put in the soundboard near the rosette. Most of the nick is covered by the neck. The nick is only as deep as the rosette channel. See attached photo.

I tried making a small piece of spruce to glue in but the piece is so small that I couldn't do it (like micro surgery).

So now I'm thinking of a some sort of filler. I tried superglue and spruce sandings and the results were OK but not great.

Is there any better ways?

Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px

Attachment (1)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 17 2007 11:40:00

aarongreen

Posts: 367
Joined: Jan. 16 2004

RE: soundboard repair (in reply to AndrewE)

If you have tried superglue and sawdust on that particular nick then you are stuck with what you got. It doesn't look that bad in the photograph so if that is fairly accurate then you might just continue to fill it with blonde shellac and call it a day. If you have not tried the superglue fill then you can try hide glue and licapodium powder. Licapodium powder is a real old violin trick for filling in nicks and such around the purflings of fiddles, the color of the licapodium powder when mixed with hide glue is very close to spruce. Of course they were also using dark varnishes but it's a better way to go than superglue and wood dust. You can sometimes find licapodium powder in health food stores or you can try a vioin supply house. You probably will have better luck with the latter.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 18 2007 2:14:23

jshelton5040

Posts: 1500
Joined: Jan. 17 2005

RE: soundboard repair (in reply to AndrewE)

Are you planning on selling this guitar? If not, why are you worrying about an extremely minor flaw like this? Just put a little wood filler (Elmer's water based works well) glue the fingerboard on and forget about it. Once you're playing the guitar you'll never see the nick again.

_____________________________

John Shelton - www.sheltonfarrettaguitars.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 18 2007 3:35:04

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: soundboard repair (in reply to AndrewE)

Hmm..
How about taking a photograph of a good part of the rosette, scaling it on the computer, printing it on decent paper then cutting out a matching section and gluing it on?

cheers,

Ron

_____________________________

A good guitar might be a good guitar
But it takes a woman to break your heart

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 18 2007 3:41:33

AndrewE

Posts: 56
Joined: Oct. 6 2004

RE: soundboard repair (in reply to aarongreen)

Thanks Aaron,

I've only tried the superglue/spruce dust on scrape. I'll try and get some of the lycopoduim powder and try that with some hide glue.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 18 2007 10:34:52

AndrewE

Posts: 56
Joined: Oct. 6 2004

RE: soundboard repair (in reply to jshelton5040)

No I'm not selling it, it's a freebee for a friend.

Why am I worrying about a small flaw? I wouldn't say I'm worrying about it. I have to fill it one way or another so might as well get the best result I can.

I get your point about not noticing it once it's being played. Although I'm not selling it, I plan to sell other guitars in the future. People will see this guitar and unfortunately from my experience with my first guitar people just seem to love finding things which don't really matter in the end. With my first guitar the binding/purfling could of been better and I jointed the bookmatched back in a unbookmatched way - nothing that really matters to me, sure perfect binding/purfling is what i'd prefer. But everbody who played the guitar could not flaw the sound and playability.

As I don't have any really experience with selling guitars, i'm guessing that the person who worries more about small inperfections in the finish is less likely to buy than somebody who is more interested in the sound & feel.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 18 2007 11:03:12

AndrewE

Posts: 56
Joined: Oct. 6 2004

RE: soundboard repair (in reply to Ron.M)

Interesting - Lateral thinking, probably work quiet well. But don't think I could bring myself to doing it.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 18 2007 11:05:32

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: soundboard repair (in reply to AndrewE)

quote:

People will see this guitar and unfortunately from my experience with my first guitar people just seem to love finding things which don't really matter in the end.

Dont bother brother... Dont think to much about what other people think. Judge yourself and dont be to hard on your self.. The flaw is absolutely minor and close to nothing. Almost all guitars have some kind of flaw. Its more or less impossible to build a perfect guitar. Remember that sound and playability is what counts.

In my experience, the people liking to find things that dont really matter, are the ones who play very little. The players, first judge the guitar as an instrument and then they take a look at cosmetics.
I went to the Peña here in Huelva last friday and took a guitar with me to show to José Louis Postigo who was here to play. He´s considered one of the best guitaristst with cante . He has two guitar shops and is a colector of Reyes, Barba and Conde (and others). We talked a bit, I gave him the guitar, he sat down and played it a bit, looking for its sweet spot, then gave it a few minuts of different palos. Then he talked about the sound which he found to be very authentical and andaluz, saying it was a surpice that I, a foreigner had captured that spirit so well. He comented that it was very comfortable... And THEN he started looking at it, design, rosette, colour, workmanship and was very possitive.
That was very nice. I liked very much that he´s way of "judging" my guitar. Very professional but also kind.

Be proud of your work. I dont know how many guitars you have made, but dont judge yourself to hard. Its allowed to be human and make errors.

_____________________________

Blog: http://news-from-the-workshop.blogspot.com/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 18 2007 19:13:27

AndrewE

Posts: 56
Joined: Oct. 6 2004

RE: soundboard repair (in reply to Anders Eliasson)

Thanks for the positive reply Andres.

The comments were on my first guitar. I'm now working on 2 new guitars. You are right, the best player that I showed it too did not comment on the minor asthetic issues, he was mainly interested in sound and the feel. He made a couple of suggestion which were valuable.

Yer, Jose luis Postigo is a great guitarist, I have a CD with him and Chocolate. It must be fantastic to mingle with great flamenco's.

Are all the flamenco artist in Spain open to foreigners? Or is there a sort private clan within specific regions e.g is it easy to mingle with Jerez artists?

If I ever get over there maybe we can catch up.

All the best,
Andrew

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 19 2007 17:37:34