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I am working on my first build and I have the soundboard joined, thicknessed and the rosette installed. I thought everything was proceeding nicely. Yesterday I was going to put a light coat of shellac on the top for a little protection and I noticed a crack had developed about 2" away for the glue joint, it follows the grain line about 4" into the soundboard from the top end of the board. Upon closer inspection, there appears to be a 1/16" wide lighter color band following the grain the entire length of the soundboard right on the same grain line as where the crack showed up.

Can someone tell me what I am seeing in the grain of the top? I assume I should probably scrap this top and use it for rosette installation practice.

Any thoughts? Just for the record, I am going to get this guitar built as long as I don't run out of money for tools and wood!!!

Thanks
Dave

Hi Dave - Would you please take and post a picture of the crack and I am sure that lots of folks would be willing to share an opinion with you.

Thanks

Here are the pictures. In crack1 I circled the crack at the top of the soundboard. I did try to push some titebond into the crack and it seemed to tighten it back up so it is a little hard to see. Learned another lesson, this is about #100. "DON'T USE CA TO FIX A CRACK ON A SOUNDBOARD" it wicked about 1/2" both sides of the crack and left a nasty stain.

In the second picture, I circled the line in the grain that the crack is following. I think I am going to mark this one up to a learning process, I have some more cedar to start another top. Rosette didn't turnout the way I wanted either, but I did get some practice inlaying.

Still would like to understand if this is just a bad top selection or if this is something I need to be aware of in the future.

Work some hide glue into it, and clamp it flat. It' will be invisible. That one is pretty minor. Here is a crack and a repair. Totally my fault. I did it with a new clamp that I wasn't familiar with. A big oops! The repair is invisible, and created no issues in the completed guitar.

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Waddy

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Another way to do it (if your braces aren't on yet) is to carefully split the piece right off & glue it back together using the tape or string & wedge clamping method.
If there is damage around the edges of the split, or if the pieces don't fit perfectly together, you can just re-joint it the way you do your centre seam. If the grain is fairly straight, it'll be nearly invisible.
Good luck!