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More Tanglewood bridge issues
The COE reviewed this bridge disaster in January, a Tanglewood acoustic given to me that had the bridge ripped off as well as some of the underlying top, and an attempted repair with spruce veneer (COE video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlpOIWQrAlw&t=2685s). The general opinion was to install a bigger bridge plate.
However, once I removed the existing bridge plate, I found that the underlying repair had not been fully done, and some of the top was entirely missing, with only the thin spruce veneer (maybe 0.040-0.050″ thick) over the holes.
So I shaped the larger bridge plate, but I believe I should repair the holes. I am thinking about epoxy putty to flush up the inside, followed by generously hide gluing the overlying bridge plate making sure it’s well attached to the top and the X braces.
The pictures show (1) the removed bridge plate with adherent top outlined in white pencil superimposed on the new bridge plate (0.110″ thick maple), (2) the bridge laid on top to show the extent of planned support, and the underside of the top showing the extent of the damage/missing cedar top.
I would be grateful for any advice on ways to proceed here. Thanks!
Images
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3 Replies
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Hi John, Can you send a pic of the bridge footprint on the guitar’s top? My inclination just seeing the inside is to properly glue on a new bridge plate first. I’d try to get everything clean and true so that I could use wood glue, but if that’s not possible, epoxy would work. Then clean up the hole in the top and glue a new patch of spruce in, again, preferably using wood glue. Level this to the top. If you still have low spots in the bridge footprint, it’s pretty easy to make a cork covered caul that’s a bit smaller than the bridge, then use that to clamp spruce veneer into any low points. Then level it all and glue the bridge back on. It’s just that simple! Good luck! Geoff
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So I attach some further pictures, hopefully responsive. There is already an extensive spruce veneer top repair using unknown glue, which I really don’t want to remove. The pictures show the existing repaired top with a clear bridge outline, and the top with the proposed new plate and bridge in position. As far as I can tell, the original damage is limited to the bridge area.
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