Bridge is not glued down

[ranchtooth]

I'm fixing a guitar for a friend of mine... It's a granada hollowbody and I am putting in a new bridge, new pickups and a new nut. When I took the old strings off, the bridge and the wooden base fell right off. It didn't appear as if it was glued on originally. I am concerned as to whether or not I should glue it in place, or if there is a reason as to why the bridge base would not be glued to the body. Any ideas?

[dd842]

Hi ranchtooth,

This reminds me of my friend's old Gibson ES-175.

He let me borrow it for the summer, and when I said I may change the strings he warned me about the bridge.

He said it was not glued down and would therefore be a little tricky to change the strings (that is also why he had lightly marked where it was supposed to go with a pencil).

So, if that helps, it was not glued down on his guitar (and was not supposed to be either).

As to whether there is any reason why you should not glue it down, I don't know.

I hope that helps.

Dan

[ranchtooth]

Thanks Dan! I guess I'll go with the marking in pencil option as well, for authenticity's sake.

[spitfire23bc]

Heh, I got taken by surprise when I changed the strings on my Ashbury archtop for the first time - took me ages to set it up perfectly again!

[twostring]

It should be fairly easy to set it properly. Put it where you think it goes, then play the E strings open (not at the same time) and also fretted at the 12th fret. It should be exactly an octave higher when played fretted at the 12th fret. If its a bit flat, move the bridge farther from the neck. If its a bit sharp, move it toward the neck. A digital tuner makes this job easier.
When you have it right, mark its location with a piece of masking tape against it.
You should glue it down. Don't use any glue just because you have something "strong". You need to use "hyde glue". It crystalizes and will transmit the vibrations through the glueline to the guitar top. You'll only need a tiny drop--just enough to keep it in place. Maybe two or three tiny drops, one near each side and one in the middle. Don't cover the whole underside of the bridge. You don't want it oozing out from under the edge either. Never use fancy modern glues on musical instruments. They depend on "toughness" as part of their strength which requires a certain amount of permanant flexibility. That flexibility will dampen the sound vibrations. You don't want that.

[UnklMickey]

hi Twostring,

welcome to GuitarNuts2.


i look at this a bit differently.

first on intonation methods.

i generally start with a method similar to yours, but i also evaluate the accuracy on all the strings.

since this probably doesn't have individually adjustable saddles, there will be significant errors on the other strings.

i like to compromise a bit so that the errors are "averaged".


unless the user is certain they will never change string gauge, i wouldn't glue the bridge down. that would make it impossible to adjust the intonation.

also, since this is an "old Gib$on", i believe gluing down the bridge would seriously degrade the resale value.

cheers,

unk

[twostring]

I agree with you Unk. The errors should be averaged. But I have a hunch a straight line through the E saddles is probably pretty darn close to it.
As for the glue, the cool thing about hyde glue is it is only permamant until you don't want it to be permanant anymore. It can be softened with a bit of dampness and knocked or pried (pryed?) loose. I don't know how many acoustic hollow bodies are made with loose bridges, but I think most are glued in place. I hope they use hyde glue.

I'm working on my great-grandfathers violin at the moment. I've removed the finger board and will replace it with hyde glue...just like it was made 90 years ago. The project's got me scared though. It needs a new finish and I don't have a clue where to go next. I've found scraping the old finish off by dragging a sharp edge across it at 90 degrees to the wood works well. I don't know what to do with a new finish though. I don't want anything to soak in but I want a good color. I know I'll be using an oil stain, but that's about all I know. I guess I'll be practicing on some other old previously finished wood first.