I have an acoustic that suffered a pretty good ding recently. At first, I was hoping that it was just in the finish and I could fill/buff it out. After further inspection I have found that the damage can be felt by hand from inside the body as well. This leads me to believe there is a crack in the wood. I am contemplating how to fix it. I can wood glue a thin layer inside to try and brace it and fill the top with an epoxy type filler. Hopefully, this would prevent the crack from spreading. I'm not worried about making it look good (I can do that). What I am concerned with is doing the correct type of repair. Any ideas?

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

If you glue any wood to an acoustic guitar you will almost surely adversely affect the guitar's tone. I recommend just leaving it as is and waiting to see if a crack does develop and cross that bridge when you come to it.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Get some glue, a long clamp, and 2 pieces of plywood. Put the ply wood over the break both inside and out and press it back in place.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

So is the ding on the top and if so where on the soundboard?
The bracing, or ribs, might stop the crack if the ding is towards the back of the soundboard. From the rossette towards the neck, the sound board will probably crack further without some kind of repair.

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FIGHT!

I would take professional advice at this stage.

But in the absence of that, I'd have to stabilise the top if it was my guitar. A small, light internal only patch glued on the underside of the top would be sufficent. Now there's a weakness, changing humidity will make that crack travel otherwise. Certainly nothing glued on the outside, or the tone will be massively compromised.

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

I appreciate the advice. There is a crack or small split in the wood. It is located on the front at the bottom toward the back. About where the output jack on a Strat is. It is between two internal supports. I would not glue any wood to the outside, only a small thin piece at the problem area (inside). Then fill the top dent and finish it. I have a full shop and all the tools for the job, I just want to make sure I'm approaching it correctly. It really sucks to get half way through a job only to realize you should have gone about it differently.

The damaged area is 1/16" wide and 1.5" long running parallel to the neck. I would post a pic, but there is very little to see from the outside. The inside feels like a hairline split pushed down about 1/32".

I could try filling the outside dent and epoxy the inside and forget the added wood. Any fillers that dry and polish transparent?

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

The top of the guitar is sometimes called the sound board. If it were mine I would not put any filler on it from the inside or the outside. Nor would I glue wood to the inside. The guitar will still play and sound acceptable with the ding.

Is this an expensive guitar? If it's a guitar worth $1.5K or more then it might be cheaper to have a new top put on than to replace the guitar. If not I think you should just play it as it is.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Hello Matt.

Oh my good Lord, don't do any of that. Filler doesn't belong anywhere near a guitar and wood glue is completely wrong. Hide glue is the tool for this job for many reasons, not least because it is reversible. None of what you have described will stop a crack from spreading: a spline and cleat repair is the only thing that will do that. And you are almost certainly not going to be able to achieve that without taking the top off - do you know how to do that?

The very best advice on this thread is:

Exactly. This is a job for a luthier - and I mean a real luthier, not some tech operating out of the back room of a guitar shop. You need someone who builds acoustic guitars all day long and knows how to pull them apart and repair them. The world is surprisingly full of guitar builders and in all probability you will have one nearby that you never knew about till you started searching. Get Googling. If this guitar is anything more than a $200 lump of junk it is worth the trouble.

Meantime, some suggestions. Trying to talk about this damage without seeing it is like asking a doctor to diagnose a broken leg over the phone. It is fairly pointless. So show us what you've got.

So far, it sounds like even you have not set eyes on the problem from the inside. So get a small mirror that you can insert through the sound hole and lay flat on the inside of the back of the guitar so as to inspect the underside of the soundboard. You'll probably need to put a small flashlight in there too to illuminate proceedings.

Further, nearly all small digital cameras these days have a macro setting for the focus. Set a camera to macro (or super macro if available), pop it in there on its back looking up at the soundboard and take lots of photos. Some with the flash, and some without but with a strong light shining down on the outside of the instrument to see if any light shows through a crack. That'll give useful information.

Then show us the photos.

Next, you should spend plenty of time studying this website, and preferably sign up to it and ask serious, grown-up acoustic guitar builders for advice. Frankly, they'll tell you everything I've already said, but you'll likely believe it better from them:

http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/index.php

But whatever you do, don't do any of the things you've so far mentioned on this thread. It's just too ghastly to think about...

Best of luck - C

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Thanks, I will take it to a pro. I'm not rushing into anything.

Update: I talked with a guy today that builds acoustics. I have used him before with other projects and he does very good work. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=212545872145975&set=a.108620485871848.10893.100001716907126&type=1&theater

this is how to do it.