Removal techniques for laminated bracing

[keith angus]

Gentlemen; Any good advice on how to lift laminated internal back-seam strips for a repair of separation/cracking between the 2nd & 4th back braces? The cracks/separation are immediately adjacent to the back/center strip which, like all the internal bracing is a 5-layer lamination ALA. Manzer/ Blazer & Henke. The guitar is a mahogany Dread and It's a goodun'! I'm concerned that the shop that I will be taking it to in Edmonton AB. CANADA may not have dealt with this type of bracing and I want to be sure that the back-strips come off in one piece as I think they must to do this sort of re-glue/repair job....or not? Feed-bak greatly appreciated! I'm not able to post photos..DAGNABIT!

[Paul Verticchio]

Hi Keith.

I don't have an answer to your question but I'd like to offer a couple of tips:

You should be asking this question to the shop that's going to do the work. They need to answer the question for you as they will be doing the work.

Also, if someone here offers a solution, please don't take your guitar to that shop and tell them: "Here's how the folks on the forum would do it".  You'll immediately have two strikes against against you.  A typical expected response from them might be along the lines of: "Well then send it to the folks on the forum for repair."

Best of luck with the repair,

Paul

[Kerry Krishna]

 Keith, the only store that you could be taking this to is Byron's place right?  They are the best in the city, and one of the only places I know of in Canada that are just as comfortable working on a 30s D18/D28 as they are with a 1820s European fiddle. (Bowed string instrument repair folks and us regular repair folks rarely have common ground to walk on in my experience....) They will do whatever is necessary to get your axe up and running. The repair crew there are not adverse to asking online questions if anything comes up that they have not dealt with before. On a different note, I can't see how working on a laminate brace will be any different that working on a regular brace. It's not like the carbon fibre  in the sandwich will be glued with a different type of glue that turns it into one piece construction with the back. 

 Paul, I have my suspicions that Myhre's repair crew have all been on this site at one time or another. What repair crew in North America haven't been here to seek advice! 

[keith angus]

Paul: Thanx for the get-back..BUT..by posting this I'm trying to educate myself about any potentialities concerning this type of bracing so that I can make a semi-informed decision as to who I will entrust the work to based on what I hear after the situation has beenassessed by them. Believe me when I say that this type of bracing is not often seen out here in the wild west so that I just had to ask.

 Kerry: There is another shop in EDMNTN, Accoustic Music Shop, that I intend to go to as I've gotten better work done in less time for a better price. By's place gets over-run and Thomas has had some health issues of late. The main area of concern for me is whether or not special techniques are required so that these multi-piece strips aren't broken apart in the removal process. Make sense?

[Kerry Krishna]

It does.

Keith, the bracing under were the crack is will just  be loosened I would think. The brace will most certainly not be coming out. They will  likely disturb the glue for a few inches(?) on either side of the brace, glue the crack, and reglue the bracing. That is IF they decide the bracing has to be touched at all. You did not post pics so I don't have a better idea. Good luck with all of this. I also did not know about Thomas...