In my last post, I had urged people to stay away from certain repairs in the interest of the instrument and their pocket.
As if to rile me some more, along came this instrument from out of town.
I must apologise but what looks like an ordinary lifting bridge, was in fact ravaged by someone who seemed to have got his hands on a chisel and a hammer. You can’t see it in these photographs but what I saw was piles and loads of wood glue oozed out and dried form under the bridge. I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN A PHOTOGRAPH OF JUST THAT!!!!!
Another eye-opener on the instrument was the string winding on the headstock. It was as if the owner had vowed to wrap every millimeter of string provided by the manufacturer, and as a result the peg heads looked like this
Do you also see the accumulated dust?
The guitar had exceedingly high action, despite its piezo element not been threaded through the bridge to run under the saddle, and was flapping free inside the guitar.
While looking at the bridge I also saw
three bridgepins of one type and three of another. I also saw a crack beginning to develop which I pointed out to the owner. However, keeping the damage to the pocket in mind, it was decided to let the crack be, and only glue the bridge to the top.
Wood glue and animal glue are preferred in instrument repair for two reasons: a) they are easily cleaned by water, and b) they have the ability to stretch, and so, when the instrument (say guitar top) moves, the glue stretches and moves and does not break up. However, they are not space fillers.
An epoxy, on the other hand is an excellent space filler and cements everything into place, but don’t expect it to be as stretchable as wood or animal protein glue.
Back to the specimen on my counter top.
Out came the palette knives and work began, first to carve away the oodles of glue that had dried up beyond the bridge in a rubbery mass.
Talking to the owner, it became apparent that he had let his instrument slip into the hands of the wrong person who wrenched the bridge off the top. In the process…
Can you see how much of the top is still stuck on the bridge? Beside the footprint of the bridge are chunks of wood glue that had been chiselled out. There was a lot more that had to be dug out from the footprint of the bridge.
After hours of pulling and cleaning and sanding the footprint was cleaned. The glue-up job that followed required that the biggest and strongest clamps in my armoury were brought out and employed in the assembly.
What you probably perceive as ooze out in the first photograph in this set is actually the dyed bridge having lost colour at places.
The guitar bridge was stuck alright but I could not do anything about the action. The saddle had been shaved to a minimum and the relief in the neck was in the vicinity of .002 inches!
I let the piezo element continue to flap inside the box while I strung it up with new strings.
However I did manage to bring down the action considerably on the 1st fret.
