Soundhole Crack Warped

[Jeff Perkins]

I've got an old Gibson SJ Deluxe in the shop. It's got a number of cracks on the soundboard which I'm repairing. But, the wood from one of the cracks from the soundhole is warped. You can see it in the pictures. My question to you guys is, "How would you flatten it back out so I can line it up to glue?" I'm thinking slow pressure over time with some form of humidity. But have any of you guys run into this before, and if so, how did you flatten the top back out?

 

[Jeff Perkins]

To those of you who mentioned the neck being warped, I received the guitar without any strings on it. Thanks for noticing it, as I hadn't gotten that far yet. After looking at it, it does appear to be a little warped. When I string it up, we'll see what happens!!

[Kerry Krishna]

Make sure before you glue it up that you get as much of the previous fix job's glue out of the crack before you start too my friend.

 

[Jeff Highland]

And make sure you get the soundhole edge and rosette rings aligned before you lock anything in place, At the moment it looks like that side of the fretboard and attached top is pushed into the soundhole by about 1/32" 

[Kerry Krishna]

Jeff, what is going on with the guitar?

 

[Jeff Perkins]

Kerry,

I'm not sure what you're asking exactly... The customer brought it in to have the cracks on the top repaired. There are four of them. The guitar was so dry I had to re-humidify it wrapped up in a trash bag for two weeks. I've taken the pickguard off to line everything up, I'm going to glue and cleat the cracks that match up nicely and splint the ones that don't meet up. I'm doing very minimal touchup finishing. He doesn't want to spend much money on it. He's also one of my guitar lesson students. So I'm going to show him the pickguard and see what he wants done about that. Frank recommended using cellosolve so I may try that. When I get some strings on it, I'll check the fretboard and frets and see what he wants to do about that if there are in fact problems. I'm sure he'll just say, "stick the old pickguard back on it. But, I'll try to recommend having me cut him a new one. I've made a few custom pickguards, but I'm never really happy with them. Are there any tricks to getting the edges nice and smooth other than the usual sand and polish? Here's a pic of the whole top.

[Jeff Perkins]

I don't see any evidence of any of these cracks being repaired before.

[Kerry Krishna]

I was just wondering about an update on this project Jeff. Many folks come here for help, finish a project and never tell us how it went, or post pics.The fretboard crack looked like it has glue inside the crack in a closeup of the second picture.   When you go to glue up the fretboard side crack, you might want to consider clamping the guitar body lightly to a table and gently pulling the neck back (also with clamps so you can control the pressure) so you can line the cracks up well. It looks like the repair is coming along though!

[Frank Ford]

Serious stuff there. First order of business is to flatten top by releasing and regluing pickguard:

 

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/Pickguards...

 

Then, take the crack for the life-threating issue it is and reinforce it to make that area solid agains shear:

 

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/Structural...

 

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/Structural...

[Jeff Perkins]

Thanks for your help Frank