You might remember this one from some months ago. The Black Beauty which became Humpty Dumpty!
If you don’t and would like to acquaint yourself with it, here it is
This time, the young lady brought in the guitar for high action and a change of strings. I looked up the guitar to find that the bridge was lifting appreciably. I told her that I would need to take the bridge off and then reglue it back again. Wide-eyed, she had nodded sagely then, but I suspect that she already knew that the bridge was lifting and that it would need mending.
Now, every time I see two extra white dots on the bridge of a guitar, my mind goes, ‘Aw, crap’!!!!
That is because seeing those two extra dots convince me that there is a nut and bolt set trying to hold the bridge down. Extra work getting them out and then plugging the holes.
I put a mirror inside the guitar, called the young woman over and asked her to take a look at the nuts and bolts. She saw the hardware, nodded and broke into a broad smile, as if surprised that I knew what was inside!
Anyway, the first thing to be done was to take off the strings and then try to remove the plastic pearloid dots which were hiding the screws.
To my surprise, they weren’t simple nuts and bolts but wood screws.
These were binned and the bridge was taken off, which was naturally followed by the labour intensive cleaning process.
While the bridge was off, I noticed that the instrument had quite a bit of belly, which also contributes to high action. And there’s no better time to tackle a belly on a guitar than when the bridge is off it.
Besides, reglueing a bridge to a curved top is never a good idea.
So, corrective and preventive measures were taken
and the guitar was left clamped for 48 hours. After that period, the clamps were taken off and the belly was near negligible, and ready to receive the bridge.
The bridge was thrown on and clamped up for another 48 hours, to give the glue enough time to cure and form a solid bond.
And I’m told all’s well with the world (except Satanyahu and his doddery, demented and senile friend across the pond)!
