cracked martin SIde

[Alexander Allgood]

This gentleman brought this to me a few days ago. I guess it was impaled by another guitars tuning machines. Any Ideas on how to approach this one? I have most of the broken pieces. I'm thinking hide Glue will be the best option for this followed by a few cleats on the inside and some touchup. WHat would you guys normally charge on something like this also?

[Frank Ford]

Ouch - a nasty one!  Best you can do is what you suggest, I think.   I always make my side cleats full length between the linings so they resist pressure on the side, and I make them about 5/8"wide, spaced appropriately to support the repair.

 

Touchup is nasty piled on nasty because the finish is so thin as to be nonexistent, so I try to make sure there aren't expectations of good appearance after the job is done unless the entire side gets sanded and refinished.  That's difficult to justify because of the price range of the guitar.

[Jerry Ryan]

Can be carefully glued back together. I would add a matching verticle brace (or 2) to have something to glue to (proper placement would aid best alignment, you may not need cleats), Clamps, heavy duty magnets, to pull /push it all back to origional. Tightbond would be my choice, you will need time to precisely position/clamp the breaks to origional position. CA to fil the cracks at the end, after chip replacement and staining the bright wood in the cracks to match (that would be fun!?#$). Razor blade levelscrape, light sanding on CA only. I would not attempt to refinish. It will never match. Break fix ifor play with min. blemishs is the  only option. Should not be all that noticable at the end. $200 apx 4 hrs. If you want it to disappear, refinish sides, add $200.

This kind of guitar with this damage end up on eBay as Luthier Project guitars. Thats where I get instruments that I learn on.

 

[Alexander Allgood]

Thanks guys for the input. I think titebond might be best, because there are quite a few pieces and I'm definitely going to need time to position them. any ideas for the best wood filler if there ends up being a missing piece or two?

[Jeff Perkins]

I would go with the hide glue, and use reinforcements strips in addition to cleats, possibly some cloth reinforcements soaked in hide glue as well. I would charge $400-$500 depending on the finish work needed. I don't know how my prices compare to other luthiers. But I'm the only guy in my area that does this. It looks like the finish has peeled off from the pic. Is that the case or is is the light? You definitely want to use some crack alignment jigs to get it flush as possible. But be careful in the areas that don't have much for the jigs to hold on to.