advice needed: top crack repair

granger

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I built a baritone uke 15 months ago.The top is curly redwood about .090 thick. It developed a crack that runs from the bridge up to the lower sound hole brace. It is approx. between the middle brace and the bass side fan brace.It follows a grain line and is straight. I am confident I can do a good repair, but I need advise. I can work some titebond into the crack and then hold it with cauls while that dries. I thought next I would put a reinforcement on the inside out of spruce with the grain running perpendicular to the top grain. I do not know how thick this should be or how far on each side of the crack it should span. I thought I might feather the edges of the reinforcement. Another thought was to saturate a piece of thin silk with glue and use that as a reinforcement.
this instrument has a beautiful voice for picking and I'm afraid a too heavy reinforcement might change that. I was not entirely surprised that it cracked, the redwood seemed brittle when I was in the build process and I had to handle with extra care, Oh but what sound!!

Thank you for any help. I researched his topic before requesting help, but it seems that different cracks are repaired differently, I simple don't have the experience.
 
Glue the crack closed and then add a couple of 1/16" thick small cleats on the inside. The cleats can be about 1/4" square and taper the sides. Do not use the glue saturated silk cloth, that just makes a mess inside and more difficult for repairs down the road if they should be necessary.
 
Thank you Black Bear. That is exactly the advise I needed. Will do. Thanks again for the help in getting the instrument back to making music.

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