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This came into the shop yesterday, the owner said he kept this guitar buy a space heater! already repaired once . some crackage as you wound expect . Now complete break of the top  at back of the bridge top pulled UP  big cracks  x brace sections unglued

SO my plan is to  remove bridge plate ,, install a new larger bridge plate so there's  glue surface past the brake to glue the top down to . then glue everything back together and installing a martin repair bridge to cover the break  >> what im hoping is the top will hold, seeing that the top completely broken at the bridge back ,,a first for me!. i'm the edge of thinking it needs to be re topped ,and of course  thats too much $ for the customer

so the stewing on this as i prepare myself  and thought id share with my next project20161217_130207.jpg

and hob nob with my fellow wizards 20161217_130334.jpg

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I'd put in an oversized bridgplate that crosses the cracks. Remove the bridge and remove the spruce under the original bridge and make the edges clean and straight with a 45 degree bevel. Then make a spruce patch with a matching 45 degree slant on the edges with the grain in the same direction as the top. Glue the patch with hot hide glue. Then thickness it down to the surface of the top and glue an oversized replika bridge over the whole mess with the same hot hide glue. Should work.

Frank has one or two articles on frets.com on how to repair s similar bridge crack, much as Roger describes.  But yowsa!  would re-hydration even close up the other cracks?  What a disaster... .

Larry

  If the customer's willing to wait & pay, it probably wouldn't hurt to try all manner of fixes but, in the end, I believe that it's going to need to be re-topped.  

  Expensive, yes... but the guitar is worth the work and maybe (just maybe) he'll learn to store it in a kinder manner.

thanks for the replys

After some consideration i've decided to recommend retopping to the customer

for a guaranteed result

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