Tkoind - 8-4-2008 at 05:28 PM
I know many of you here are very talented artisans so I would like to tap your knowledge to help us save a wonderful instrument.
We just imported an Uzbek Tanbur. Sadly it was damaged in transit and has two long cracks in the sound board. Despite these, the sound is truly the
best for this type of instrument we've heard. So we want to try to rescue it as sending it back means it will be trashed by the shipping company.
The sound board is not unlike and oud, though much smaller. The sound board itsel is about 1mm thick in most places. It has tiny holes in it like a
Setar and rests on a solid carved bowl. One crack is down the very center from mid face to where the bridge rests. The other at the side along the
edge of the bowl.
I am wondering how to approach repairing it. So far I have the following notions. Please offer any advice you have.
1. Remove the entire sound board and repair it and reset it. I'm not a pro so this is major risk. I'm good with fixing and finishing things, but this
seems quite delicate.
2. Use a patch or glue material to seal the cracks without removing the sound board. I know it may open again at some point, but this is the least
invasive.
3. Remove the existing board and replace it with a similar material sound board. Again kind of a bigger project.
My question is. Has anyone got an idea for how to seal the cracks without any major changes to the instrument? And will a glue or putty bond solution
work?
Thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
Brian Prunka - 8-5-2008 at 12:37 PM
I'm sure some of the luthiers on this board can give you more detailed info, perhaps it would be better to post this question in the 'oud projects'
section?
Depending on the size of the cracks you may be able to use canvas and hide glue to seal them. If they're very small, the canvas will just pull the
wood together as the hide glue dries. If they're bigger, you could cut slivers of wood to fill them and glue them in place, but that's a more
delicate project.
oudmaker - 8-5-2008 at 12:45 PM
It also helps if you provide a photo.