Month: September 2024

Some time back, as I stepped out of my house to run an errand, I spotted this man on a scooter with what looked like a guitar gig bag slung over his shoulders. He seemed to be searching for someone or something – phone in hand.

Something poked me and I went up to him and asked him ‘Lucknow Guitar Garage’?

He gave me a broad grin and nodded in the affirmative.

The man – an armyman – had just been posted in town. He brought me his guitar

If it isn’t clear, the name on the headstock reads ‘Techno’. Now, I have seen a few of these: laminate guitars but not too bad. This one too fell in the same category – at least it looked the bit. It must have been 4 – 5 years old but even though it neither had strings, nor a saddle, nor any bridgepins, it seemed cared for.

The owner brought it in for a belly bulge and high action. I checked within the guitar but all braces were securely attached where they needed to be. I asked my man if the bridge was lifting and he said, ‘No’.

Just to check, I slipped in a paper and

that was how much the paper was going all the way around the business end of the bridge.

Now, this was an electro-acoustic instrument. The owner complained that sometimes the pick-up works and at others, it doesn’t.  As I fetched into the saddle slot and pulled out the piezo element, I saw that it was pretty hefty and pretty chewed up ( I thought I had clicked a photo of it?). I told the man that replacing the piezo element should do the trick and he agreed to the replacement.

Underneath the piezo element, was hiding my friend – a card shim!

Along with the belly, the bridge, the owner also decided to put in a bone nut and saddle. With so much to be done, I decided to start right away, and to gain access to the all-important bridge area, decided to first take off the bridge. With the bridge out of the way, tackling the belly would be that much easier.

Talking of the bridge, there was a canyon of a crack between the bridgepin holes, which also needed to be addressed.

But the way the bridge ‘crackled’ when my tools tried to make way under it, I knew that nothing but super glue had been used to set the bridge in place. But boy, this bridge fought me tooth and nail before it decided to give in (up?).

Naturally there was tear out but nothing which could not be handled.

And do you see the clean margins all around on the bridge and its footprint? That is where the glue never reached, or, was never applied.

But we’ll come to that later. First, the footprint of the bridge needed to be repaired.  After the necessary steps, the bridge area was clamped down and left to rest.

In the meantime, I got down to cleaning and repairing the bridge.

I must confess that a little dab of dye never hurt any bridge. What say you?

Besides, I also noticed a crack/gouge on the fretboard which would have to be addressed too.

All this and more, next time. Stay tuned!!

That is a hobby file – not very thick, but with at least a 1.5-mm thick blade – going easily under a lifting bridge.

That was one problem and the other was a huge belly for which the owner had brought in this instrument. It was a Hertz and an old one at that, with string windings over windings.

And as soon as I see eight white dots instead of six, I know my favourite things are hiding in the bridge – nuts and bolts.

Allow me to rant! This hardware, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, does precious little to keep a lifting bridge from lifting. What it does do for sure is that when the bridge lifts, and because it is being held down by bolts, it does so ripping out everything, bolts and the guitar top.

Thankfully, we hadn’t reached that stage in this guitar.

Otherwise, it was a clean and a well-kept guitar

The long and short of it? The bridge had to be taken off – nuts and bolts and all – then the belly needed to be removed – as much as the instrument would allow – and then the bridge had to be reglued.

The bridge came off, screaming and protesting, glued with CA glue as it was and did take some wood off the laminated top.

One can easily see where all the glue was applied and where it did not touch. Besides the bridge and its footprint, lie the set of nuts and bolts that came out of it. Here’s a closer view.

To give you an idea of the belly I was talking about, sample this

Not in very sharp focus but you get the idea.

The top was clamped down with the aid of a plank of wood

and left to ‘recuperate’ for two days.

Meanwhile, the cleaning of the bridge and other work on the guitar continued.

Now, it was time to release the bridge area from the clamps and ‘prepare the ground’ for the glue up. The first thing to be done was to fill up the holes left by the bolts.

You can see in the photograph above that the footprint of the bridge has been cleaned and cleared, creating a very sharp margin, which matched the extremities of the bridge.

While looking inside to check if the dowels had not gone beyond the thickness of the top, I found something else: the loose treble arm of the X-brace.

You can make out how a feeler gauge goes right under the arm to come out on the other side. Carefully, the clamp was positioned and the mark of its foot marked so that I could get the placing of the clamp perfect, when it came time to glue up the brace.

That done, it was time to glue up the brace but how do you get glue into such a slim space? By approximation, I painted (lots of) glue along the bottom of the brace and then with a toothpick shaved in half I pushed it under the brace. Then came the easy part: clamping the brace to the underside of the top.

Again, this was left for a couple of days to dry and cure.

With all in readiness, it was now time to glue on the bridge.

For four days, the instrument stayed like this and on the fifth day it was released from the clamps to let it breathe. On the sixth day it was strung up.

Another four days of observation followed. All good and I had my fingers crossed.

On the fifth day, the bridge started lifting!!!!!!

My jinx of the rainy season continued where no glue-up job I do seems to stick!

I informed the owner that he had two options: I do it again, right now and risk failure again, or, he could come and take back his guitar to bring it back once the humidity settled down (October).

He took 10 days to come to me and decided to take the guitar back with him, and return another day. And for my labours he said he did not have money and would pay me later!!!!!

Ah! Not all days are Sundays. You get rainy days and Mondays too!