Acoustic guitar drying, cracking
I moved from a super humid place – Atlanta – to two super dry places – first Tempe, AZ and then Bend, OR. The other day I pulled down my Martin, who is neglected over my Taylor parlor guitar, to practice slide and discovered that the back was splitting:
After first getting over my freakout about my precious (read: expensive) guitar cracking, I did what I always do and took to the intertoobs for answers. I found a luthier discussion board and read about how they’d try to fix cracks by hydrating the instrument by bagging it with a wet sponge. This, hopefully, would close the crack and allow for a surgical glue repair. Guitar, bagged.
4 days later, this is the status of the crack:
Excellent news. I’m going to keep it bagged for another week or so to see if the crack will close altogether. Then I’ll remove the strings and see if I can reach into the soundhole to apply a bit of superglue from the inside, so I’m not potentially marring the outer finish.