Well, just couldn't resist this. I bought the following:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Parkwood-PW360M-Cutaway-Acoustic-Electric-Guitar-103407532-i1171389.gc
I paid $179 for this Parkwood guitar new - as it had two or three cracks on the top. They lost the soft case, so gave me a $80 hard shell case in its place. Just a sweet deal so far. This thing plays and sounds as good as my Taylor 514CW which cost a couple grand.
Evidently, something must have dropped on this guitar while in its soft case and cracked the top of the guitar in about 2 or 3 places. No lose pieces floating anywhere that I can tell so far. At first I thought it might have been a humidity problem that cracked it, but don't think so now.
I have looked at Nick's repair of a Sequall guitar a few months back, and plan on fixing this one myself I think. I will take before and after pic's in case anyone wants to see how it goes. One thing I will be using is Titebond glue (wherease I think Nick used Elmers).
I thought about just leaving it as it is and perhaps in time it would look like Willie Nelson's guitar, but changed my mind...:)
Look around on http://frets.com/ and I think you'll find some useful info on repairing something like this.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Titebond II although Elmer's does have a nice pro woodworking glue
After humidifying the guitar for 3 days (using one of those tube things that has a sponge with water), it looks like two of the cracks have almost completely closed up. I hadn't expected this, as this guitar was bought in a humidified room a week ago.
Anyone know if I should try to glue those also? I am not sure hardly enough room to get glue in them (perhaps I could work some in with a toothpick head and then wipe it in). Open to suggestions on this.
There is still one crack I for sure will need to fix.
Also, thanks for the hint on glue Nick, and also the link on how to fix cracks... that was very helpful.
Maybe a really low viscosity cyanoacrylate?
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
I put a flashlight inside the guitar, and turned the lights off in the room... and I can clearly see there are three cracks all the way through. Two are very small, but about 4 inches long.... so all three will need to be repaired.
Kind of funny, the flashlight really showed some stuff a mirrow did not.
Ok, cracks all done and repaired! I have surprised myself on this one, you have to be right on the guitar to see the old cracks (no one a few feet away would even see there was ever a crack). I ended up using the original TiteBond, and let it dry for 24 hours. Just couldn't believe how good it looked today. I will let it set another week or two before stringing it up, as I understand this clue continues to work within the wood.
That's a great looking guitar, it looks like you got a great deal. Would love to see pictures of the repair job.
Just an update on the repair. I finished the outside repair a few weeks ago (then was gone out of town for 3 weeks). I have now put in three small cleats (small pieces of wood) in the underside of the top for crack reinforcement - across the crack. I actually ordered a small piece of Sitka Spruce (which is what the top of the guitar was) to make the cleats. They are glued in with Titebond original, and held in place with some fairly strong rare earth magnets which I got at a local place for $3. I let these each dry 48 hours before removing the magnets and doing the next one.
Kind of funny, looks like this Titebond continues to get stronger with the wook after a few weeks - as the top cracks now look even smaller. Could be my imagination, but sure looks tighter.
I will post a couple pic's here when the complete repair is done, and I string it up in a couple weeks.
Have to say this, really enjoyed doing this as it has been a long time I have done any kind of wood working.
Project all done, Parkwood all stringed up and final setup done by my professional setup man.... and it just sounds GREAT! I played it several hours yesterday, just can't put it down.
Anyone know if I can upload an image here of the finished repaired guitar? I couldn't figure out how to use the Img button.
You can't upload an image here. You upload the pic somewhere that hosts images like http://photobucket.com/ and post the image URL here. That's what the IMG button is for, to insert the img code around the picture URL. Photobucket will do that for you, so you just paste in the link. There are lots of other similar image hosting sites. I've often linked to pics I have on Facebook or Myspace, too.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
