How to Patch a Hole in Your Acoustic Guitar 

Not only is this an incredible patch job, this video exemplifies just how awesome a master luthier Dan is for being excited about and willing to learn a new technique from someone else. A true master never stops being a willing student. :) You da man Dan!

I really like the clear plexi sanding block. One trick I've learned with epoxy puddy is that it's easy to carve with a razorblade before it fully sets so you could actually take a sharp blade and cut off most of it. With a flush surface like this it should make for an even easier fix.

I could watch these vids all day long. They make fixes that seem difficult look attainable to the common DYI guy. Keep them coming!

Oh, Dan and his ancient epoxy putty... ;)

I followed this to the letter and filled a large round unsightly hole on the front of my acoustic guitar. It now looks great, but the strings don’t make any sound anymore....

Anybody that has tried matching such a patch with the surrounding medium knows how much talent is required to achieve a good result. The artwork here is superb.

That was artwork man! Thanks for sharing your awesome videos, especially these quick tips and tricks! Best regards and love from Athens Greece!

great tips as usual. Always know it will be good if dan appears in the video. Even when someone else is the work ! This particular gentleman did a good job of demonstrating a relatively simple way to patch a hole and still make it look good.

Woooo! Dan Stewmac videos! I love how thoroughly he explains everything he does and shares his wisdom through his craft

Love your videos, too few, must have more, I’ve got a fever and the only prescription is more StewMac videos!!

-"Shellac out of the can". *Dan sighs slightly in the back* -"Kids these days ..." Nevertheless, great vid as always.

phenomenal work as always.

Clear sanding block is clever! Milliput is a good brand of epoxy putty, the white stuff takes the dye well but it comes in a teracotta colour too that might be a good starting point.

That's not a guitar repair , That's Art. plain and simple

You guys are good at this! Thank you for sharing this technique 😲🙂

Clear acrylic for sanding ~ what a GREAT idea. Thank you. (And New Jersey - YAY!)

Amazing video as always. That plexiglass sanding block is awesome, thanks! .

Outstanding! Thank for sharing this technique.

This was really good information, and a great demonstration. I wish I could have attended the workshop. It reminded me of something similar on Gilboys channel. They do furniture restoration. They also have some great information on french polishing and patching. Thanks for the great upload.

That is absolutely fantastic. I wish I could have made the trip. Love the plexiglass sanding trick, using that soon!

Great video. Awesome learning about sanding with the Plexiglas. Can't believe there are two people who disliked the video.

Ian Davlin is excellent!

good one....I as well like the clear sanding block. ...pure brilliance.

Thank you for stain'in around all weekend... Nice work 👍

I really enjoy your videos.

Hey my hair made it into a trade secrets video!!! This workshop was amazing.

I used a product called Aves Apoxie Sculpt around 15 years ago to fix several large holes from a steel toe cowboy boot that had penetrated a lovely 70s Guild F512 jumbo 12 string with sunburst finish. (Don't ask, just think "Cowboy Bar".) The Apoxie worked really well, and I got an oil-painter artist friend of mine to copy the sunburst pattern so well that from a foot away you couldn't even tell there was a 3" hole in the top. The side holes were pretty much invisible. I've also used the Apoxie Sculpt to replace areas on the top of a couple 60s B-25 Gibsons where aggressive strumming had completely worn away some spruce right up to the rosette area by the soundhole. Was easily able to patch a missing 1 1/2" piece of spruce and have it look very good, with no noticeable effect of the tone at all. Once you work with the stuff, you get a feel for what you can get away with in the blending and shaping; even mimicking the surface grain texture of the worn out spruce right next to the missing bits. It might be sacrilege to do this to a valuable vintage collectible, but for a player's workhorse guitar it functions great and costs a fraction of trying to do it properly with wood patches. I've also used it to fill old obsolete routs on electric guitars where I needed to fill old areas of routs so they won't interfere with the new pickup configuration I'm putting in. It tools real good, takes paint and finishes, and can even be machined for screw threads, etc. It will work for cracked and fragmented pickguards or knobs, and replacing clay dots too. And it's non toxic. ;)

The king has returned

Wow! Looks great

That plexiglass-trick is amazing! So simple and effective! Thx a lot!

Love these videos, just wish they were longer.

I use that epoxy putty all the time, quick tip, wet your fingers and your ball of putty with plain water after you have the color you want and the putty is mixed, water helps to sculpt the surface and remove excess putty, almost no sanding required

Awesome! Artistic!

That was an awesome, impressive, clever, creative............ tip.

Great Work!

Just what I needed

Genius low cost repair!!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🎸🎸🎸 PS Why the heck have I never been to Lark St Music??!! Especially since I live 7 miles away.. #LarkStreetMusic

good to see Dan

That was a good one! I've patched holes with wood, it's an asspain and not always necessary, I'll remember this for sure.

outstanding!!!

Amazing great one ☝️ 👏🙌

You guys rock for parts and have the original Laurence 500 Dime D. pick-ups that he used to use that are Hard to Find!!! NJ Rocks man!!! Thanks for being honest business shoguns!!!

Great guys!

nice.good job👍

Legit artist level

Excellent

Sand paper with Clear plastic. Great tip. Thumbs up sir 👍

Great job .. Thanks ..

Looking forward to trying the sandpaper on Plexiglas trick.

Awesome thanks

Im going to use "middlest" in conversation today

Awesome !!!

I have just this problem......... I'll give it a go. Thank you for this tutorial.

