Splitting A Sound Hole Clamp In Half.

The simple act of cutting a clamp in half allows a clamp more access opportunities. In the case of a guitar, the clamp will fit in tighter openings allowing for the clamp to access guitar to clamp braces, install cleats, etc.

Update: 12/31/25. Another looth found a Frank Ford article where he fabbed a split clamp out of aluminum! So cool! He was such a genius with ideas and tool. We came up with this idea from differing needs: His article reads for his wanting reach in a standard acoustic sound hole opening whereas I was searching for a solution for getting a clamp into limited, smaller access. This leads me to what I find fascinating about cross referencing ideas and being clever enough to see the potential for other uses of an idea. I’m not so sure, had I seen this article, that I would have picked up that by splitting a clamp, it would allow for the clamp to fit in tighter openings like an arch top situation because Frank was presenting it as a different use. Frank probably knew that this could be used in smaller openings because he had to split the clamp to get a longer arm where he wanted it. Basically I stumbled onto his idea for a different use. And that’s what’s so great about Frank is that he openly shared ideas so that we could all then build on them. The old saying “nothing new under the sun” applies here. Basically we’re all trying to refine these ideas and expand and cross reference them to added uses. I’m surprised that Franks idea/creation didn’t catch on because this idea can be expanded in guitar repair to make our repair lives much easier. And, I think I will go back through all of Franks articles. There’s obviously so much to find!