This Taylor 914ce fell from it's hook on a wall. It landed right on the endpin pushing the end block of mahogany into the body cavity, exploding the sides and binding, cracking the back and top plates in multiple spots.

The area had lost all rigidity from the fall.

Here's a view of the face damage. I consulted the owner on options and it was decided to replace the Spruce top and repair the existing Rosewood back and sides.

My preference is to keep the outer binding in place and route the top off of the supporting structures.

Here's a close-up after a few passes around the top with a laminate trimmer.

With the top removed and the body vacuumed the repair can move from deconstruction into the rebuilding process. This accessibility made it easy to realign and secure with adhesive all those body cracks.

The original brace locations were traced from the old top and can be faintly seen in this photo along the soundboard edges.

It's a classic method of clamping and because of the many different tops built here I prefer the Go-Bar sticks.

The new braced top was glued in place. A channel is carefully routed in the spruce just skimming by the original ivoriod binding.

The decorative trim on this instrument was an abalone center sandwiched between multicolored strips.

Click on the arrow to see the completed work.