HTS_Crack_side

When guitars split down the sides it can be a result of many things, it may have taken an impact into the body, the sides may be too thin, the sides may have not been heated enough during the bending process, the top and back may be warped.

The first step of any repair is to identify the reasons why.

This guitar has no indications of any causal effect, as such we need to treat it as wood in tension.

Time to repair approx 3 hrs over 3 days (glue drying times)

Once happy, remove all clamps to begin repair.

Using our finger we work the glue into the crack.

Start the clamping process, making sure the sides are aligned via pressure from our fingers.

Clean the area as we move along with a wet cloth.

Once all aligned and cleaned, we allow the glue to dry for 24hrs.

After drying remove all clamps and assess the alignment, if its no good you can steam the joint back open and start again.

Any excess glue squeeze out inside the guitar, gets scraped away using a small raxor blade,

Make sure its all clean as we need to fit cleats internally.

Doing a dry run, we attempt to align and clamp the sides up.

Working the parts of the break back together and identifying any misisng wood or issues that may develop.

Using titebond glue

We are going to use some wood to back up the crack (cleat), the grain of the wood needs to run 90 degrees opposite the guitar sides for maximum strength.