Guitar repair – #ashton: when a repair just isn’t possible!

A while back  this #ashton came to me in this state

Not only was the bridge split through the line of the bridgepin holes, a (possibly) leaning saddle had also split it open in line with the saddle slot. See? If that was not enough, the bridge was lifting so much, I had to probe and poke to see what was holding it on!

If it had been just one of the splits and not both together, I would have still repaired  the bridge, why, you will learn soon. But this one was beyond redemption and just had to go.

It wasn’t a bad guitar and the construction quality was quite alright, except for the dry fretboard,

quite a common ailment in the instruments that come to me, but even the best guitars can fall apart if not taken care of properly.

With this #ashton, there was nothing which could be done except replace the bridge. Now, I am always wary of replacing bridges for I don’t have the space to possess the wherewithal to fabricate a bridge from a piece of wood. I am left with two or three shapes of bridges that are available in the market.

Given the number of guitar companies out there, each bridge is slightly different, and if I have to replace a bridge, I choose the one closest in shape and size to the original.

But first the original bridge needed to come off and it did pop off though the (CA) glue used to fix it to the top refused to let part of the bridge part with it.

After the partial cleaning, the bridge footprint looked like this

There was still lots of CA glue deposited on it, which needed to be removed, but more on that later.

Without the bridge on, I could plainly see that string tension had worked on the bridgeplate and a not-very-good-quality bridge, causing it to split. Just from the outside, I was sure that the bridgeplate too would have been split, but peering inside, I was happy to note that that tragedy had not struck. The bridgeplate, though, had buckled somewhat under string tension.

So, the next logical step was to remove the belly and try to straighten out the bridgeplate.

While this process was on, I selected a bridge that could replace the original

The replacement bridge had bridgepin holes marked but they had to be drilled through. That was done and then the diameter of the holes was checked by pushing bridgepins through them, to see where they sat.

Almost all holes needed to be reamed, and so, each hole was reamed some till the bridgepins sat perfectly.

Then I tried setting it on the guitar itself by pushing two outside bridgepins through the bridge and the top.

Carefully inspect the corner of the bridge closest to you. Do you see it?

While the ‘e’ bridgepin hole lined up perfectly with the hole in the top, the other five moved progressively inside the line of the holes in the top. The only solution was to plug the original holes in the top, stick the bridge and then redrill the holes, so that the bridge sat in the right place (without affecting the intonation). AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHY I DITHER FROM REPLACING BRIDGES!

So, I went about plugging the holes with these spruce wood violin sound posts which I had bought many, many moons ago, because I knew one day I might have use for them – exactly for this purpose. That day had come.

Very briefly, sound posts are installed inside violins and other instruments belonging to the violin family (violin, viola, cello, double bass). Not only does the sound post support the top of the instrument, it can also alter the tone dramatically, and completely change the sound depending on the position or angle.

While I enlarged the holes in the top a bit to receive the posts, I sanded the posts themselves a bit so that the fit would be a snug one.

After all the holes were plugged they were cut and sanded flush, such that if one ran a finger along them, he would not feel even the slightest lip.

Now the stage was set for the new bridge to be stuck to the top. I did that and made it sit perfectly on the footprint of the original bridge, but – believe it or not – forgot to take photographs of the process!!!

Anyway, the bridge stayed in clamps for two days, during which other areas of the instrument were given love: the headstock, the hardware on it, the fretboard, the fretwires…

After the clamps came off, new holes were carefully drilled and the new, very dry bridge was given a coat of love which made it shine, while making the grain in it pop out.

All that was left to do was to string up the instrument and see if everything was in order. The owner had chosen these strings for his guitar.

Here are the final few parting shots of the #ashton, looking every bit the billion dollars it wasn’t! The bottom line though, was that the owner was mighty pleased with the results.

Oh! Did I mention that the instrument got a lovely set of bone nut and saddle too? It did!!