Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello

I've been hanging on to my first guitar that I ever owned - a nylon stringed classical acoustic

however - when I was young and foolish, and didn't know better over 10 years ago I broke the bridge on it by putting on steel strings. the bridge came completely off and tore some of the sound board along with it.

I've been thinking of trying to fix it up if it , and wanted some advice on what the best course of action would be to get it into a playable state again if possible.

I'm not sure if it is as simple as just gluing the torn off bridge back onto the sound board or not, or if the whole soundboard is ruined now? I have some standard elmers wood glue already, and some epoxy as well. would I need to get something else if that is a viable option?

still have the original bridge. I think I have lost the original saddle, but already have a blank piece that I can cut to the correct proportions to slot in.

Here are some pics




thanks for any advice!

Hi James it's hard to tell from your pics but the guitar top looks like a laminate and the damage done in the bridge patch looks like there are multiple layers of the top exposed. Is this the case?

If so this is an inexpensive instrument which has some bearing on what the approach to repairing it would be.

Bridge reglues done very well can be a bit complicated and are not the easiest thing for folks to learn. But there are times when how we approach the repair is minimally even using glues we would not normally use such as epoxy.

This may be one of those times:

I would check the fit of the bridge to the bridge patch and if it's possible to leave most of the wood currently glued to the bridge in place only manipulating some fibers and such until you get a "click in place" fit that sits flush that would be my goal. Normally we smooth both the patch and the bridge for a perfect wood-to-wood fit but on a laminate I am inclined to leave wood and piece it back together. This also permits some mechanical "keying" leaving the wood fibers in place.

Then I would use a quality epoxy such as System III or West system and glue the bridge in place wetting both surfaces and clamping well but not over clamping. Clean-up with water immediately after getting clamps in place you only have one shot at cleaning up epoxy if this is a nitro finish.

Not a pretty repair approach, no HHG or rabbeting or clearing the bridge patch but meeting a guiding principal of the guitar world and that is the repair should be appropriate for the instrument.

If this is not an inexpensive, import, with laminate top the approach might be different of course.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I agree with everything Hesh said, except for what to use for cleanup. I have better results using a rag dampened with odorless mineral spirits. It will dissolve the epoxy squeeze out and leave a clean surface while causing no harm to finishes.

Great tip Barry, thanks.


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Great suggestion I will be trying that out, thanks Barry. It's very rare that we glue a bridge on with epoxy but we have done so before.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

thanks for the tips everyone!

yes this is a cheap import guitar so I went the epoxy route as suggested, bridge snapped right back into place and the epoxy is holding strong. Working on the saddle now, and waiting on an order of some strings to get it back up and running

Good going JH!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

It's a treat to see a sick instrument get put back online. Thanks for sharing.

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Peter Havriluk