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I think I'm going to be sick...

If you look closely at the two attached pics you'll see warping damage from paper towels that I set a damp sponge on (to humidify) inside the soundhole. I didn't think there was enough water to soak through, but I was obviously wrong. Few days later, and here I am about to cry... so stupid of me.

Right now it's sitting with rice in the body and the soundhole sealed off hoping to absorb the moisture as much as possible.

Is there a way to correct this or have I just ruined my guitar back?

Glen,
Regrettably I have no solution for you but I sure feel your pain.
I think that if it were my guitar I'd skip the sealed soundhole and rice
and I'd get a fan blowing on the problem area. However, before any of
that, I'd first get myself a soundhole humidifier. Good luck and keep us
apprised of your progress.

-tommy

I'd open it up and just let the air get to it. You don't say where you are, but at this time of year in snow country the air inside a house is usually DRY.

Wait until it's thoroughly dried out before you panic (too much, anyway). It may behave itself and recover fairly well. (Then again, it may not, but you can burn that bridge when you come to it.)

get the rice out and let air hit it. This should come back to normal I would not dry it out too fast. I don't use home made humidifiers for this very reason.
when it gets near normal check that you didn't pop a brace.

ok - rice is out and is sitting in front of a small fan... I'll post back tomorrow

take the fan off you don't want to dry it too fast . This should be back to normal in a few days.

ok - fan is off... huge sigh of relief this morning when I got up. I can't believe how much it's returned already. I'll post a new pic in a couple of days for the sake of the thread.

I have sound hole humidifiers for my store bought guitars but was too lazy to dig up another one... lesson learned!

Thanks for all your replies... you helped give me hope through my panic yesterday!

we are here to help and trust me , an expert is just someone that managed to learn from more mistakes than other people..
glad to hear it is coming back

Follow up post...

No braces popped loose and the back has returned to almost normal. It didn't completely return, but is barely noticeable. I think the only people who would notice are guys like you builders, and myself now.

Thanks again for all the support.

Looks awesome from here! I bet you let out a BIG sigh of relief, I know I would have!

David L