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I just saw this nasty crack in the back of my new Marlon Navarro that I bought about a month ago from Texas. I've been keeping it in its rigid foam case and use one of the common sponge type humidifiers in the sound hole. Now I realize I probably gave it too much humidity. I didn't think that was possible. The irony is I have a number of acoustic guitars that I have never humidified and leave sitting out for years and have never experienced a crack. And it goes below 5% humidity here in the Phoenix summer! The local humidity here right now is about 30%. I wonder how high it got in there with the sponge. Then I let the sponge go dry, and this dilemma occurs. I guess it was the extreme range that caused it.
This begs the question, if a guitar is made in a dry region, should it be maintained "dry"? Am I really going to have to check this every few days with a Hygrometer?
It sounded very good tonight and I am warming up to neck which is just a little fuller than the Cordoba GK.
What to do? I hate to ship it all the way back to Memorial Music in Houston to try and repair. Its not all the way through the binding at least.
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RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to davewphx)
Oh man
Idk but I doubt you over humidified your guitar. Might be the case that the guitar was glued up in too high a humidity or maybe excess moisture in the wood. it’s better to glue the guitar body on the dryer side of its future home climate.. Wood fibers handle swelling and holding water, they might dome more, but drying out/fiber shrinkage while being glued down is like a tug of war game on the wood.
RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to davewphx)
you can stick a piece of sellotape over the crack like a band-aid until you get to the doctor/luthier. I was told this by someone who dropped his guitar and had a lot of cracks to get repaired.
RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to davewphx)
Thanks for the advice guys. I didn't check the forum yesterday due to the excess food and booze involved with thanksgiving day. Yes Jason I didn't think it was possible to over-humidify really. May have been a weak spot in the wood? Agreed Argaith, I need to act on this. Looks like plenty of decent places in Phoenix for this repair. I may put a strip of removable blue painters tape over it Mark. At least it wasn't on the soundboard. Hi Ramzi.
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From: Washington DC
RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to davewphx)
quote:
Then I let the sponge go dry, and this dilemma occurs. I guess it was the extreme range that caused it.
Yes man, probably took in too much water if it was fine before. I only put the sponge if I feel frets poking out. And once you do that, you have to keep that sponge wet forever...or gradually over the course of several months, let it dry out. If this crack happened because of the rapid drying, also check along the sides of the fingerboard. If the fingerboard shrank as well, you might have cracks in that area.
RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to davewphx)
I'm really sorry about your guitar. It's our worst nightmare I guess. My old guitar has a crack on the soundboard, it happened a long time ago but it was new guitar at the time. Know exactly how you feel.
RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to davewphx)
Yes I think you are right Ricardo, I brought it up to high humidity too fast and then let it get dry again. Thats a good test to see if the frets are starting to protrude before adding extra humidity. I should have asked on the foro before adding it. devilhand I think any structure with strings attached is a soundboard-even on a piano. Hello Filip.
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Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to davewphx)
quote:
This begs the question, if a guitar is made in a dry region, should it be maintained "dry"?
I have heard of guitarists coming from Spain to the USA to perform with guitars from Spain and having the sides of the guitars split lengthwise. So there may be something to this.
RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to mark indigo)
quote:
you can stick a piece of sellotape over the crack like a band-aid until you get to the doctor/luthier. I was told this by someone who dropped his guitar and had a lot of cracks to get repaired.
Sorry, I'd have to say that's a pretty bad idea because the adhesive from the tape will probably get in the crack. Or the adhesive could transfer to the area around the crack a have to be cleaned off, and could get smeared into the crack.
Cracks and flakes, or fragments of wood that break off after an impact or cracking, should be left alone and not touched with fingers of tape.
RE: Crack in new student Navarro blanca (in reply to davewphx)
Cracking in extreme weather changes is going to happen whether the guitar is in the case or not in the case. If you are down at 30% RH yep they can crack even if they are built at 40% RH.
It takes about 10 or 15 minutes for the wood in the guitar to go from one extreme to the other, and across the grain spruce tops can expand and contract up to a 1/4"! Cypress backs expand a contract a bit less.
Guitars crossing from Spain to North America on airplanes also experience radical temperature and RH changes. The luggage stowage bays get drier than the cabin, and the cabin pressure and air is drier then normal. Aircraft are really dry, the baggage compartment is temperature controlled, but not like the cabin. At 30,000 feet over Greenland the baggage compartment can get low RH.
I've heard flying over Newfoundland is the worst for guitars. Tell the pilot to go off the beacon and reroute to a lower latitude, actually flying the plane without autopilot might stimulate them.....
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devilhand I think any structure with strings attached is a soundboard-even on a piano. Hello Filip. 
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