Factory Faux Pas: How could this happen?
 

Most factory built guitars made in the USA before 1970 are of good quality and workmanship. Even guitars built as "budget brands" by Harmony, Regal, and Kay, to name a few, have quite a following and many examples of the models these factories produced back in the day are still in circulation. The reason is that they were well made and have stood the test of time.

I've found the build quality of these brands to be predictable and that's a good thing. Updating/upgrading a 70 year old American made parlor is fairly straight forward and there are rarely surprises to contend with. But every once and awhile......

The horizontal neck alignment is, let's say, "off".
Can you imagine where the bridge ended up on this guitar if the neck alignment was so skewed to the bass side!

What to do call the "center strip" if it isn't exactly in the center?

One of the most common faux pas involves how much of the bridge is actually glued to the top.
This photo is very typical of how the factory "short changes" the bridge of the glue it needs to stay attached to the guitar top. Consider the size of the "glue footprint" (where you see remnant wood from the former bridge still stuck to the top) and then look at the size of the larger "bridge footprint". That's a lot of real estate without any glue underneath that bridge.

If you've always wondered why you can slip a piece of paper under the edges of your old Harmony flat top bridge, well, now you know.


What kind of factory build "goofs" have you come across in your travels?