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So this is my first guitar project (I've barely even cut wood before this...so I'm a complete noob). It's the Stew-Mac dreadnought kit. I'm doing the brackets on the sound board, and yesterday I put the bridge plate in.

Like an idiot I used a cull that is too big so I couldn't see the bridge plate once it was down, so the bridge plate must have moved when I put the cull on it and the clamped it down.

My heart pretty much sank this morning when I took it all off.

As you can see in the picture below, the bridge place is pushed back a bit and doesn't go into the notches of the X brackets.

Is this hugely detrimental? my big fear is when I go to the drill the holes in it that will fall out because the notches aren't helping to hold it in. I really don't want to get the entire guitar completed and then have some small error from before completely ruin the whole thing.
Picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thenadamgoes/6238562486/
Any advice?

Welcome to the forum.

First, you are gluing the braces, not the brackets. It helps to be clear if we all use the same terms. Also, you use a caul to glue things, not a cull.
With that out of the way, here is my opinion on this, and I am in no way an expert, so take this for what it's worth.
You do not have an issue. No problem. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Since you notched the X-brace to inlet the bridge plate, it would have been nice if the plate had stayed in its cozy little home, but it didnt. As long as the bridge plate is firmly glued to the sound board, you do not have a problem. It wont pop off when you drill the bridge pin holes. You should use a light pressure to get the bit through the plate anyway, and a piece of scrap behind the plate to prevent chip out when the drill bit comes through. Your next concern is whether or not the plate moved enough so that when you do drill the holes, will they actually hit the bridge plate. From the picture you posted, it has not and you wont have any issues at all.
I do not ever inlet my bridge plate into the X-brace. Some designs call for the bridge plate to not touch the X-brace either. Trying to repair this without sufficient experience can and will in all probability, cause more damage than anything else. Chalk this up to a lesson learned about proper clamping technique when gluing, and just keep on building the guitar. It wont hurt anything as far as sound.
You might want to plug the little slits in the X-brace where the bridge was supposed to go, but other than that you are fine.
You should post more pictures however. We all like to see pics of guitars in progress.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Thank you so much for taking a look, I really appreciate it. I really thought I had completely bungled it - good part is the bridge plate is on there pretty strong.
Sorry about the wrong terms, like I said I'm pretty new at this (REALLY new) and I get which pieces are which confused (And there's no excuse for spelling Caul wrong

I'll post some more pictures when I get home. I've been photo documenting the entire process.

The plate is not going to go unless you destroy it to pieces with a chisel and a hammer, but you do need to do something about the X braces intersection. You could make some nicely fitting wedges from spruce and glue them in those big gaps, and then cap the whole thing with another piece of wood (with the grain oriented lengthwise, same as the brace!)
If you'll build again, cut and fit the braces square and only after gluing them do the cross-section shaping:

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Build log

Big +1 on the X

I was thinking about the X-vrace gaps and filling them in, I could do that pretty easily.But the braces are rounded at the top, do I need to shave them down so they are flat to glue a piece of wood on over the gap?

Personally, I would not use those Xbraces at all. But, If I did, I would just fill it as good as possible with some spruce. try to fill it as perfect as possíble so its really snug in there with titebond.

Its your first build !! its good to make lots of mistakes on that one, so you learn from that till the next one. keep asking a lot of questions once your stuck so we can help you out as good as we can.

For your next build, make the X similar to what is shown by Alexandru in "Figure 12"

Good luck... Lars

I might get my head bit off for this, but regarding the X-brace joint, I'd fill in the gaps in the joint with epoxy.

I did this on my first build, a Martin kit, because the braces were pre-shaped like yours.

If you go this route, get a good epoxy like West Systems & get some of their micro-fiber filler to stiffen it up. Good quality epoxy is very watery compared to the stuff in syringes you get at the big box store. You add the filler to thicken it so that the consistency is more like a stiff paste then pack it into the gaps in the joint.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Nah. Don't scrap the whole X-brace for that.. Glue in some little shims of spruce to fill in the gaps in your X-notch, then cap that X as shown. The teeny bit you plane flat to cap it won't kill you.... Especially if it's starting at 3/4" tall or so...

On the bridge plate... You need to shim up that gap between the Plate and the X-leg... If you don't do this - you will see a hump on your top when you string it up. Once again, a little shim of Spruce will work just fine here... but it's gotta be fitted tight in there between the bridge plate and X-leg.

Thanks