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RE: Crack in my guitar!
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aarongreen
Posts: 367
Joined: Jan. 16 2004
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RE: Crack in my guitar! (in reply to aarongreen)
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quote:
If you glue the crack after it as been re humidified there is still the threat of it opening again in the dry or even somewhere else. So it's the same in both cases but the probability is less likely after using a spline as the wood has already shrunk it can't shrink forever! isn't that the point of putting guitars together in a controlled environment? In regards to your first point, of course it can crack again. The point is that hopefully you learned your lesson and don't let it dry out. That is the best case scenario no matter what. In regards to your second point I disagree having seen many guitars with splints that need to be redone and in fact am making some pretty good money doing so right now on that Fleta. Which probably was made in high humidity and with wood that wasn't as well seasoned as one might like. Which brings me to your third point, we build in controlled environments to give the guitar as much insurance as we can, knowing that wood is hydroscopic and shrinks and swells with changes in humidity so while it can't shrink forever, it can shrink enough to create problems indefinitely. quote:
Perhaps the Luthier in who suggested the spline method has alread done this a hundred times because of the amount of guitars imported to that cold dry climate that can't cope and aren't looked after? Once again, if you don't look after it, no amount of repair is permanent. Secondly the value of a guitar is degraded with visible repairs and a splint is almost always that. I just sold a 41 Hauser for about 60 to 70k (at least) less than it would have gone for had it not had multiple splints in the top. Karl (restoration partner) is working on that one as well and it's a big job that is costing the new owner a lot of money but he's doing it as the old splints are not as well done as Karl can do and his fix will address other issues that need addressing. I am not saying that you are simply wrong, I am just saying that all of this is a case of how do you want to hedge your bets. Since I don't believe that putting a splint in is going to make any guitar significantly less crack prone that it would be otherwise, and I have seen enough to be pretty secure in that opinion, I believe less is better as long as sound practices are followed. In this case that would be rehumidify the guitar to it's original humidity level, let it sit till it stops acclimating, if crack closes glue it, put in a few small cleats as needed and don't let it happen again. aaron
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 16 2012 17:41:32
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aarongreen
Posts: 367
Joined: Jan. 16 2004
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RE: Crack in my guitar! (in reply to aarongreen)
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quote:
Oh yes, it true. Why violin restorers who can slip in a grain line and make them blend well get paid very handsomely. It can also take literally months to touch up. Guitar owners have it easy by comparison. Cost wise. Karl is a longtime violin restorer and his background is in fine art. He will be the first to tell you that guitars are much harder. The reason is simply they are not nearly as well engineered and they have no arching compared to fiddles and have a relatively clear finish. He can still make stuff disappear but the number of times I've talked him from throwing the guitar or himself off a bridge is pretty impressive. But so is his work. Here's an example, on the 65 Fleta I sold last year there were two small cracks in the perfectly quartered dark brazilian back. They were almost closed but not quite enough. The finish on those guitars, from that vintage is a homemade amalgamation of lacquer, shellac and who knows what else. Its rather opaque, orangish, crackled all over the place and alligator skinned. Karl put in two or three different sets of splints in the rosewood until we realized that the finish was completely f*cking with us. He then pulled a tiny little bit and realized that the wood was much darker without the finish than it was under the finish. Then he made about 40 different kinds of varnish and laid them out on rosewood pieces that were similar, put them in a light box and let er rip. When he came up with the one that matched, he redid the splints yet again and went to it with the varnish. Even that was tough as he had to add judicious bits of color as he built up the varnish. Once he overshot the mark, which he did not realize until the final rub out. So back to bare wood. It took 4 months. In the end the repairs are completely invisible, you simply can not find them unless you know they are there and are looking very closely. The difference was in the crackle, the newer varnish has a slightly different crackle pattern but it's damn close. My point is this, unless you have someone who is pushing the envelope of what is possible in restoration, like Karl.... you are going to end up with a visible repair. Better to take care of your guitar than put in new wood. Unless you pull off the fingerboard and steal wood from under it, you are in for a tough time to match spruce under a clear finish. Anders, I never thought this was a case of a mistake or less than ideal construction on your part. That crack looks like the guitar dried out, which is out of any luthier's control.
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 17 2012 1:32:07
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