Spruce Tear-out help

[jbutler]

As you can see in the attached picture, I have a small amount of tearout on my spruce top. Any suggestions on how to best repair so that It won't be notice-able?
Thanks,
John Butler

[darren]

Hi John,

I would try inlaying a sliver of spruce from your top offcut, hopefully you have that and you can select the same grain lines. A very sharp exacto blade, and white or hide glue will be necessary. Try it on scrap a few times to get the feel of it. Let us know how it turns out.

[kencierp]

I would feather sand the outside perimeter of the sound-board -- yes it reduces the height of the binding. As a matter of fact I most always sand the perimeter thinner all the way around from about 1" of so in-board -- in theory this will allow more freedom of movement of the diaphragm section of the top. This is an idea I picked up from Don Teeter, also Taylor routes the inside of the sound board to accomplish the same thing. $.02

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I was going to suggest the same as Ken, try and sand it out, if its not too deep. A repair will probably show, even slightly.
I have left my redwood top on my current build a little thick around the edges intentionally so if I have any tearout, I can go a little deeper with the channel, glue the binding in a little short, and sand down to it....a little forward thinking, cause, I'm scared to rout the redwood. :>)

Kevin

[tippie53]

I would do the same as Ken .

[darren]

I'm outvoted! Sand it out! :) :) :)

[David L]

When I was installing the graft at the butt of the guitar, I cut too deep with the saw and wound up with some grooves cut into the top and back. the top was no problem as this was an HD-28 and the herringbone purfling was wider than the grooves so when I routed for the binding/purfling the grooves disappeared. The back however only had a binding and no purfling so when I routed for the binding some of the grooves were still present. Not knowing what to do, I took pictures, posted on the forum and explained what had happened and a very simple fix was suggested, Add some purfling that is wide enough so that when the purfling channel is routed the grooves disappear like on the top. Now this did change the design of the guitar (purfling that I added was .030 black/.030 white) but I actually liked the way it came out, in fact I think I like it better than with no purfling at all. I have since learned that this is a very common fix for this type of problem. I realize that at this point this is not a practical option for you. My point is that had you taken pictures and posted them and asked for help BEFORE you installed the binding/purfling then this would have been an option. even if you couldn't have gotten all of it out without adding a whole lot more purfling than you wanted to, you could have at least gotten the deepest part of the tearout removed, leaving only the shallowest part making the sanding part of the fix a lot more easier by not having to sand as deep.

David L

[jbutler]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.. This was very helpful! I was either going to live with it, drop fill it somehow, or I was thinking maybe a glue, sprucedust mixture as I believe someone has done this before.. I didn't think of sanding it out at all. Now I am in agreement that its best to just sand out.

The top is sitka from LMII. I believe AAA grade.

David L, Another good suggestion if I had thought to ask earlier.. Actually I was at the purfling point over Christmas vacation last year. This one is going slowwwww..

[Tom West]

I agree that sanding out is a good approach but would take some measurements and not sand too much. The most I would try to take off would be .020-.025. Depending on how thick and stiff your top is you may be able to go further. Anything after that try filling with clear stick schellac or drop fill with nitro if that is your finish. The last thing you want to try is glue and sawdust. I think doing it that way is very hard to get right.
Tom

[tippie53]

that is not a problem as you are on the tail block but watch the binding so you can feather it in.