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I plan on glueing all my bridges while in the white so i don't have to deal with scraping or routering the top.Also i like to hear the difference in sound with and without the finish.

Several reasons why I don't tape anymore. I do french polish, and it is hard for me to do the glazing after each body session because the tape feels weird, and I lose the rhythm. It can be done, but I just don't like it. I also taped on a lacquer finish, and during the wet sanding, water seeped under the tape and caused swelling. So it was just as much work to remove the tape and sand again as it was to just remove the finish. The technique for removing the finish is important to how much frustration you have. When I fit the bridge, I place tape in the area of the bridge and use a pencil to mark the outline, then go back with a razor and score about 1/16" inside the line. Remove the inside of the tape. I take a very sharp chisel, and use it like a scraper holding it straight up and down as I scrape the finish. It is usually a 10 min job. I did the little uke in 5 mins the other day. You know you are at bare wood when you see small wooden shavings. You might want to reconsider your method next time and give it try.

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

I wouldn't mask the bridge footprint for FP. FP is so thin, and shellac so easy to remove. You can actually sand it off quite easily, rather than scraping, if you want. You can even make small sanding blocks with radiused bottoms to match your top radius. Lightly scribe around your bridge, then mask around that scribed line with a low tack tape (or don't bother masking if you trust your hand to stay inside the line), and sand off the shellac. A little careful scraping right around the edge finishes the job. If you happen to accidentally mar the finish outside the line, it's no disaster, because FP is so easy to repair.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

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

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

Thanks for the answer Todd... that sounds doable. I just wonder how hard it would be to do a nice job of French polishing witht the bridge already on. I can see how it would be difficult to have the shellac evenly meeting the edges of the bridge, but I like the idea of being able to do some voicing adjustment with the bridge on... assuming that I can figure out how to do that at all

Interesting topic. I'm just about to this point on my first guitar, and even after reading this thread, I'm still undecided.

I'm intrigued by the router method. I watched the 5 episode Larrivee factory tour videos on youtube just yesterday. They finished the body and neck separately, the use a router with a jig to remove the finish from the guitar body prior to gluing the bridge and the neck/fingerboard extension.

Here is the video. They route for the bridge gluing right at the beginning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcJVh-kOXhg

Jim

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Jim Hansen

I think "scrape" is not the best word- it is more of a paring/lifting/peeling action, like Howard described. With a SHARP chisel, paying attention to the top runout, you can quickly peel the finish off in large sections- like picking at a sunburn. If you carefully scored around the bridge outline, the finish will automatically break off right where you want it.

The trick to this is to get at the finish at the right time in its hardening, you want to be able to rub it out most of the way, but still have it be a little bit flexible so that it will peel nicely. Anywhere between about five days and two weeks seems to be in the window for KTM-9 or target USL, nitro crisps up a little bit sooner but still usually comes off nicely.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY