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I was wondering what you guys prefer to do about your bridge location during finishing, is it better to locate the bridge position then mask off that area or do you just finish the guitar then locate the bridge and scrape the finish off, which do you feel is better for the first timer?

finish the guitar then locate the bridge and scrape the finish off
No real reason, thats just the way is was taught.
I'm interested in hearing others do it

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

I've scraped the few I've completed. Not hard, just a bit slow. Mario recommends routing off the finish, and I may give that a try next time around. I was going to try masking, but Michael posted here that this would be problematic with french polish.

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Gabriel Regalbuto
Carlsbad, California
Freedom 35!

I like to mask off the fretboard and bridge before finish. It doesn't matter how you do it. This is a case of pick the method you like . I think you will find about half of use mask and the other half don't. If you do mask you have to be sure you have the bridge correct.
john

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

well I'll tell you this....

I spent 2 hours today monkeying around with the 'scrape off the finish' way of doing it....and if I ever manage to show up at the person's house whom somehow managed to get this idea out into the guitar making world....I'm gonna kick him as hard as I can.

I hated it.

So I will spend as much time as it takes to find a way to TAPE the bridge area BEFORE FINISHING. That way I won't have to deal with the razor blade and the scraping.

For what it's worth...my opinion is if your finished film thickness isn't greater than about 3 thou.....taping should be fine. You may have to score it a little with a razor blade but that would be a hell of a lot easier than scraping the entire bridge footprint. If you like to run super thick finishes then it may be a problem.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

After scribing around the bridge into the finish material, a warm chisel makes removal of the finish easier. Also, I've made a small scraper from a hacksaw blade which is really good for getting into small corners. I've also read some builders who use a stripping agent to get most of the finish off, than just scrape up to the scribed line.

All this takes some care to perform of course, one slip of the chisel and bad words start to come out of ones mouth

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

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I've had much better luck masking things off before finishing. I tried the stripper/scraper method but didn't like the results. Keep in mind that I am an amateur.

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George :-)

Taping. It's the best way for me after trying the total scrape and the paint stripper (which still must be followed by a light scrape)...the router thing was just too scary to consider...I know Mario does it, but heck, he carves necks with a CHAIN GRINDER!!!! So, I tape.

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Why not do the Rick Turner method? Superglue the bridge right to the finish. It works with cat urethane - no idea about anything else.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I'm about to try out the mask method for the first time. Scraping for the bridge was not my cup of tea. I ordered some frisket film from Dick Blick art supplies - a great vendor, by the way, of all kinds of very useful stuff. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Frisket film? That even sounds fun.

What is it?

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I use the air powered mini die grinder/inlay tool that John Hall sells (got mine from the other guy though) with a 1/8 inch bit ... tape the top and cut the bridge location, then its easy to set the depth, and then as an added bonus, I simply put two pieces of tape on the router base and route a lip on the bridge edge. So simple my students arent even scared to use it.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Mind doing a little show and tell for us Capitan K?

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I tape it. I make the tape foot print slightly smaller then the bridge. Polish out the guitar, remove the tape and scribe the bridge and use a nice sharp curved 'glue' chisel to remove the the edge. I found that making the tape footprint the same size causes a slight build up of finish right on the edge of the tape. So having it a bit smaller allows me to scribe a nice sharp edge and fit without having to scrape the whole area and it's easier to get a chisel under the finish when you start on bare wood.

Rick does that? I was just talking to Tony Ferguson about that Saturday...I thought I saw a youtube video where a chinese factory was doing the same thing...

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Does anyone glue it on before the finish? That way you know your glueing to a proper surface.If you router afterwards, you loose the radius on the glue surface between the top and bridge correct?And if you scrape, you don't get a true surface either.So if you glue it before finish and then mask off the bridge to finish wouldn't that be a better joint?

www.dickblick.com

Search for frisket film. It's a very thin, low tack masking material that's used in lots of art applications. It comes in sheets and wide rolls, and it is highly recommended for the purpose of masking the bridge footprint by several builders/finishers whose opinion I trust.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Your using the top as a guide for routing off the finish so why would you lose the radius. It is so simple, I don't see why more people don't use this method.
Put down a couple layers of 2" wide tape covering the entire area of the bridge. Locate, pin and scribe around the bridge. Set your dremmel or small router with a 1/8" bit to just cut thru the finish and route it off. Just be sure to stay inside the line and then clean up the edge with a small chisel. It takes just a few minutes and the surface is clean as new wood

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Just be careful to cut ONLY through the tape (and the finish, if you want) and not into the wood at all.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

My 1st 2 builds I removed the finish with a extremely sharp chisel after cutting around the bridge with a exact knife, this was not that hard to do but hard on the nerves so the next 2 were masked. The next which I will start finishing in a couple more weeks will also be masked, I never thought of frisket masking film and will try it. I used it for years in my other hobby and never even thought about it for guitar work.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

How about on French Polish finishes? Is it easier or harder to get clean mating surfaces on a classical with FP finish than other types of finishes? Something I have been wondering about for awhile. My first (a steel string Martin style kit from Blues Creek) is on hold for a bit, but I will probably French polish that one as well since I don't have facilities for spraying. Thanks for this thread... man I love this forum!

Used to scrape or route. Now tape off both the bridge and fb extention.

I scrape, but I'll eventually try the routing method.

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

It's not unusual in the classical building world to glue the bridge on when the guitar is in the white so that final tuning of the top can be done with strings on and the response adjusted for a couple of weeks before finishing. French polishing around the bridge takes some practise but is fairly simple, and adds little to the difficulty.

I also do this with steel strings as well I like to string my guitars up in the white for final tuning of the top and as I don't glue my fingerboard to the top it is simple to take the neck off again for finishing.

Oh with my lutes I glue the bridge on to the top before I glue the top to the body!

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I taped, but the problem was sanding and rubbing a flat surface ar the bridge perimeter. I scraped, but it was tedious. Last couple I've shaved the finish off with a long, sharp paring chisel (after scoring the perimeter). It's actually fun, like most fine paring.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.