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Everything except the rosewood comes from Stew Mac.

Lol. Well, I assumed the part with their name on it did. I did not realize they made the guide

Sure, our's is just an old Dr*mel from 30 years ago but any newer Dr*mel would work too. A lam timber would be over kill and the additional precision is not really necessary for this application either.

Don's right all the parts are Stew-Mac stuff.

Mind you about a gazillion guitars have been successfully built without rabbiting the bridge perimeter.... but we believe in the practice and so too does Collings Guitars and a host of small builders as well.

Let me know if I can help Mike and I am happy to do so!

Thanks. I got the idea now. I just did not realize that the guide was a Stew Mac item. Gonna place my order. Thanks!

Good point Don! I've avoided routing, even though otherwise it seems like a good idea, because I feared damaging the top wood.

I wonder if it would even be a good idea to purposely rout a thou or 2 of wood to avoid sanding for a better gluing surface. Assuming your router was on top of a flat guide, the section of wood being removed looking like a domed side up rectangle approximately 2 thou in the middle and a thou around the outside. (I'm sure you calculus people could figure this out precisely)

I know the deeper the crater the harder it would be to remove it, but seems like scraping and sanding probably removes a similar amount.........hmmmmm

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Pat

You see, this is what bugs me about this. If we used true flat tops, then jigs pictured above would cut an appropriate rout. But many of us use domed tops, and we use those tops to imprint a negative shape on the bottom of the bridge. It's not a lot, but it's probably more than the rout depth. So, how do u use a jig like those pictured above to rout a very shallow channel in a bridge with the bottom hollowed out to match the domed top? Reliably and evenly?

The rabbeting jig, or at least ours has a radius built into the table making it no different routing the ledge around a bridge that has been doomed to match the top or a flat bridge.

You can still radius your bridges to match the top and use this system, I did on the guitars that I built.

If by chance you build something with a more profound radius on the top AND radius your bridges just make the table on the bridge rabbeting jig the same radius as your tops and you're good to.

Regarding digging a hole in your top with a router I'm not sure that I understand that question or statement. I can tell you that with a very sharp chisel to remove finish that's all that's getting removed, finish.

I won't speak for Pat, but for myself, I would only remove the very slightest amount of wood along with the finish, on the order of what might get sanded off in a "scribe, scrape and sand" process. In other words, not much (I hope). I think my original intent in bringing up the idea was to deal with the reality that vertical depth adjustment of a router is going to be pretty hard if the goal is to remove only finish and absolutely no wood. It is much more feasible to set the router depth of cut to remove a tiny amount of wood, which should guarantee that all of the finish is removed with it. This, combined with the fact that there won't be a grain severing problem as discussed above, should yield a good gluing surface, at the right depth, with no sanding needed. I look forward to trying it out. As I said, I don't like how I do it now, which is to scribe, scrape and sand.

When I took the Fox course in 2003 he showed us the technique. He had the StewMac base with a layer of felt glued to it so he could press down and micro adjust the depth by hand. I used a layer of gasket cork.
With the dome of the top it is almost impossible for me to get an even depth overall so I set it to go partially through the finish pressing down and easing pressure as needed.
After removing the bulk of the finish I complete the job with scraping an small sanding blocks.
I try to completely avoid routing any wood.

My inner scribe line and ledge is pretty narrow. 1/16" or less.

I found it very important to get the corners sharp If not it can hold up a bridge wing and lead to failure of the glue joint. That happened to me . You really need good light to be sure you removed all the finish and sealer. For me it is a time consuming process.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I've been routing my finishes off my guitars for a long time. My inset is more like .100" from the edge and I have a very good reason for it: When you rout the finish off, even with a fresh bit, you can actually get the finish to blow out past your inset and beyond the perimeter of the bridge. It isn't necessary to get your ledge perfect. Rout it slightly tall and then on an arched sanding block bring it down for a perfect fit. I glue with HHG and a vacuum clamp and have never had a problem.