Seeking Opinion on this Ziricote back set..

[Rangerdave1]

I purchased a Ziricote set and when it arrived, it wasn't as described. The were large cracks which were not circled or mentioned. So the seller is sending me another back set. I wouldn't use this flawed set for a customer guitar so decided I'd use it for myself on an experimental guitar which will be slimmer as I am also using a set of cracked sides that will only allow for 3.5" depth.

So I'm seeking opinions on how to work with this cracked set.. my first thought was to epoxy fill and likely add a strip inside to cover the cracked area. But when I started really looking at it I thought I could also cut out a 3/4" strip out of it removing the part that's cracked and gluing it back together. Looks like the strip I'd remove would be inside one of the grain veins and I think it might blend in quite well when glued back together.. worst case is I'd see the line.

So what would you do?? Epoxy or cut it out and glue back together??

I'll add some photos when I get on the computer to shrink them a bit

[Rangerdave1]

Here are the photos

[Dave Bagwill]

Sure is beautiful wood!
I'd probably do as you mentioned, cut out the 3/4" affected strip and glue 'er together.

[Rangerdave1]

Cutting the strip out would certainly be the safest route but at the cost of having the line where the two pieces meet. But the other way using epoxy will always leave the possibility of failure down the road with the crack still being visible.. the more I think about it there more it makes sense to cut the strip out and glue it back up..

[Rangerdave1]

I decided to cut the strip out and reglue. With some careful attention to the grain pattern, I was able to line things up very nicely. In this photo, the pieces are just butted against each other with no glue and i can barely see where the joints are.. well unless you look at the bottom of course..

[peter havriluk]

Looks to me like OP is ahead one beautiful set of back wood. Looks gorgeous to me. Left to me, I'd be reinforcing the inside with the customary crossgrain reinforcement used in joining backs...just in case, though it seems as if OP has worked around the shrunken stuff

[Herman]

Hey Dave,
Well done. Another option is to make a three piece back like a HD35.
Also you could add a binding strip between the three pieces. Then the glue lines would not be an item.
Anyway, good work.
A guitar is made, while you work around setbacks. Ha!
Herman