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Well, I was closing in with the old Bay State parlor guitar about which I posted a few days back regarding pricing.  As I'm French polishing the back after all those repairs, I'm noticing that there are mat finished lines in the oil sheen left after one of my polishing sessions building up the layers.  I spirit off the oil and notice that my once smoothly filled crack repairs are not smooth anymore, and when I press around, the horror of fresh splits along the repaired cracks become apparent!!!!!  It appears that just the light pressure involved in applying the shellac was enough to crack it back apart in some areas.

When I started the project, I first tried to reglue the broken halves of the back and all the other cracks, I used freshly made hide glue.  This didn't hold for the major splits in the back, so I cleaned out the cracks and splits and started again with LMI white glue.  This seemed to do the trick, but once I got the back reglued to the rest of the body, they started to open up some and spread in some areas.  I took action by using epoxy this time and thought this was the answer....not so it appears.  So, with the cracks being very fine, but clearly separated, I chose super glue as this would run throughout the crack and hopefully solve the problem. 

Also, I've just recently had to repair a new crack along the side near the purfling on the lower bout due, I'm sure, from the added pressure of the back being reunited to the body after over 15 years of being apart. (All cracks and splits have cross patches but the fine short ones near bracings, and they seem fine anyway.

Did I do the right thing here?  Is there something else I should do?  What about chemical incompatibility of three different glues in there?  Is this going to be a playable guitar or not?....I was so very hopeful, even certain, but now I'm freaking out.

Please advise.

Thanks!

Tags: back, crack, cracks, cross, glue, guitar, patches

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This makes sense, I had not thought of that nor have I read of it, but it makes good sense. Thanks!

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