Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everyone,
My name is Gage Halland, I'm new to the forum and to guitar building as well. I'm building a Macassar Ebony OM with a Sinker Redwood top.
So, now to my question. I received my B/S wood tonight, and the back has three cracks between 3"-6" long. They follow the grain pattern, and I know that I could use some thin superglue and squeeze it back together, but I wonder if I wouldn't be better off sending it back and starting with a different set?

The set is beautiful by the way, and I know that ebony can be problematic.

thanks
Gage

I feel like I should also mention that the sides are absolutely perfect.

Hi George...welcome.

Well if the cracks are closed and you feel or believe that you can successfully glue them
then it becomes a personal call.

However is the cracks have opened up even the slightest ...why bother fighting with the wood....send them back, well thats what me wood do.


blessings
Padma

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I'd send it back if you just received it, but I would definitely check your humidity in your building room. Most builders try to keep RH at 40-45% and you should sticker new arrivals for at LEAST a couple of weeks to acclimate the wood.
If you really want to keep the wood, you might acclimate the wood to see if the cracks will close. If they do, you can glue them with thin CYA and I would recommend flooding the back with thin CYA on the outside after it is glued, dimensioned and braced. Let it dry without using accelerator, and sand it down to the wood. Works for me on cracky old BRW.

Thank you all for your replies,
The more I look at it this morning, the more I realize that it would be not only a battle to glue the cracks up (they're spreading), but it would be a pretty big gamble also. I'll send 'em back and pray that they have some sets that aren't splitting!

Again, thank you for your input.