A Manzanita Local Wood Parlor

[John Parchem]

Wow sorry I am late to the party. That is a gorgeous guitar. I have a back yard of manzanitas but on 6" diameter

[Carl Dickinson]

Tragedy has struck!! A stumble with a flung cell phone results in this....

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The soundhole is too small for my fat arm to get in and reach that. It's dented in and cracked above the dent with edge displacement and right at the edge of the liner. I loosened the strings and put it back in its case, out of sight, out of mind for now..... All I can think of for repair is an arm bevel. Never done one before but can cut plenty of Manzanita veneer. ARRG!!!

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[Herman]

That is not funny. I feel for ya. I guess in some way you find a solution for this.
I had a similar thing with a just finished guitar that I bummed to the corner of our kichen table. Yes, "Aaarrgh!" is the proper respons.

[John Parchem]

As for reaching into the inside. Drill a nylon string sized hole in the dented and cracked area. Pass a string through and maneuver it toward the sound hole and pull it out of the sound hole. Then you can attach a good sized cleat to the string and pull it in to place. Have a bit of Plexiglas with a hole for the string that you can use for a caul. Pull the string through the Plexiglas hole (a way to wind to increase tension really helps) and testing dry see if you can pull that dent into place. If it works pull the cleat out (it would be easy if you left a tail sitting outside the sound hole) apply glue and clamp the cleat in place.

[Carl Dickinson]

Thanks John. That's a great suggestion. I found that my wife (the perpetrator of the dent) has skinny enough arms to get in the sound hole so we're going to try some magnets to align the wood. Cleat, wax paper, magnets and Titebond might work. Practice first to see if things align. If not, we'll try your suggestion.