Re-Glueing an acoustic guitar bridge:

My friend Jimmy has had this acoustic guitar for longer than he can remember, and it has worked hard. It's currently in the shop for headstock repair, re-fretting, bridge repair and brace repair.

Today I started work on the bridge, which was lifting off the top on the treble side. I thought I would share some insight on manufacturing with you, since we are taking an acoustic apart. In order to fix a bridge that is coming unglued, it must first be removed, then the glueing surfaces prepared and then re-installed. By drilling two pilot holes in the saddle slot, you can assure proper realignment when glueing the bridge back on.

When you're making an acoustic guitar, in production, or one at a time. The top receives its finish before the bridge is glued to it. The glueing surface for the bridge is masked off, so that the bridge can be installed once the finish is dry.

On a production line, a lot of minor details slip. You can see from the pictures below, the glueing area that is void of finish is quite a bit smaller than the bridge its self. I would say that as much as 20% of the glueing surface is covered in finish. This partially explains why the bridge was coming undone. Of course, this guitar gets strung with 13's, so the bridge would eventually need to be re-glued anyway. I will be extending the glueing area by sanding the finish away where it is no longer needed.

Keep following the repairs if you want to see more!