[cyclistbrian]

A couple worker has a solid cedar topped Alvarez which he'd left in his car and other hot spots. The bridge popped off. He'd attempted a repair but the bridge mostly lifted off again. This time it was a mess of stringy dried glue. I figured how hard can it be to do it right and I gave it a shot. I was wrong.

For reference I've worked in the trades, am an electrician by degree and training, a fair plumber, carpenter, and Stone mason. You get the idea. I'm handy and what's more, I have a fully equipped shop. This should have been a slam dunk.

I heated off the bridge. I sanded the bottom of that bridge until it was clean. Same for the top. There were some splinters of wood gone but overall intact. I filled the missing splinters with slivers of wood with superglue. The top was very hard to get clean of old glue. The glue Alvarez uses is hard as rock. One clue to the subsequent failure is it appears Alvarez uses some sort of epoxy perhaps incompatible with carpenters glue.

An additional detail. The bridge is ebony black but I wouldn't expect actual ebony on a lower spec Alvarez. I suspect died Rosewood but who knows? It sanded like wood. It produced sawdust. Alvarez appears to use "Tech Wood" on some cheaper models now but this guitar is fairly old.

When I was satisfied with my sanding I opened a fresh new bottle of Elmers carpenters glue. I applied it fairly thick. A bit of unorthodox, I secured the bridge with cap screws and nuts and washers through two string holes to keep it from moving. I clamped it tight with four bridge clamps. I carefully wiped away squeeze out and left the guitar in my dry climate controlled shop. It sat for three or four days.

I strung it up and it looked like success. Sounded good too. Perfect intonation was a sign I'd gotten everything lined up. Darned if after a couple of days that bridge was lifting slightly.

Cedar oils in the top? Elmer's not adhering to embedded epoxy? I welcome thoughts.