I'm not happy with how the purfling came out on the top inside the binding. The edges look raggedy:
I want to somehow go back and redo them with a wider purfling strip. I don't want to have to rout off the bindings and redo the channels since my sides are essentially trued up at this point though. Would something like StewMac's Purfling/Soundhole Router Guidework for that?
My humble suggestion: rout off the binding/purfling and start afresh. Looks like the edge of the soundboard wasn't right and the purfling went on anyway. I think no harm would come if a small section of the existing binding was drop-filled and scraped and see if that helped appearances any.
I read of a guy who replaces tops on guitars by routing INSIDE the binding so the original binding is still there when he glues a new top inside. So it would be possible to route out the purfling and put new in - but for me, highly improbable.
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
I think I'd leave it alone and resolve to do a better job on the next guitar. I suspect the only person who would notice the raggedness -- or care -- is you.
But, if you do want to fix it, you can certainly re-cut the channels, pretending the binding and purfling aren't there.
You could try removing the binding and purfling with heat, as Diane suggests, but I'm not sure what that would gain you. I assume you would have to clean up the channels anyway, to get rid of the ragged edges.
If the problem is merely a bad glue job (not getting the purfling tight all the way around when it was glued on) then conceivably you could selectively unglue sections of the binding/purflng, pull it tight, and re-glue.
Don't believe everything you know.
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
When things are bad, try not to make them any worse, because it is quite likely they are bad enough already. - French Foreign Legion
Thanks. The issue initially was that I either I hadn't scraped the sides enough when I routed the binding or I'd "rocked" the body and cut them at an angle in places. I'm scraping the sides now so they're a little more level. I suppose I should probably just order more binding and slightly wider purfling and rout the ledges all over again.
