Official Luthiers Forum!

Well it's new day... Have yet to go down to the shop to look at it again. Current plan is to identify all the thin spots to ascertain the extent of the damage. All of the brutal sanding I did was at the binding edge so the main plane of the sides should be OK (don't try to clean up fish glue residue by sanding, it's harder than wood!). Then look through the wood stash to see if there is anything to do a Jimmy Rodgers Weymann type guitar binding if that would be an appropriate repair.

Clay, Manzanita is so stiff and brittle I don't know how it would bend...I'll have to try it. It would look cool and follow the Maple / Manzanita theme I was using (peghead veneer, fingerboard, rosette, bridge and maybe pickguard).

If that is not a realistic approach then disassembly and redo will be on a future schedule. Laminated sides with the veneer sounds like the best way for me to go (thanks, wbergman).

Thanks again for the interest and encouragement everybody. This OLF is such a cool place.

My first major disaster was a set of bubinga sides that ended up too thin. I was all ready to glue on the top and back then put on the brakes and said nope. I was pretty bummed for a few days. It hangs on the shop wall, someday I'll make a little knick-knack shelf out of it or something. I have other major parts of guitars hanging around that I decided to remove and replace. In the moment you realize the work you've done isn't what you want it's a real drag but down the road I'm glad I made the decisions to replace or rebuild. James Condino told me once that if something isn't right then don't be afraid to tear it apart and redo it; he was right.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I read that Greg Smallman, whose classicals sell for $30,000, puts on his lattice tops and if he doesn't like the tone, he just rips it off and tries another.