The Exploded Guitar - It Begins
"Sometimes everything is wrong" - Michael Stipe
Sometimes you’ve got to consider if it’s worth the effort. This Spanish classical was is in such bad shape that, for the weeks I worked on it, I called it the “guitar that exploded”. It was the first and only time I’ve come across a guitar with the tailblock rattling inside, unattached. Wood was shredded, finish was battered.
Worse yet, the owner told me that it had been in this shape for years. Stubborn old wood can shrink and settle and decide it wants to stay where it is. This one was gonna take some time and care. And, to be honest, I wasn’t terribly hopeful. But the instrument was of great personal value to the customer.
What you see here is the result of several days of humidified nudging. I just made that term up. Strategic clamping pressure across the body counter to the angles of the gaping cracks along the sides. Then overnight humidifying while clamped. Eventually the wood relaxed into it’s original position. I was surprised at how little wood was lost in the “explosion”. The trickiest spot was the one pictured above. Note the grain pattern just below the opening, how it raises sharply then drops. It’s evidence of a knot or knuckle in the wood that was bound to be a problem eventually.
Here is a view of the other side. You can clearly see the scarring from where the wood had split. Once I got these realigned, everything began to right itself. The splits along the soundboard sort of snapped back into place and the butt of the guitar regained its right and proper angle so that the tail block could be reattached. It was important not to force the wood back into shape, but to make the wood want to rest there, thus the hours of prep work, humidifying and clamping. The uneven striped patterns in the wood are due to me scraping the finish off on each section off the guitar as I worked. I did this to ensure clean gluing surfaces. It turns out that horrible finish damage was a mystery top coat that was added by a third party. More on finishing in a later post.