Lark Street is a vintage candy store in NJ. They put my Part-o-caster together into a serious axe.

excellent work, wow .... imagine what he would do when working a high end Vintage Martin or SJ200

I have a 'Bullet Hole' in the Natural Spruce top of my Washburn 6 string the size of a pellet ! I didn't see the guitar Behind the blanket when I was "test firing" my pellet gun. Stupid IS as stupid DOES !! Great video ! I'm going to try this method and see if I can make it look good.

so you don't patch the hole with ramen noodle bricks?

wow! SKILLS!

Once the epoxy sets you can soften it with a hair dryer and pare it almost flush with a very sharp chisel. Then there's very little sanding to do. Cured epoxy paste is thermoplastic and cuts very nicely. For the color work, it's nice to do a light background wash of yellow or orange on the patch, then bring in the darker colors. You can always darken the wash but it's impossible to lighten an area that's gotten too dark. If the instrument has a polyester finish, you can airbrush on a nitrocellulose lacquer clear coat and pad it back with a little lacquer thinner, which won't burn into the poly.

Great video ... any chance we can see it after the clear is applied? 😃

Wow!

This is great i didn't know you can do that

Dan is a lutherie legend

A thin point black permanent sharpy works really well too draw the dark grain....I used it on a double barrel shotgun stock that had bad chemical stains....redrew some of grain.....draw the wood grain then immediately slightly wipe it to feather it. I used the sharpy on the poly....after I had a few coats on the wood....lightly applied another coat of poly over the sharpy to get it sealed into the wood....then continued adding poly coats.

Dan, please do an episode to regale us with your stories of the prime movers and music in the sixties and meeting mike Bloomfield!

Davlin, have you tried painting with watercolors? You have a great eye, and a lot of these techniques apply in that field. Appreciate the video.

I must have misread the title. I came here looking for tips on how to punch a hole in your acoustic guitar. Guess I should probably go get some new glasses after karate class.

Ian is the best

Great I have a Washburn acoustic with a hole about that size. However, mine is black and shold be easier to repair. Thx.

Could I ask what brand of epoxy putty was used in this video? Or a recommendation for a brand.

I just bought a Harley Benton pink sparkle guitar that I want to direct mount the pickups and patch the screw holes (it had pickup rings) … hoping to do this with pink sparkle nail polish so hoping that’ll work

I have a question. My guitar has part of the finish lifted off and i want to repair it and paint it. What would be the best and most cost effective way to fix it? Would something like this be appropriate? There isn't a hole in the guitar like here it's just a small part of the finish missing and Ive never done anything like this before. Any advice would be awesome. Thank you. Great video by the way. You've got yourself a sub 😉.

I know that 1990's-era Parker Fly guitars are few and far between but I'd be curious to see how you repair the bonded stainless steel frets on these guitars; primarily because mine is shedding frets. There are a couple of videos on RU-vid to this end, in which a thin CA glue is used, and I read in a forum, somewhere, that Ken Parker suggests a rearview mirror adhesive. How would Stew Mac handle it?

A-ha! This isn't just for guitar repairs, antique wooden radio cabinets could also benefit from this technique.

great tip. i need to do this in a dent on mine.

I had this done on my Martin because the old strap button hole got too big for the screws

How was the epoxy formed on the inside? As thin as possible? Mushroomed over the hole? You really should have shown us that.

Mac, guitar is the most fun instrument to play! What most deeply drives you to do music?

Willie Nelson: *sweats nervously*

Does this affect the sound quality of the guitar?

Please make a new 4K edition for "Maintenance & Setup for Electric Guitars and Basses," I'll be happy to buy a video that will cover all the important stuff.

Question. I see a lot of post online demonizing the use of polyester resin based body fillers used to fill imperfections on solid body guitars. They claim it ruins the wood tones. Would epoxy do the same then ? And even more so on an acoustic ? Personally I doubt boy putty ruins tone wood anymore than wood filers or any other filler would, but thats just my opinion.

I remember you in OREGON YOUNG MAN

Where would you find epoxy putty ?

How about in fretboard? deep dent chips.

How do you hold the epoxy in place if you don't have access to the back of the hole?

... 02/16/2020: I would assume many Gretsch Players would love to know the answer to the following questions. I have a Gretsch Electromatic 5120, which I love, except for one feature. The 3-way toggle switch clicks really loud when switching each position. Is there a quick fix for that noise without changing the toggle switch? If not, what brand of toggle switch would be silent? If the toggle switch needs to be replaced, could you do a demo on how to do that?

Help! Long story short, I want to fill the hole of the pickup output jack/strap button, and replace it with just a strap button, would this epoxy work for filling the hole and then screwing a strap button on?

How do you do it with a whole guitar that's not just a flat piece you cab get at?

Easy and fast! Just takes 2 days and you have to be an artist

The epoxy stays inert?

Como lo harían en una guitarra que no esté cortada a la mitad??? Es casi imposible masillarla sin poder contenerlo desde el interior

Which putty is being used here.

I cut my guitar in two, just to have room to stick my hand and hold the epoxy underneath. The patch looks good, but I ended up with two halves of Martin.. Now I need a video to learn how to put them back. I got Gorilla glue and I am ready to go.

I'm pretty sure the acoustic guitars are supposed to have a hole.

Now that's using your illusion!

Why did we ignore the clear coat?

how about filling a hole in the rear of an Ovation guitar? The plastic part? Do you have a recipe for that?

How much would it cost to repair an acoustic with a hole about the size of a baseball

Clamping chips from the casino. That's how it's done! And a fake autograph from Doyle Brunson.