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Hi.
So, I did my first couple of bride reglues recently.
one of them was on an acoustic flattop steel string guitar. After I removed it, cleaned it up, and reglued it, I could not get the bridge pins properly in.
I thought it was that the bridge had shifted slightly, which it had. So, I removed it again, cleaned up, and got it aligned correctly with bridge locating pins and bridge bolts.

Then - when the glue was dry, and ready for setting it up and inserting the bridge pins, the holes seemed to be to tight. After thinking about it, I found that it was glue in the holes that was the cause. I used a cheap reamer and needle files and got the bridge pins seated correctly. So the question is - is this normal? I would think so, but I have not done this so many times.

Also, before removing the bridge, I scribed around the bridge (as Dan Erlewine does in his bridge repair dvd's). This leaves a small scribed line afterward, that is almost not visible. But only almost.
What is common procedure here - to touch it up with some laquer, or just leave it be?
This guitar in particular was a sunburst guitar, so to do a touchup probably would mean quite a bit of a laquering/touchup job to get it good looking again. Since it was my daughters guitar(one I go really cheap), I decided not to do anything on it.

These things are probably very obvious when you have done this for many times
But, I really learned something here, and it was really rewarding to finally get to do a real bridge re-glue, and have it working good afterwards


best regards,
Tim

Hi Tim,

yes, glue squeeze-out in the bridge pin holes is normal, and actually pretty much unavoidable. What you did with the problem seems quite OK to me. Personnally, I usually redrill with a 3/16" drill bit, and ream away what's left. But there are several ways to skin the cat, as they say.

Regarding scribing around the bridge before removing it, I never did that. And although I'm sure Dan had a good reason to do so, I'm not sure I understand why it would be needed.

_________________
Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I have wrapped dowels in wax paper and put them in the holes to keep the bridge lined up. Then pop them out when the glue is dry. Light reaming to get any remaining wax paper out. Dowels will be flush on top but easy to poke out from the inside. If they get glue on them they are easy to drill out.

Thank you all for your tips and input, I really appreciate it.
I did (of course), clean up the bridge pin holes, with some warm water and Q-tips before clamping, but obviously there will be glue squeeze out and glue will stick to the hole-walls.


The reason Mr. Dan Erlewine scribed around the laquer, was that there was laquer under the outer edges of the bridge.
With a scribed line visible, he removed the laquer that was under the bridge (very gently),up until the line. Also, I would suspect that in some cases it would be good to do this in order not to crack any laquer when removing a bridge. Of course, this would in some cases need to be repaired/touched up afterwards.

I learn something new, everytime I ask a question in this forum

Best regards,
Tim