Advice sought on repairs to Taylor Baby soundboard

[Jon Nicoll]

Hello all
I have a couple of questions to ask about repairing a Baby Taylor (not Big
Baby) Guitar.

I acquired this guitar a little while ago. There are two faults with it, which
have I think been made worse by storage in a cold garage for a couple of weeks
between then and now:

a) There is a crack in the soundboard - below and slightly behind the
bridge. The crack is maybe 2.5 inches long, with the grain, and 'just about'
goes all the way through.

b) the soundboard has lifted from where it is glued to the side of the guitar
in one area, again 'below' and behind the saddle. It had lifted a good couple
of millimetres at its worst, but having now settled down thermally it's 'only'
1/64" or so.

I've put a photo of the guitar with the problem areas highlighted here:

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I am not a luthier, but I am fairly skilled with my hands and with wood,
and have done a few upgrades to guitars in the past:

- I've thinned a bridge and shaped & fitted a lower saddle to a Washburn to
compensate for a bent neck
- I've shaped and fitted a new Tusq nut from a blank
- I've partly refinished the soundboard of a guitar following an accident to
improve the appearance of a 'ding' and thin the surface lacquer.
- etc.

I also have a fair few guitar building resources, including the Teeter and
Cumpiano books (I hope to make my own acoustic from scratch one day). So
although I appreciate that this Baby Taylor might be a rather
better one than I'd choose as a 'practice repair' guitar, I'm willing to take
the risk and have a go at making these repairs.

I would, however, appreciate advice on a couple of things:

1) I was surprised to learn (by feel) that there appears to be no kerfing
inside the Taylor at the point where the soundboard has come away! From
feeling inside, it appears that there is kerfing present for about two-thirds
of the circumference of the guitar, but that this is missing from the rear
third. I know that the Baby is a lightweight guitar - is this kerfing missing
by design, or has something happened to this sample?

I ask because clearly I'm concerned that without the kerfing there is not
enough area to properly glue the edges together. Would it be risky (to the
sound of the instrument) to add some kerfing in this area when I
reglue the soundboard?

2) I would appreciate advice on the order to perform the two mends - the crack
in the soundboard itself, and gluing the soundboard back to the guitar side.
My inclination is to mend the crack in the soundboard first, and then to
reglue it to the side. But I'd be happy to learn of reasons for doing it the
reverse way, or even both at the same time.

Thanks for your thoughts
Jon N

[Greg Mirken]

Doesn't matter what order you do the repairs in. Do you have a means to align the crack as the glue dries?

[Jon Nicoll]

Hi Greg
The crack hasn't 'mis-aligned' the two sides, so I was thinking about just taping across it whilst the glue dries. But I do have some cramps which I can use to be sure. They are not proper cam cramps (I have been thinking of making some of these for a while...) but can be made to work I'm sure.

Thanks
Jon N

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

1) I don't know. Some Taylor specialist maybe would? I would add some kerfing bits when doing the repair.
2) As long as the crack is not wide open and the soundboard completely wrapped, I would do it in any order too. You can get lot of tips on how gluing a simple crack on Frank Ford's website.

My main concern would be to check if any brace is broken or un-glued, because a crack behind and below the bridge could be caused by an internal problem.. plus this crack is aligned with the lifted area ; it's two bells ringing (not sure if it is correct English). Check twice and carefully.

[Jon Nicoll]

Hi Pierre-Antoine
Your point about the brace is well made; I intend to get a mirror and have a good look (or even a web-cam or similar) before I fix things.

Thanks for the advice about the kerfing.

Jon N

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Sometime, a mirror isn't enough. I often shake the braces, reaching them by the soundhole with my hand.

[Mark McLean]

Jon
Your Baby is not missing kerfing - they are made without kerfing for all of the lower bout and this is why it is not uncommon for the top and side to part company in that area. My Big Baby has the same problem. I would fix the top/side separation with Titebond and clamp it during drying. I use a go-bar deck for this type of clamping because I have one for guitar building, but a Quick-grip or many other types of clamp would do the job (with cork or similar protection for the finish, and rapid clean up with a damp cloth of glue squeeze-out). I think you would find it very hard to get kerfing into place and clamped on the inside of the guitar. Pierre-Antoine is right that you should suspect and check for a loose brace as well.

Before trying to repair the soundboard crack, are you sure that the guitar is well humidified? Most common cause of top cracks is a dry guitar. If you haven't already done so, get a Damp-it or other type of guitar humidifier to work. You might find that that crack disappears. If it does need to be repaired then Frank's tutorials on Frets.com are great.

Good luck with it.
Mark

[Frank Ford]

Order of operations is not an issue, so do it at your own pace. SImply open the top/side separation, squish in some wood glue, and clamp it up. As to the "cam" clamps, well, I have a lot of them and basically never use them for anything. I prefer regular steel clamps, and I use appropriate pads to protect surfaces, as you will when you glue this up.

Don't stress too much over the lining issue. Most Babies live long lives without linings unless, like yours, they get hit right on the corner. That well may explain the top crack, too.

Glue the top crack by stressing it open by pushing from the inside, smash as much glue as you can into the crack, and let it close up naturally. WIthout seeing it, I can't be sure, but it is likely that nothing else may be needed. A bit of reinforcement added inside can be a good bit of insurance, but most of the time it's not really needed. If the crack is so tight you can't seem to get glue in there, consider thinning the glue with water.

Enjoy the project.

P.S. - If you have action problems, don't forget that you can simply unbolt the neck to add shims in the neck pocket to readjust the neck angle. . .

[Jon Nicoll]

Hi Frank
thanks for the encouraging comments. I have a couple of standard G cramps, and also some of the cheap 'bar cramps', which I plan on using with this - with, as you say, some appropriate padding.

'Luckily', I have a malformed small right hand which enables me to poke around inside the guitar easier than most people. I will check the bonding to the bracing to be certain.

>P.S. - If you have action problems, don't forget that you can simply unbolt the neck to add shims in the >neck pocket to readjust the neck angle. . .

I hadn't thought of that ... I think the action is a bit high, but the neck angle looks good. My preference would be to lower the saddle and/or nut height rather than adjust the neck. I also want to 'burr out' the path the strings take from the saddle, past the pins, as Dan Erlewine suggests. That can all wait a bit though...

Thanks
J^n

[Christian Johnson]

Frank is right. I've done this exact repair on plenty of Taylor babies. Fairly simple operation. Cork is a wonderful clamping pad. Buy it in sheets at a craft store.