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Hi When I introduced myself I mentioned that I had repaired a $39 ebay guitar. I have since learned that it was a Magerit, made in Spain. Since I posted a picture of after my mistake I thought I'd go ahead and discuss it. The image labeled "was" has a red circle to the right of the fingerboard. There was a ragged hole there. The view of the back shows the repair done on the back. There was a hole there as well. Looked like the guitar was slammed over a fence post.
I removed the fingerboard and the top. Made a new top with spruce supplied via e-bay. The back was repaired using a trick a Canadian boat builder showed me. With the top removed, having already made the repair patch, I cut away layer one of the plywood using the patch as a template. I then moved to the backside, again having made a patch, I cut away part of the center layer and glued in the patch. Not knowing any better, I thought the back was mahogany. Armed with a template made of same I removed part of the third layer and glued in the patch. It sorta looked ok until I applied the shellac. Opps, not that kind of mahogany.
If you look against the wall behind the back view you will see a sheet of red mahogany veneer. Plan is to cut a strip, top to bottom and remove the outer layer of the plywood. I will then fill the area with a piece of the red mahogany. Hopefully it will look better.
This is obviously a practice endeavor.
The guitar was my go-to guitar for about 8 years. It was retired when I acquired a RYOJI MATSUOKA #20
When I assembled the top, I used liquid hide glue. I bring this up as 1 you can see an outline of the bracing through the top and 2, even thought the top has a very sharp tap tone it is dull when played.
Something to do with the glue?

Dullness in sound is probably due to how thick the top is and how heavily braced. I don't build to specific thicknesses but to a specific deflection. It's easy to build two soundboards exactly the same thickness and brace them the same way and then they sound very different. In my pre-production stiffness testing I've found variances of up to 20-25% in stiffness and density.
But since it's too late to do that after the top is on there, what was the soundboard thickness before you glued it on? Likewise the height and weight of the braces and what bracing system did you use?

Some useful links on soundboards and how they are built are here: https://www.garrettleeguitars.com/teaching

Also, you might want to look at Brian Burns website that discusses tonewood testing: https://brianburnsguitars.com/my-process.

-David

Thanks for the input. I took the top down to 0.070 inches. The braces were spruce. About 1/4 in wide x 3/8 tall. It sounded good for 4 to 5 years when I put it away. Yesterday I had an epiphany as I played my go to guitar while wearing my hearing aids. My go to guitar suddenly had brilliant treble. I immediately tried the guitar in question. It too had excellent treble. There is nothing wrong with the guitar, I was simply loosing the high end of my hearing.

Glad it's ok. I'm having the same hearing loss issue.

Glad it's ok. I'm having the same hearing loss issue.

Warren
That back looks like Sapele to me. I've made a couple guitars with it and have one more set. Try Sapele for a new patch if you're going to redo it.

Kevin

Thank you Kevin. That is a wood that has just come into my vocabulary. I'm still trying to decide if it is worth it. The Ramirez took quite a bit out of me.

Sorry about the delay in posting. I have been driving myself nuts trying to do a color match on an existing finish. Been quite an experiment.
Kevin, I believe you are correct. I ordered a piece of Sapele veneer from a vendor on e-bay. He posted a picture of the piece I was to receive. The color (on the monitor) was pretty close. The stripe pattern has more stripes per foot than the guitar back. Can't have everything.
It took two tries but I ended up with a close fitting patch. Then I hit it with the shellac. As we all know, the wood darkened. Not having enough sense to quit while almost ahead, I sanded the patch down to bare wood. Wiped down with alcohol and bleached for 10 min. The plan was to dye it with burnt umber + vermilion and finish again. Oh my, the cost of dye has gone up. Too much for a science project.
Yes, I have enough veneer to cover the entire back. It just isn't worth the effort at this point.
The guitar is playable and no one can see the patch while I'm playing (insert grin here).

I am officially giving up.

On any large project someone needs to tell you when to start, and someone needs to tell you when to stop.

This sounds like a good stopping point.

On to the next project!

The guitar has been scrapped. Our interior humidity dropped to 8% causing the top to crack from near the neck to near the sound hole. Crack went through 2 braces. Not worth fixing at this point