peter.coombe wrote:I have done the repair. The minor dings are now invisible and the big ding is almost invisible. Thanks for all the advice.
[...]
My friend dropped in on his way to Cobago folk festival yesterday and could not believe how well the dings had disappeared. I expect that I am the only person who can see it unless specifically pointed out. Success.
That very cool, especially taking in account your initial despair.
vandenboom wrote:Thank you Markus. Very quick to make something up and it worked like a treat.
Frank
Glad it worked also for you. My first clamps of this type were made exactly the same, using bolts. While (in my opinion) it is the easiest and quickest way to make such a clamp, I soon felt uncomfortable with the vicinity of the threads to the soundhole border, and I also found that screwing down the two nuts slows down the whole clamping process, which can make me a bit nervous at the wrong moment. That's why my cleat-clamps bundle (for small instruments) looks now like this:
