Another guitar, another problem.... top and bridge partialy unglued

[Eugen C]

Few weeks ago I bougt another Martin replica from ebay.

Is an unknown brand - Wotan - but I was tempted by the "made in Japan" and because it has a hardshel case. Price paid - 145€

 

After I received it, I was very happy to find that it has a solid top.

I replaced the nut because it was broken, I cleaned the fretboard and made a little fret dressing and new strings, result - a nice looking guitar with a very nice sound.

No dings, no cracks, almost like new.

But....

 

In the second picture you can see the crack in the binding. The top is unglued in that part, if I tap with my finger I can tell where the top is separated by the change of the taping sound.

 

In the third picture you can see that the bridge is unglued behind the pins, the feeler gauge enters ~1,5cm (1/2inch).

 

Considering that if I put my arm in the soundhole I am just able to touch the end block with my fingertips, how can I reapair the top separation? Should I remove a piece of binding to access the separation area?

 

Second, what is the best way to repair the bridge separation?

[nathan clark]

Looks like you could use a bridge reglue. www.frets.com has a good tutorial on that.

If you can dry clamp the top separation closed, then gluing and clamping is probably the way to go. If there's dirt or similar gunk in the open joint that you can't get out, you might have to remove the binding. Here's a link that shows how I dealt with a similar repair on a Taylor.

[Eugen C]

Thank you for your quick answer.

Regarding the top/side regluing, I can't access the surfaces from outside without removing the binding and I don't know if I can be so acurate to put the glue between the parts from inside.
Maybe I would do this using a camera inside the guitar and watching my moves on the computer display.
Or just break a piece of binding, glue the top and side and then glue the binding back in place.

And for the bridge, I was hoping to reglue without removing the bridge.

[Eugen C]

another angle

[nathan clark]

Seems like you would be able to push some glue into the joint between the binding and the perfling with a thin probe. You can probably push the top up and down with your fingers to suction enough glue into the joint between the top and the lining.

Of course I'm only looking at photos but a repair like that would be fast and almost invisible. Removing part of the binding that far away from the neck block (where the ends of the binding typically are) is going to either be an obvious repair or a time consuming repair.

The bridge/top glue joint is such a high stress area that I think regluing the bridge is the best bet.

[nathan clark]

Seems like hide glue or tite-bond would be the best choices for this repair. Either would glue both the wood glue joint (lining to top) and the binding. The binding is loose on a convex portion of the sides, as opposed to the waist so even hide glue would hold the plastic binding in place.