Ideas needed,

[sebastiaan56]

Im making progress on the Bent Top Mando. The box is glued up and even sounds good!



There is one little problem, I bought a router bit off Stewmac to do the binding channels, works a treat, the Ivoroid sits beautifully. But there is one spot where it dug in on me.


How would you patch this hole?

[Paul B]

Time for an inlay!

[Allen]

I reckon Taffy is the Go-To man on this one.

I had to repair a similar spot on one of my Qld. Walnut sides when the router bit slipped in the collet. Being very dark wood, it was easy to make a scarf / lap patch an almost invisible repair. On that top, well, I got nothing.

Edit:

Is it possible to add some prufling that will take up most of the void? A small patch might be easier to hide.

Then there is always the possibility of a sunburst, or if worst comes to worst, you could paint the top black and call it a tribute to Hesh.

[kiwigeo]

Hey Seb,

I did a bit of googling and this is about all I could find on filling holes in soundboards. I think its probably more suited to holes smaller than the one youre dealing with.

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier ... ehole.html

[sebastiaan56]

I thought of cutting it out and making a patch as Frank Ford does in the page you linked Kim, all I need is a piece the same colour.

Ive played with the inlay idea all day Paul, Im not sure what would suit it. Ive got some burl but it looks out of place.

Maybe I can make it left handed and put an arm guard on it

[kiwigeo]

What link????

I thought of cutting it out and making a patch as Frank Ford does in the page you linked Kim, all I need is a piece the same colour.

[Taffy Evans]

Hi
I tried twice to post a reply from work this arvo and for some reason it did not show. What I said was, errrrrr oh yes. Many a new design feature or embelishment has been born out of a mistake I've got out of a few in my time, some times after a sleepless night like you probably had.

If you care to check a post I did on my Resonator guitar a couple of months ago you will see one such getoutofjail effort on the back. Every body that sees it comments on what a good idea, little do they know, but know the whole world knows.

I think inlay is the way to go. It would have be good patch work if using a matched scrap of the top timber. I would, myself, think about an inlay of a contrasting timber, I like ebony, and put a tastfully shaped inlay that could be mirrored on the side at the same location. I use wood bindings so I might try to bring the binding [inlay matching piece of timber] out to cover the damage in a tastfull decorative way, I have done that in the past. If this post shows up I have a picture I could post if you like. Good Luck

[Hesh1956]

Sunburst!

[Dave White]

Sebastiaan,

This top came off a commission when it developed a small crack in the bottom edge of the lower bout but its was such a great sounding top I kept it for an "experimental" instrument. Various areas needed some sort of patching and this is what I ended up doing:





These are EIR patches that match the b/s inlaid in the top. There were only two "dings" to cover but I made four patches to keep symmetry. One ding was too deep but was in a good place so became the "tweeter" soundport:



Here's a "Rising Pint of Guniness" I did on the lower bout of a guitar-bouzouki using ebony and maple:

[Kim]

Very clever Dave, particularly taken with the look of the rising pint, that curly maple just belongs right there.

Cheers

Kim

[sebastiaan56]

Sorry Martin, I meant Martin not Kim sorry Kim for confusing you with Martin, if thats what I did, and visa versa, OK now I m confused.....

Thanks Taffy and Dave, ideas noted and duly stolen. I'll need to wait till the ebony gets here but Ive used Cooktown Ironwood elsewhere on the instrument, I'll mess with it,