Official Luthiers Forum!

Here I am all excited putting strings on my #1, when I hear that sickening sound. Sho' nuff, my bridge is trying to crack into the wings. Is there any hope for a fix or do I just replace it? I find it hard to see a fix since there's not really a way to open it up to get any glue in or clamp it once you do.

And any idea what happened here? I'm basically using a rosewood Martin style belly bridge with a drop in/through saddle along the lines of what Mario does. The saddle slot measures .180" deep at the low E, more like .160" at the high E. The saddle was a good snug snap in fit. There's plenty of meat in front of the saddle - it's basically a copy of the bridge from Stew Mac's herringbone plan.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Anything? Man I'm dying to get this thing strung up!

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Sorry to hear about your problem Wes, what a bummer Hesh your signature is most ironic

Cheers Kim

Bummer...but you should just replace it as Hesh said. It's tough to fix a bridge, and they are cheap enough to replace.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Ouch! No, no way to fix it if it is indeed cracked.

It happens. It's happened to me 3 times so far, twice on initial string-up.

The two that cracked on string-up I possibly traced to the fact that one was tossed hard to the floor when buffing(though it looked fine) and the other was when I tried to rough-cut the wings with a dado cutter instead of sanding them in. Or it could have been the wood itself that had a hidden check or crack. Happens to all of us.

But no matter, you need to make another.

Instead of risking your finish, since you won't save this bridge, make a simple plywood form to go over it, then use a router to carefully route off nearly all of the bridge. When all you have left is a 1/32" thick "bridge", warm this and peel it off. Clean as clean gets. Take small, 1/16" cuts with the router, and take your time. In 5 minutes, you'll be done and ready for the new bridge.

Got to thinking a little more about this. True, it's not THAT big a thing to make another bridge - after all, I had to make this one. BUT, what about gluing the saddle in? I mean, a regular through saddle is glued in. Wouldn't lose anything by trying, right? If I CA it, the saddle will be bonded in the back side of the slot and can't lean forward. I could go ahead and wick in a little thin CA along the crack, glue the saddle in, clamp it front to back... Any reason why this wouldn't work? If it doesn't, then I can pull the bridge.

What do y'all think?

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

If the guitar is for you, go for it. Nothing to lose(except it may break at the most unfortunate moment a few years from now <bg>). It's your call...]

It'll certainly hold up a few weeks to at least give you your guitar to play while you whittle up a new bridge. Shoot, you can take the opportunity to change something to see if you like the change or not.

Make some lemonade from this lemon! That's the spirit.

Don't go do'in that Hesh, your signature is one of the best on all the forums

Cheers

Kim

Mario's suggestion of routing down most of the bridge is brilliant. It can be tough going getting a bridge to heat up enough to soften the glue under it, but without all that thickness it will be a simple operation.
Good one Mario! That's one worth writing down...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=Don Williams] Mario's suggestion of routing down most of the bridge is brilliant. It can be tough going getting a bridge to heat up enough to soften the glue under it, but without all that thickness it will be a simple operation.
Good one Mario! That's one worth writing down...[/QUOTE]

Yes Don, sometimes, just sometimes he shows a spark of genius.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Well, I glued the crack up and glued the saddle in. So far, so good! Man, this thing is sounding good already! I can see my main guitar becoming my backup real quick!

Thanks for everybody's input. I'm thinking I will go ahead and make another bridge for it. This one had a couple of flaws anyhow. Or I may not look back. The new bridge may just go on #2.

BTW, cool idea about routing the bridge down, Mario. I've never hear that one. I just figgered I'd have to heat the whole thing to take it off. And, being my first, my luck is I probably would've screwed it up.

I'm finishing up the setup work. I'll try to have pictures within the week.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Good on ya Wes, i'm glad everything worked out fine and can't wait to see it in color!

Oddly enough a couple years back I had to remove a bridge that didnt need to be saved - I did the very thing Mario suggested - taped down a couple rails along side the bridge a routed the bridge down to about 1/16 - then with a heated up aluminum chunk had the rest off clean in a minute or two. Way easy.

must be something in the northern ontario water Mario - I grew up in Sudbury (actually so did Anthony Z).

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"