Is this guitar now junk?

[Stephen47]

This is my first guitar. I Yesterday I glued the bridge taking great care
(I thought) to make sure it didn't slip under the clamping pressure. I checked it several times and it looked to be correct. MU\uch to my dismay whne I took the clamps off this morning I found that it haed indeed slipped.
It is now about 1/16 off of perpendicular to the centerline shorter on the treble side. What this in effect does is double the offset of the saddle groove.
So should I use this for firewood or is there still hope?
The bridge is not coming off as I used Titebond II, neither heat nor moisture will release it.

[HHP]

You might take it to someone who knows how to repair them and get an opinion and a quote.

[dekutree64]

First of all, don't use TB2 on bridges. As you say, it's not repair friendly. I hear it also cold creeps. I like hot hide glue.

Is there enough space to fill the saddle slot and re-route in the correct location? Would still look funky, but better than scrapping your whole work at the final step

If nothing else, you could just plane the whole bridge into wood chips. Switch to a scraper for the last bit so you don't tear any top grains, and then touch up the finish, or refinish the top entirely if you can't get it to look good enough. Then make a new bridge and try again with repair-friendly glue.

Use indexing pins (mine go through the ends of the saddle slot) to keep it from slipping. Also helps for speedy positioning when using hide glue. But when you first stick the bridge down, use smaller pins through the bridge holes to locate the matching holes in the soundboard. If you use the actual indexing pins, it's quite difficult to feel the hole, because the pin won't go in until it's lined up exactly. And if you're using hide glue, it will have gelled by then (yes, it happened to me)

[Brackett Instruments]

Route the bridge off, make a new bridge, and install it, in the right position, using the correct glue.

[charles Tauber]

Depending upon exactly what circumstance you have, install a wider (thicker) saddle so that there is saddle where it needs to be for correct intonation. Ideally, each string should be individually compensated anyway, something not generally achievable with a standard 1/8" saddle. Depending on how the bridge has shifted, you may be able to easily enlarge the existing saddle slot to accommodate the wider saddle. 1/16" off perpendicular will often only be obvious to the person who built it. A wider saddle is common on many hand-builts to individually compensate each string and won't look odd.

[thebolo]

Just remember, Everything Is Fixable. You built this thing, so you can do any repairs needed. They may not be easy, or fun, but you are still capable. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Corky Long]

Originally Posted by Brackett Instruments

Route the bridge off, make a new bridge, and install it, in the right position, using the correct glue.

+1. That's what I would do. Just be careful not to route too much off at a time - I'd route it off "in layers". If you take it slow, you can easily get that bridge off without damaging the top.

I don't think anyone uses Titebond 2 for musical instruments. Titebond original, LMI white, fish glue, or hide glue. Take your pick - they all work well.

[Stephen47]

I was able to remove the bridge using heat. It came of quite cleanly with very minimal grain tearout.