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I don't know if the holes ill line up or not. Should I redrill and plug the old holes in the top? It is likely the new bridge will hit 90% of the hole(s) that are there already.

Stewmac sell an angled plug cutter for cutting little blocks to fill the holes.

personally, if the original holes were to be completely out of the way and not touched by the new ones, I might leave them unfilled on MY instrument, but if the new holes are going to overlap with the old ones, I'd definitely fill them.

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I don't quite get it, if the holes are chewed up and funky, i would make a new bridge plate and redrill holes to line up with the new bridge. If the bridge plate was fine, i would make the bridge such that the holes line up with the bridge plate holes. Plugged holes will never be as strong as an intact bridge plate, so i would only do that as a last resort, like if the back was already back on.

Are you saying that the bridge holes wont line up because it is a purchased bridge and you have no control over the hole spacing, or that the fingerboard is new and the scale length changed?

Like i said, choice #1 put the holes in the same place, choice #2 make a new bridge plate, choice #3 regretfully plug and redrill.

Old instruments need all the help they can get in the area of the bridge plate.

(p.s. what is 90% of 6? )

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

That was good.....




What make/model/year of instrument is this? Why don't the holes line up? What condition is the bridge plate in? What happened to it, is this a pre-made bridge, etc, etc, etc.

I have to admit, when you say "restoration", then ask questions like this of a repair we otherwise know nothing of, I get some frightful images flashing through my mind. I know this isn't you, but from what we know so far you could be someone gluing a 70's Hummingbird bridge on to a 30's 000-18 because the old one was coming off - you see my points for hesitation on what advice to offer until we know more of the story.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

David, i think it is the funky old no name parlor guitar YJ john posted a bunch of pictures of a while ago, i couldn't find the old discussion but John will probably tell us if that is correct.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Gotcha - I haven't been around here much lately, so any info from other posts I didn't know about.

If all this other work has to be done, I would guess the bridge plate holes are not likely in pristine condition anyway. In this case, if you're not going to replace the plate, plugging/patching the holes may be a good idea anyway. StewMac's bridge plate plug tool is great for this. Still, unless the pin holes have to be moved for some other reason, I would aim to match the bridge holes to the existing ones in the top if possible.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

The guitar has been through a bunch before we were born The guitar started with a Trapeze. Years ago it had botched surgery and a bridge plte installed. When I got my hands on it there was no bridge and the holes were filled with Plaster! I made spuce plugs and filled the holes.90% is all but the top 10% of each hole. That x's 6 is 6/10's or 1/5 or 20%. See. Easy