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I made two small holes in the top to glue small cleats across the crack using a (.001) string to clamp the patch. process works fine but cannot hide the holes. Everything applied to date (lacquer, super glue, Tite bond mixed with matching wood fibers) wicks the finish and leaves a dark spot. I've even had an artist friend try to match the color of the spruce but couldn't get the color thin enough to still mask the spots. Suggestions?

I know of nothing that will fix a flaw on spruce.

Yep same here and although too late drilling holes in a top to cleat a crack is never necessary..... Don't you hate people who have a penchant for saying the wrong thing....

Perhaps stickers?

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I have patched spruce on the edge (near invisible but still can be found) but don't think there is any clean way to do it in the middle of the top.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

You can turn some plugs out of the same spruce on a lathe and then chase your tail matching the grain direction but they will show too.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I use a gouge to cut a groove and a matching filler piece. Clamp tight with HHG - it's ok on the edge for small chips but it still shows. Probably better off to live with the filled hole if it is as small as you said.

Did you punch it or drill it? If punched or caused by the string when you clamped the crack closed then you might hit it with a bit of steam to see if the hole will close up some, the same way you would steam a dent. I use a small piece of double-folded damp T shirt over the dent and touch a soldering iron to it, steams immediately in a small controlled area.

EDIT: went back and read the original post. Looks like you've moved past any possibility of using steam.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

There is a sort of classic technique to fill holes, but the lighter the wood and the lighter the finish the more difficult it is. SO, spruce tops on guitars present the most nasty problem. Here's a piece I wrote up on the process, and, if you follow it through, you'll see that, in my hands at least, it isn't exactly quick easy to do:

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Structural/SpruceHole/sprucehole.html

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Cheers,

Frank Ford

FRETS.COM
HomeShopTech
FRETS.NET

I had forgotten but that's obviously where I picked up the gouge technique and a far better explanation too. Thanks Frank.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Burn in sticks are made for things like this.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I forgot, black spray paint.

After many trials I was ultimately able to repair the "spots" and finish the top satisfactorily. I used the technique similar to that described by Frank Ford. I excavated the spots and accumulated glue,filler, etc. with a small "v" shaped gouge. I reversed the direction at the center of spot to avoid a grain tear out. I mirrored the same process (but going a little deeper) to harvest the patches under the bridge and fingerboard tongue. I used superglue and as much hand pressure as I could muster until the glue set. 8 or so hours later (wanted to allow for rebound of the patch) I scraped the patches flush and sanded the top and finished with lacquer. After final buff the spots were still somewhat visible but overall much much better than fillers, burn in sticks, color, etc.

Ohnja, I'd love to see before, during, and after photo's if you got them. That's a real tough thing to hide. I'm a big fan of tuner type clamps where you use a string and tuner to pull together a seam especially in backs and sides where you have to align the warped sides of the crack before clamping. Magnets work well unless you have to pull together damaged parts then the tuner clamps really shine. But for the top you usually don't need to drill a hole. you can push a thin string right through the spruce and it leaves nary a trace.