Warped soundboard

[Jerry Ryan]

Advise requested:

I have a Seagull guitar I'm restoring. The first problem to address is that the soundboard rises about 1/4" at the bridge. From the tail to the bridge it appears straight with a straightedge, but if you lay a straightedge from neck to tail you can see the rise at the bridge that actually looks like a sunken soundhole area

I have a dental intraoral video camera I use to inspect the interior and take snapshots of any damage, cracks, etc. None visible. All of the hide glue joints, bridge plate, x-braces, etc. are tight, clean and look fine.

How do I straighten the bow/rise and more importantly, have it stay there? My thought is to use humidity and clamp it flat and let it dry that way for a couple of weeks.

Jerry

[Jeffrey L. Suits]

Install a JLD Bridge System. That's not much of a warp, though.

[Jerry Ryan]

Thanks,

I recall seeing this before on a breedlove guitar, didn't know about it til today.

[Jim Bancroft]

Is it raising the action where it is hard to play? Have you checked all interior bracing by trying to slide a .004" feeler guage under all the braces, to find loose ones? If you have done all that and everything is fine, I wouldn't worry about it.

I'd only be concerned if the action was raised up to where it was hard to play, and if that was the case, I'd reset the neck to match the belly.
Adding humidity and clamping it flat will maybe solve the problem short term. It will eventually go back to where it was.

Jim

[Jerry Ryan]

jim,

Thanks fot the tips. That makes the best sense. I'm a rookie, but it would seem with all of the braces intsct, a nenw sounboard would be the only 'perfect' solution but the guitar isn't worth that effort. No loose braces on the soundboard. i used the IO camera to inspect and it has a 50x lens for finding cracks in teeth in the closeup mode. The bridge was off when I got it. bought it from a tinker that got in trouble, really made a mess of things steaming the bridge off.

[Ron Frazier]

Where did you find the camera?
Ron

[Jerry Ryan]

Ron,

i sell the cameras thru my business for dental offices. I am looking at one now that would sell for under $500. too many dentists are hesitating righ now with the ecomomy.Thes std. dental cameras sell for $3500 and up. but these cameras give amazing images as they offer magnification and led lighting at the lens.

[Bruce Herrmann]

The intra-oral cameras are amazing. I rarely have it at the Dental office because I'm using at home
so much. I need a second one so am interested in the 500.00 model. There was one a few years ago
being promoted by a Japanese company, resolution was poor but the price was right.
The type I have uses a fire-wire connection and produces really excellent images, it features a foot
pedal for actually acquiring the image (in the Dental office that works well, a little more difficult in
the guitar workshop but not that bad). I think they offer a tremendous help to repair folks and builders
as there is no better way to see inside a guitar.