And that – look at the photograph – my friends, is enough to raise the action appreciably. It’s another thing that on this guitar, the bridge was lifting and the instrument had a healthy belly too: the three big reasons for high action on an acoustic instrument!!!
But we’ll come to that in time.
The guitar came to me in a terrible condition. Not only was it filthy, it was on the verge of giving up the soul!
Starting from the top, the now-crusty strings had been terribly wound
The nut, it seemed, had been the favourite chew-toy of a teething pup, with its corners missing and the saliva of the pup deposited and dried on it!
Meanwhile, the saddle had got crushed under the ‘G’ string – no pun intended. Both the nut and the saddle would have to be replaced. The owner was convinced to put in bone elements.
The accumulated DNA, grime and dust on the fretboard told me that it hadn’t had a bath ever since it was born!
And if the fretboard hadn’t been cleaned, it’s only normal that the fretwires showed signs of utter neglect too (Look carefully at the photograph below)!
But all these faults which I have listed were more or less superficial, cosmetic and easily dealt with. The major problem was the belly, the bridge lift and the heel coming unstuck. Without these attended to, the guitar would just remain a show piece, never actually played.
The bridge was taken off, and it came off with minimal damage to the top.
With the bridge off, the field was now clear to tackle the belly in the instrument.
And so bound remained the guitar for a good two days before the clamps were taken off.
While the instrument was still in clamps, I worked some on the underside of the bridge.
Half done, it looked like this. The next step was the bridge reglue. But before that could happen, the bridge footprint had to be cleaned completely of lacquer and old glue.
The glue up process was a breeze, but again the instrument went under clamps for two full days.
And while under clamps, I got to work on other areas of the instrument: the fretboard and headstock, for example.
Meanwhile, the nut and saddle too were readied to exact dimensions of their slots, but with a slight twist. The saddle, measuring 76mm was placed in a 78 mm slot because the owner was uncomfortable paying the extra amount for the longer saddle. Unfortunately, I had 76 and 80 mm saddles at that time.
The saddle was thus shifted and placed in such a way that 1 mm space remained on either end and not 2 mm at any one end.
The next jobs were getting the heel glued back to the body and installing a strap button.
Now all that remained to be done was to drill out the bridgepin holes and throw on a set of new strings.
The guitar left me squeaky clean and a happy owner
