Guild bridge problem ... what's the best solution?

[JLT]

A starving musician friend of mine has a Guild dreadnaught (S/N 1995-0) that needs a neck re-set that he can't afford. I noticed that this guitar has an awfully thick bridge ...7/32" in the front (nut side) and a full 5/16" at the back (heel side). He's already shaved the saddle down to next to nothing, and the low break angle of the strings has resulted in a very muted tone. For grins, I put on a new saddle and the improved break angle really made the guitar come alive, but the action on the 12th fret was now unacceptably high.

I recommended that I just remove the bridge and shave it down about 1/8" to 3/16" (this would involve sawing the bridge off, since when popped off many, many years ago, he glued it back on with epoxy). But then he suggested that we might just take some wood away from the bridge behind the saddle, thereby increasing the break angle while retaining the next-to-nothing saddle. It would involve reaming out the bridge pin holes a tad, but that's no biggie.

Does this approach sound reasonable? Or should I just persuade him to bite the bullet and let me lower the entire bridge?

[redir]

7/32nd? I don't think so. Do you mean 7/16th? If so that's not unheard of. 3/8ths which of course is 6/16th's is the usual target but sometimes they come out a tad taller.

Thinning out the bridge instead of doing a neck reset is typically a good solution on cheap guitars but if it's a good solid body Guild then the neck reset is the proper solution.

IF you do choose to thin the bride then there is no need to remove it. Just thin it in place.

[D. Churchland]

redir has given some good advice.

Like he said you shouldn't take the bridge off if you decide to thin it. To add to his advice, use a good *****sharp***** plane instead of sandpaper and you'll get a better result.

Some things to keep in mind regarding fixes like these.

1. Shaving the bridge is only a *short* term fix for the high action. The neck will continue to creep forward no matter what you do.

2. Cutting it lower will add to the cost of the neck reset. Because when it gets done it will (almost definitely) need a whole new bridge and saddle to make up for the changes in geometry.

3. The tone/volume will suffer.

4. I have been asked to do this job more times than I count, and I always refer people to the previous points above. If your friend absolutely cannot afford it, tell him to save up and live with the action higher for a while until he can afford the job.
It will be cheaper for him to not have to have a new bridge made and if you can save him the money that would add to the ticket then you will be doing him a favor in the long run. A neck reset really is the best answer for this type of problem.

One final thought. If the reset exceeds the cost of the guitar, it might be worth putting what money he does have towards a new guitar.

[phavriluk]

For what it's worth, I suggest that OP's Guild-owning friend purchase a playable inexpensive guitar and put the Guild back in its case till he's saved up enough money to get the neck reset job done. I think that will be a cheap solution in the short term that gets him into playing a playable guitar without compromising the Guild out of a funds shortage.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by JLT

.....But then he suggested that we might just take some wood away from the bridge behind the saddle, thereby increasing the break angle....

I had a Guild F412 with a low saddle. An inexpensive temporary fix is to ramp the bridge pin holes. This recovers some of the break angle.