Guild 12-String Acoustic Bridge Re-glue
Guild 12-String Acoustic Bridge Re-glue
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Well, it’s been a busy, busy month. And not coincidentally, a hot, Texas month. The kind that makes old glue weakened and acoustic bridges start to pull apart from the surface of a guitar. I’ve had about 5 guitars brought to me in the last 30 days with this very problem. If you’ve been perusing this guitar repair blog, you may have seen an older entry, of a Framus Nylon String guitar, whose bridge popped off entirely. This guitar, didn’t quite have that luxury, and required some extra TLC to get the job done.
After removing the strings, I heat up a metal putty knife by holding it against an iron. I carefully slide the hot putty knife into an open area of the pulled bridge. Once I hit a section of the bridge that is still glued down, I give it a little push to force itself in, and wait a few seconds for the heated glue to settle and I pull the knife back out, and heat it again on the iron. I do this until one end of the bridge has been lifted enough to wedge another plastic putty knife under. This helps any glue that’s been heated not find its way back down to the guitar top.
Once the bridge has popped off, the old glue from the underside of the bridge needs to be removed entirely so we’re working with bare wood. After a little sanding on the bridge’s underside, the next thing to do is clean the surface of the guitar. I totally dropped the ball and forgot to take a picture of this step. But to paint a picture for you, I place the bridge back on the guitar top, mask off the area around the bridge with blue painter’s tape and use a combination of a sanding block and flat chisel (for scraping) to get any bits of old glue or lacquer.
Now, we’re ready to glue this bridge down! Because the bridge has a tendency to shift when clamps are applied, I manufactured a device to keep the bridge from shifting while gluing. I use a strip of wood with two threaded rods epoxied to accommodate the two farthest and most opposite holes which the guitar’s bridge pins secure. After the glue is applied and the clamping begins, there’s a mad rush with a series of wet and dry rags to wipe away any excess of glue that is pushed out from the under side. After a few minutes of tightening clamps and wiping excess glue, the guitar can sit over night and allow the glue to cure.
The next day, clamps are removed, the strings are strung and this guitar is back in action!
Ukulele – Saddle Route, Bone Nut and Saddle Carve and Setup
Ukulele – Saddle Route, Bone Nut and Saddle Carve and Setup
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Two guys walk into my shop with a little Ukulele. One built this little masterpiece in his high school woodshed class and the other was inheriting it. While the wood working was precise and well thought out, the project remained unfinished for nearly 10 years! It was decided to finish what was started and get this little demon, screamin’.
When building an instrument from scratch, there are always issues of hindsight. It’s literally imposible, even when standing on the shoulders of giants, to foresee and perfect every detail when building a prototype. For starters, there was no slot cut for this Ukulele’s saddle.
With a starter route from my drill press and a few cuts from my my handy Dremel, the slot was deepened and ready for action.
Next, a thin piece of moose bone was cut and carved for the saddle and another for the nut. In a short while, they were carefully placed on the body and headstock and it was finally time to string this baby up!
One last “gotcha” occurred when stringing up the A string. The same size hole was drilled in the bridge for the knotted strings to rest against. This poor string was pulled through 3 separate times when tuning up and was quadruple-knotted before it finally stayed put.
Even though home made instruments come with a few follies, they’re simply the most inspiring and valued to their creators for exactly that reason.
Lotus “Pawn Shop” Les Paul – Setup
Lotus “Pawn Shop” Les Paul – Setup
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
. |
I don’t usually blog about setups… they’re… well… there’s nothing all that interesting about them. It’s very important aspect of guitar maintenance, but there’s not a whole lot of magic that goes into the process. This guitar, however, made the cut. It was almost like something out of a movie. It was too bad to be true and yet, there it was.
The customer said she bought this from a pawn shop in her hometown of Burnet, Texas. It was purchased “as-is” and from the looks of it, whoever sold it to the pawn shop, had no idea what they were doing, and like the patron trying to make a quick buck, neither did the manager of the pawn shop.
The strings were fed through the bridge, some of them rested on the saddles, others were not so fortunate. The strings were string up backwards into each tuner. The pickups lost their soldering on their underside and were falling apart, the saddles of the tune-o-matic saddles were all screwed as far forward as possible (not measured and offset for actual intionation purposes)… Aye yey yey.
Well, with a set of new DR Pure Blues and a few turns of the screwdriver, this guitar cleaned up nicely and was back to the customer within the hour. So remember, even if it’s a good deal to you, pawn store guitars usually need a check up after purchasing.