Guild 12-String Acoustic Bridge Re-glue

Well, it’s been a busy, busy month. And not coincidentally, a hot, Texas month. The kind that makes old glue weakened and acoustic bridges start to pull apart from the surface of a guitar. I’ve had about 5 guitars brought to me in the last 30 days with this very problem. If you’ve been perusing this guitar repair blog, you may have seen an older entry, of a Framus Nylon String guitar, whose bridge popped off entirely. This guitar, didn’t quite have that luxury, and required some extra TLC to get the job done.

After removing the strings, I heat up a metal putty knife by holding it against an iron. I carefully slide the hot putty knife into an open area of the pulled bridge. Once I hit a section of the bridge that is still glued down, I give it a little push to force itself in, and wait a few seconds for the heated glue to settle and I pull the knife back out, and heat it again on the iron. I do this until one end of the bridge has been lifted enough to wedge another plastic putty knife under. This helps any glue that’s been heated not find its way back down to the guitar top.

Once the bridge has popped off, the old glue from the underside of the bridge needs to be removed entirely so we’re working with bare wood. After a little sanding on the bridge’s underside, the next thing to do is clean the surface of the guitar. I totally dropped the ball and forgot to take a picture of this step. But to paint a picture for you, I place the bridge back on the guitar top, mask off the area around the bridge with blue painter’s tape and use a combination of a sanding block and flat chisel (for scraping) to get any bits of old glue or lacquer.

Now, we’re ready to glue this bridge down! Because the bridge has a tendency to shift when clamps are applied, I manufactured a device to keep the bridge from shifting while gluing. I use a strip of wood with two threaded rods epoxied to accommodate the two farthest and most opposite holes which the guitar’s bridge pins secure. After the glue is applied and the clamping begins, there’s a mad rush with a series of wet and dry rags to wipe away any excess of glue that is pushed out from the under side. After a few minutes of tightening clamps and wiping excess glue, the guitar can sit over night and allow the glue to cure.

The next day, clamps are removed, the strings are strung and this guitar is back in action!