Repairing top and binding of Martin guitar

Acoustic Guitar | Martin
Damaged top and binding of Martin
Before repair
Repaired top and binding of Martin
After repair

When you drop a guitar, damage often happens on this part of the body called the lower bout.

In this case, the binding was damaged and missing, so I had to start with making the binding. Making it the same size as the original binding, however, is not as easy as one might think. The human eye can detect a very small difference, even if the black or white line changes as little as 0.1 millimeters in thickness, so this kind of repair requires a high level of precision in fabricating and installation.

I made the template, which has one side that is almost straight following the wood grain and the other side that has a shallow curve following the binding. First, I removed the same shape of the template from the top. Then I cut out a new section from the same type of wood (koa, in this case) using the template. After installing the new section, I glued the binding and then finished it with lacquer.

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