Official Luthiers Forum!

I am not much of a John Denver fan, but I think he had the gist of it in that lyric.

After the first five minutes on a 1967 J-50 that is getting a reset, new bridge, and a pickguard redo, I was firmly in the diamond camp...after the two bridge nuts were loosened, the bridge started wiggling around like the tail end of the boss's black lab/rottie cross when guests come calling. Ten minutes from clipping the strings, the bridge was off and the hardware out. Things were looking good.







Or so it seemed.

An hour later, the pickguard that had come off so readily was finally clean and the patch was scraped down to lacquer. Three different adhesives had been used at various times to keep the guard on, including transfer adhesive, Titebond, and - wait for it - epoxy! If it was just the standard Titebond and peel'n'stick, that would have been fine, but the careful scraping to get the epoxy off burned up the clock and a bunch of razor blades.





The afternoon was definitely looking a bit more stone-like.

The neck blanket had just started heating up when I saw the extension pop off...probably just a dab of glue holding things in place. The neck took a few minutes of steam to release for 15 minutes total to get the neck off...not bad for a Gibson.

More diamond-like, but that hour on the pickguard still stung.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

I know that's the factory bridge and all.... Collectible in factory condition.... Blah blah....

I sure hope part of the order is to jettison the 30 lbs of factory ironwork under the bridge for a regular bridge like it's supposed to have.... Because let's be honest.... Sometimes you wish the fellows at the factory did *Not* listen to The Good Idea Fairy....

Never mind Woodie. 2 out of 3 ain't too shabby.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

We have a smallish Brazilian rosewood bridge blank that will do, and is close enough to the fretboard in appearance to look like it might have been on the instrument as original equipment. I finished the day with cutting and plugging the hardware holes in the top, so no turning back!

Always fun to have a customer that dreads the loss of originality to their 2017 Taylor 110 due to adding a K&K pickup or changing strings.

_________________
For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Looks like a fun project, I recently had a similar job, 1968 J-45/50 loose bridge, refret, new bone nut and saddle. got rid of the adjustable hardware. i lucked into a piece of rosewood that matched the original. My Collins saddle mill routed a perfect slot in the correct position.