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I picked up a cheap project 12-string (tanglewood), with a nasty bridge pull, the guy put elmers glue in it, which I cleaned out mostly. The face is bulbing out like crazy, even after I reglued the X-brace...

Can cedar tops take the tension?!



I was planing on gifting this to my cousin for a wedding gift. So I'd like to do a bang up job on it.

My plan is to epoxy the sucker in with a bolt through the middle/back of the bridge.

Any helpful thoughts?

~Carson

Epoxy the bridge? Not at all necessary. Elmer's, if it is the wood working glue is fine, as is Titebond which is more commonly used in guitar making. If you clean the surfaces up real well and they mate perfectly then just use an AR glue like Titebond. IF there is a lot of distortion on the top under the bridge then it will take a bit of work to fit things together.

By the "woodworking" glue, I think JF means the yellowi-colored "Elmer's Carpenter's Glue." It's a lot stronger and harder-drying than the regular white Elmer's glue. A bolt will add weight and probably not do much if the glue joint is good. If the glue joint is good, you don't need a bolt.

In brief: lots of glue, etxra hardware does not work. Lots of care to get a really tight joint does work. Most glues work as long as the joint is tight.

Cedar should handle the pull of 12 strings.

There are a lot of resources on the net that tell you how to do this kind of thing, for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpjeDRY3obk. If you don't want to buy the deep throat clamps shown, you can make a caul that bolts through string pin holes. These are doubtless shown on the net.

The first bridge I glued down immediately started to pull up. After a few years, it's still hanging on, but it'll come off eventually. I'd fix it, but it's my first guitar, and if I fixed the almost infinite number of mistakes I made on it I'd be trapped in it forever (it feels). The second time I glued a bridge, I fitted it better, using the thinnest of a set of feeler gages to probe for gaps until it fit really well. That bridge has held tight.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Did you take the bridge off? If you did then you could get a clean joint and regular glues should work fine. If not, it would probably be difficult to get the joint clean and I would just use the epoxy if it's a cheap guitar. And if you got it clamped good, I don't think you would need (want) a bolt.

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Pat

I have a 40 yr old cedar topped 12 string that was glued with white glue the bridge is braz rosewood , and there is some forward tilt/pullup of the bridge. I would personally use 315 hide glue , especially if you have to scrape away some white glue which is a pita think vinegar is good for glue removal, I used a product from woodcraft for glue removal many times, forgot the name. comes in a clear white bottle.Have switched to 315g hide for repairing worn out bridges as it fills gaps well , also check out how worn is the bridge plate?

De-glue Goo is probably what Ernie is talking about to remove old glue. It has acetic acid in it and a thickener to help keep it in place. Clean it up, make a good joint and then hide glue.

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Horton, MI