This landed on the workbench recently, and I still haven’t been able to figure out its name. The label read one name and the headstock quite something else but quite illegible.
A completely laminated instrument, it had some years on it and the job card was a litany of woes.
A probable reason for that could be that it was not a personal instrument but belonged to an office, passing through many hands.
So, the guitar had a healthy belly, a crushed saddle was leaning in the bridge, and the bridge itself was lifting (naturally the action was sky high).
Did you notice something? Someone put the saddle in the reverse position. Wonder who was playing what on this instrument!
If that was not all, the guitar was missing a couple of ferrules on the front of the headstock
The dehydrated fretboard was sporting a large crack, spanning a few frets,
And, of course, the fretwires were tarnished while the fretboard itself carried a complete DNA record of who all had played it – or it seemed so.
The first thing to do was to take off the bridge to gain access to the entire area, so that the belly bulge could be dealt with.
And maybe, it’s time that I stopped repeating that the bridge was glued on with cyanoacrylate (super) glue.
With the bridge off, efforts began to push the belly out of the guitar.
After a 24-hour clamp time, the belly got reduced but had not gone completely. A second attempt was made with changed clamping positions.
Another wait of 24 hours, after which the belly was reduced to negligible levels. While it was in clamps, I decided to clean the bridge of all the CA glue and wood remnants.
After the clamps were removed, (the belly seemed appreciably reduced) the bridge footprint was cleaned up and readied to receive the bridge. For a good glue-up job, a good wood-to-wood joint is desirable.
Now, with everything in readiness, the bridge was glued to the top, clamped and left to cure for a good two days.
Of course, before the glue-up, I dealt with the crack in the bridge. Complicating matters was the fact that there was not one crack running through but two cracks that seemed to line up.
The two cracks were dealt with and this is the result
Also, the fretboard was cleaned of all its crud and the good wood shone through.
Also, a new saddle replaced the old crushed one. Since the owner(s) did not wish to put in too much money into it, the replacement saddle was also made of plastic.
The missing ferrules were replaced, screw holes were plugged to receive screws and hold the tuning machines in place.
Strung up, I was happy with the results. So was the owner(s).
