So let’s deal with this wound. It’s going to need to be filled. The side of this guitar looked like Mahogany to me. So I dug through my scraps to find a candidate to “fill” the position (sorry). Keeping in mind that this side wood is looking very dull and pale right now, having had most but most all of its finish scraped away. I’ll try to match the color as best I can.

So here’s the Mahogany strip that I found to be the best match. It was a leftover rib from a mini oud/lute that I made a few years ago. I slathered everything with naphtha to give a decent approximation of how this wood will look once I’ve finished in with shellac. Depending on the angle of the light, it was a damn fine match. (check out that gnarly knot in the lower right photo) I took the strip over to the bending iron and eased up on the correct angle to match the contour of the guitar. Next I carved out a little oversized plug. You can imagine that if this piece fit perfectly, it would be difficult to hold in place and could possibly fall through. So the idea is that its slightly too big but the sides are sloped inward. Like a cork in a bottle, downward pressure makes for a better fit. The last photo shows the plug sanded flush and one this coat of shellac to test the color match. Pretty good for side wood that has so much color variation. Ok, it’s time to move on to the soundboard.