Thread: Bridge Doctor
View Single Post
  #13  
Old 01-11-2020, 01:23 AM
mirwa mirwa is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 3,110
Default

If the internal braces are glued and functional but messy I would leave it / them alone.

If the internal braces are glued and not functional ie, glue creep is apparent or weakness etc, I would steam said brace or braces clean and reglue them.

Any crack going against the grain can be glued with a cleat or cleats sufficiently, in 20 odd years I am yet to have come across one that was so bad cleating did not fix.

Bridge doctors are there to reduce bridge rotation, the offset is the stiffening of the top, the added mass to the bridge area and reduced tone / responsiveness of the guitar, I wont use the term repair bridge rotation, many ways exist to permanently repair rotation and each method is really dependant on the guitar itself.

The cheapest i have ever fixed a guitar that had excessive bridge rotation was $35 which is my minimum charge and in that scenario i added a brace, but that is the difference IMO between a guitar tech and a luthier, a guitar tech sets up guitars and typically when confronted with a "repair" will purchase a ready made product targeting said issue, Eg, bridge doctor, truss rod rescue kit, premade bridges, premade braces, replacement fretboards preslotted and so forth, a luthier identifies the weakness in a design and crafts a repair specific to that instrument and its nuances

Steve
__________________
Cole Clark Fat Lady
Gretsch Electromatic
Martin CEO7
Maton Messiah
Taylor 814CE

Last edited by mirwa; 01-11-2020 at 01:32 AM.
Reply With Quote