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I am rapidly running out of time to glue bridges on 3 guitars before the humidity gets to high. In the past I've located the bridge, masked off the gluing area, sprayed buffed etc, and then glued the bridge on. I don't have time for that now and would like to hear about techiniques in gluing it on now and doing on the finishing later, either spraying or FP. So I'm wondering about how and with what tape to mask the bridge itself (the sides anyway) maybe just before gluing. Any tutorials out there?

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Mike McNerney

Many of us don't mask the bridge footprint before doing the finish. We route the finish off the bridge footprint after the finish is complete. Fast and easy to do, and makes doing the top finish much easier. Probably tutorials out there if you search.-Bob

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Use hide glue, clean off with water after it dries.

I would mask with Fiskar's film as Joe White taught me to do and that worked great for me.

I'll add that I would mask to around .005 - .010" of the bridge perimeter so that you can't see the glue joint when done and most of the foot print is exploited for maximum wood-to-wood gluing surface. I also later on rabbited my bride to match the "pocket" that the removed finish left.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding but from reading the original post I thought Mike was asking about how to finish the body with the bridge already glued on? That is, to glue the bridge and then mask it and spray (or whatever) with it already in situ.

Mike, I’ve never tried that myself. I would fear any kind of build up of a “filet” of finish between top and bridge that would make later bridge removal difficult.

I just sprayed the top on one with the bridge attached on a partial refinish. I used Frog tape applied vertically and then folded over to cover the bridge. It worked fine with no problems.

Mike, I'll sometimes french polish with the bridge already on. It's definitely not as convenient but it's not too bad.
I tape the bridge off once it's on and using a small artist brush (1/4 wide or so) will brush a few coats around the perimeter of the bridge. This ensures that I get some finish right up to the bridge. When polishing this area, I use a block to form the pad around so I can get right next to the bridge. Over many sessions the brushed area and polished area blend together nicely. I keep the tape on the the bridge the whole time as I will inevitably will bump into the bridge while polishing.
Hope that's some food for thought.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Thanks Josh I did indeed misread this.

Mike I would not glue a bridge on pre finishing on a steel string it will degrade the serviceability of the instrument in the future. Bridges do lift and no one should have to have refinishing work done to a guitar for a simple bridge lift.

The very same reason why it was a poor practice for some of us to finish with the neck on requiring the finish to be cut through for a reset the same holds true on a pre-glued bridge.

The classical crowd can get away with finishing with the bridge on their string tension is much less than steel string and classical bridges do not as commonly lift unless it says at the top Cordoba which in Spanish means bridge reglue.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I infer that OP is concerned about humidity and wants to find a shortcut that satisfies his desire to apply finish before it gets too humid for him by gluing bridges on before finishing. I dunno. I think ignoring past successful practice in the interests of satisfying a deadline is a recipe for poor results (aka, you're asking for it). Perhaps finish all three tops, attach bridges, mask off the tops and finish the rest of the bodies later?

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Peter Havriluk

Thanks everyone for all your experience and thoughts. I think I will go with just be patient and do all the finishing and I will then probably have to wait until next winter to glue the bridges on.

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Mike McNerney