[vintageparlors]

Thanks for the feedback. Let's take a minute and glue down this bridge.

Having a footprint of a prior bridge to guide you can be both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand it gives you some sense as to where the bridge will go. On the other hand, early parlor guitars were/are notoriously out of touch with what we know to be proper intonation today. Simply put, the original bridge location is not likely to be the proper bridge location(which is true). I've made the new bridge a wee larger than the old footprint size so that we can both hide the original footprint AND position the bridge so that it contributes to the proper intonation of the guitar.

Photo 1 shows my Rube Goldberg system of laying out for bridge placement. The layout of the 3 rulers in the photo provide the measurements I need to finalize where the bridge will be glued to the top. Before the bridge layout begins, here's what we've done already: I've roughed out the vertical and horizontal angles for the neck using a mock bridge location as my guide. The fretboard is taped tight to the neck and the neck is fastened tight to the body.

We have a 24" scale length to work with so I want the front edge of the bridge to be 12" from the crown of the 12th fret. The ruler touching the front face of the bridge allows me to move the bridge from side to side until I'm good with where the final position will be. The original bridge on this Regal was not centered in lower bout nor was it positioned so that the strings sit equally between the outer edges of the sound hole. I've learned that compromise is the only answer to making the geometry work. So in the end, the bridge is closer to the middle of the lower bout than before but will at least be the proper distance on the parallel from the 12th fret. Photo 2 shows the perimeter of the final bridge location wrapped in tape.

Inside the tape is where the bridge will be glued to the top. Before we glue, we clean. The mating surface between the bottom of the bridge and the top of the guitar must be as clean, fresh and uniform as possible. This means that any old finish, glue residue, divots, etc. must be removed so that we've got good wood on both features to spred the glue. Photo 3. I start with a small chisel with angled edge followed by 80 grits sandpaper and then 120 grit to finish.

The area under the new bridge is all clean and ready for glue. I use Titebond regular formula and a flux brush. I apply a light coat to both surfaces and wait 30 seconds or so to let the glue set up a bit before setting the bridge in place. Photo 4.

I've learned that trying to clamp the bridge in place just after placing it in position is a bad idea. The glue underneath is still soft and the bridge moves and floats all over the place, out of control and with a mind of it's own. I rest a heavy gauge piece of steel on top of the bridge, applying some static, but light, pressure and wait a minute or so to give the glue a chance to settle down and behave. I've set the top caul out next to the bridge so that everyone knows what's happening next. Photo 5.

Photo 6 shows what I use to get things going. The clamping caul for inside the guitar(underneath where the bridge will be clamped) is preset for 20' radius insofar as that is the radius we used when bracing of the top. With the bridge resting in position I remove two sides of the blue tape and use the remaining two sides to monitor any movement in the bridge once the clamps are tightened. The skinny clamp in the photo is only used to "capture" the clamping caul inside until I can bring out the real, big boy clamps. The reason is this: my hands are too large to fit inside the sound hole along with the big boy clamps so I use this skinny clamp just to hold the inside caul in place and then swap it out afterwards with the bid boy.

With the skinny clamp holding the inside caul in position and the topside caul on the bridge, I insert the big boy clamp in the sound hole and roughly center it in the middle of the bridge. Photo 7 shows skinny boy and big boy side-by-side.

Photo 8 shows all five clamps doing what they love to do best. With the bridge glued to the top we can revisit neck alignment and dial in the vertical and horizontal angles to the permanent, fixed bridge.