Acoustic guitar top, strange crack

[Gas]

Hello everybody! it's my first post in this great community! I've been reading lots of discussions and i've learned a lot!

Im guitar and 12 strings bass builder, and i don't repair acoustic guitars, but a friend beg me to repair his Alhambra acoustic guitar. The guitar has suffered an impact at jack area and as a result produced a crack on the top. I've try to gently press the top but seems to be a little overlap in the crack. Any idea or suggestions?



Thanks

-Gas-


Ps: excuse my poor english, trying to improve it everyday;)

[Gas]

More photos

[Ned Knepp]

Hi Gas, Welcome to the forum.

Yeah, these misaligned cracks in non-vertical grain tops can be a pain.  I've managed to get them back in alignment by pressing up on the low side from the inside and then down on the high side so thing "pop" back into place but it's not usually as easy to do as it is to type that in a reply.  

A lot of what you will need to do is dependent up how much overhang you have on the high side and how much play you can get in the crack. 

You probably don't need me to tell you to be careful that you don't accidently extending the crack. Now that I've said that, I've had a couple of these that I just couldn't realigned UNTIL the crack ran a bit but I certainly don't recommend it as a technique to adopt. In both cases I was fortunate that I didn't end up with a much bigger crack to repair. In short, I was lucky.

It can help if the top is loose for a bit along the edges in both directions away from the crack so if it is, don't get into a hurry to glue it back down right away. The catch is that it can help with aligning the crack but it can also crack more easily in another place as you work on this crack. 

I'm NOT recommending that you get it loose if it isn't but if it is loose on the edges of the guitar, you might be able to carefully, gently lift each side from the edge, next to the crack.This can be pretty tricky and can create more cracks but I've had a few that I was able to align this way. The idea is to get the clearance you need without doing more damage anywhere else. IF you are going to try this please notice that I recommend lifting at the edge NEXT TO THE CRACK. Resist the temptation to slide away from the crack, along the edge to increase or hold the lift once you are under the side. My experience has been that this practically guarantees that you will have more cracks to fix. You really don't want to apply all that much pressure where you life either because it still split again next to the crack. What you want is to use the loose width at the edge of the guitar as a flex zone when you lift on each side of the crack. IF it's going to work you shouldn't have to lift it very much. Just enough and no more. You will have to judge if it can be done that way as well as how much flex you have to work with. If the top is fairly stiff, particularly across the grain or if there is a brace nearby, it may not be possible to flex it enough to do it this way.

Speaking of braces, you probably want to locate any braces that may need to be  glued down again once this is aligned, (if any).  

 Each of these sorts of cracks I've come across is different and ultimately you will probably need to just spend some time playing with it to determine what needs to be done. I've had a few that were pretty hard to get aligned again but sometimes it's just a matter of getting the right combination of pressure and it will move back into place.

BTW. Don't get into a hurry to try anything I'm posting here. It's totally and completely possible that wiser and more experienced heads will post a much easier way to do this.   

  

[Gas]

Thanks for your advice Ned, i'll try as you say ;)

[Howard Klepper]

Nothing unusual here.  If you can't get your hands in that far , and you don't have a clamp long enough, then align it with tuner clamps.  If you don't know what those are, you need to do some research and tell your friend he is begging for you to do something you have no experience doing, and that you make no promises about how it will come out.

[Gas]

Thanks Howard! im not going to try anything "crazy", i don't have much experience repairing this kind of cracks and I alredy tell my friend im going to try but no promises, if i can't he should take the guitar to a proper acoustic repairman :)