This Squier came to me in a fair bit of trouble. It’s bridge, besides being cracked, was lifting from the bass side.
It was off-putting to see Fender put in some cheap wood, dyed dark, for the fretboard and bridge. One could see the white wood through the crack on the bridge, while wear due to playing had made the colour disappear at least at one spot on the fretboard.
And while it was in with a plastic saddle and nut, I convinced the owner to swap them for bone elements so that he could enjoy the instrument to its fullest.
Also, I took off the rusting bucket-type strap buttons and instead put in swanky mushroom-style buttons, matching the rest of the chrome hardware on the guitar.
But the big problem at hand was the bridge.
The question in my mind was, should I work on the crack first, or should I glue the bridge back to the top first? After much thought and reasoning, I decided to glue the bridge to the top first.
I was happy with the squeeze-out I got and it seemed that the bond would be solid.
Clamping the bridge down, I left it for 48 hours, and while that rested, I replaced the strap buttons with felt washers so that the buttons wouldn’t mar the instrument’s finish.
Once it was time to take off the clamps, I decided to first mark the new bone nut and saddle to the correct dimensions.
But before I got to sanding them, I decided to fix the crack in the bridge. Much dyed saw dust and wood glue and lots of sanding and the result was this – expectedly so.
This was an electro-acoustic guitar and usually for glueing bridge cracks I do not meddle with the piezo element and let it lie quietly in the saddle slot. This time, I don’t know why, I pulled out the piezo element completely, and lo and behold, what should be hiding there?
A thick plastic shim! Boy, was I glad I had not cut down the saddle to less than half?!
Again I measured up the saddle to its correct height and length
and then got to sanding both the nut and saddle. They were installed as were these strings
And here’s a look at the new nut and saddle
Of course, I had touched up the bridge and the spot on the fretboard where the colour had disappeared.
And the customary long shot of the finished product
.
