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Option one, cut the section out, install some backing along the edges of the cut out section, glue in new wood, deal with the finish, re-install jack.

Option two, re-seat and glue what I can of the fragmented wood, clean up the rest, and cover with a rectangular jack plate.

Am I missing any other possibilities?

Can you reach your hand at n there at all? I once added a side jack after the fact to an archtop I made. I molded an inside and outside caul from moldeable plastic. Then I drilled a 1/4” hole and used the caul and a bolt to laminate two pieces of 1/16” plywood to reinforce the inside. Then I widened the hole to accept the jack.

I know your situation is different, but laminating reinforcement on the inside would seem an essential first step.


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Maybe clean out the hole and plug it with a dowel and redrill the jack hole. You may be able to use gluboost CA with their color additive to clean up the finish around the hole, maybe even before drilling the new hole.

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I've actually done a couple of these. First, reinforce the inside - I bent a piece of birch plywood on my hotpipe, drilled a hole and threaded a piece of string (actually string trimmer string)



Put knots on both sides of the plywood so you can pull it in and out of the guitar. The crosshairs are so I know exactly which way it is bent. Smear glue on it and pull into position.



"Clamp" by tensioning the string, I wrapped it around a dowel



Drill the hole out to clear the outside of the jack



And install a Les Paul style jack plate



This works nicely on acoustics where someone just drills a jack hole thru the side and doesn't reinforce it. When it blows out just do the above (or do it from the get go)

Slick!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Perfect! Thanks Freeman. I was just about there, but couldn't figure out just how to execute.

Thats the way I build guitars with the jack in the side - reinforced on the inside and a plate on the outside. Why anyone would put a jack thru a 1/16th inch piece of wood and expect it to hold is beyond me. And leaving it out on a stand with the plug in the jack just invited disaster.

My first guitar repair, I was 18 and had this Raven ES-335 copy. The guitar took a spill and turned that 90 degree input jack into a nice 45 degrees. I wanted to keep playing, and probably didn't really even know you could take a guitar to get repaired, I just stuck the input jack through a giant washer and screwed it down nice and tight. Never worried about it again.

This is more elegant.

So, the plywood I tried bending just de-laminated and cracked. I used 3/8" 5 ply finished plywood.

I realize plywood would be much stronger, but is there any reason not to use a solid piece of wood?

My plywood was from a hobby shop (model airplane) and I'm sure that it was thinner than 1/8 inch, if I was to guess I would say 3/32. It bent somewhat harder than a solid piece of wood - I normally bend my sides at about 0.070 or 0.080. I wouldn't even attempt to bend 3/8 plywood.

I used the inside mold from my ES-335 builds and figured that was close enough





You could certainly use a piece of solid wood - look at the upper portion of this picture - I've got a hunk of mahogany backing up the side and providing material for the screws. Still using a Les Paul plate on the outside

I was going to suggest the Les Paul style plate too, it's what I ended up using on my 64 Tennessean, but it has thicker sides and didn't need the added reinforcement, Prior to using the Les Paul Jack plate I had knocked the middle out of a Toonie (Can. two dollar coin) and used the outside ring as a washer. It was an expensive washer.

I have some bigger and older plywood archtops that have had the plain jack installed in the side for 65 years with no problems at all but it generally only takes one good blow to that area.

Haha, why didn't you just use a bigger washer? That toonie's worth a cup of coffee (Tim Horton's) at least.

It was one of those, 'because it was there and wanted to see if I could do it.' sort of things and it looked funny!