Just last week, my friend Jaimes brought his 1972 Yamaha over to have a JLD installed. There was a pronounced belly behind the bridge, and a sunken area between the bridge and sound hole. I knew it was going to set off a chain reaction with the whole setup of the guitar, but Jaimes loves the old lady, and was willing to do whatever it took to get her back to right.
The JLD bridge system, dialed in gradually over a couple days, did a great job straightening out the top distortion. But the action raised up pretty high. Ordinarily, a neck re-set would be called for, because the upper bout had distorted over the years also, and the neck had pulled forward. This was way outside the range of a simple truss rod adjustment. Unfortunately, Yamahas of that era had the necks epoxied in, and you pretty much have to destroy the guitar to get the neck off. My only option to get the string height down was to shave 2mm off the top of the bridge, so I could lower the saddle and still have enough down pressure to drive the top. Fortunately, the bridge was tall enough to do this without compromising its function.
Once I did the bridge mod, as expected, I needed to make a new nut, because the lower action caused the strings to buzz on the first fret.
The guitar sounds awesome, and feels great. But a whole bunch of new buzzes showed up, as a result of all this "chiropractic" treatment. Jaimes is bringing the guitar back for a total refret this weekend. I told him these things would happen, but all he cared about was getting the guitar back in playing condition. I think that new frets, perfectly leveled, crowned, and polished, will add at least another decade to the useful life of the guitar. The restoration work cost far more than the instrument is actually worth, but Jaimes' emotional attachment to the guitar makes it priceless--to him.
Just a heads-up to folks who want to use the JLD bridge doctor or bridge system to fix a distorted top: You may be opening a big can of worms, because one cause will lead to another effect, and you may have to do a totally new setup on the guitar, once the plane of the top is corrected. That could include neck reset, new frets, new nut & saddle, etc. You should look at all those factors before getting the work done, and decide if it's worth it.
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