Crack fillers - old soundboards

[Yardarm103669107@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 4/30/2001 2:14:21 PM Central Daylight Time, 
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes:

<< Sometimes cracks cause buzzing. Filling them or proper shimming
 will stop/prevent a buzz from a cracked soundboard >>

The crack doesn't cause the buzzing but the pieces of splintered wood 
adjacent to each other across the gap of the crack. Shims will always recrack 
along the glued edges at some point, so now there are three cracks instead of 
one. Delaminated ribs are indeed another issue and need to be addressed 
appropriately. I guess I don't mean to be such a hardass about this, but over 
the years I've concluded (always subject to correction) that shimming is just 
about as close to purely cosmetic as you can get; it makes the customer (or 
buyer) think that there is no longer a problem, but the problem (the cause of 
the original cracking) hasn't been fixed, just sidestepped. I'd appreciate 
your take on this.
PR-J