Dixon 12-string Bridge Repair

[steveknoblock]

Hi, this is my first post to the forum. I bought a Dixon 12 string acoustic guitar, which is made in Japan. The bridge is lifting and cracked. I intended to replace the bridge. As I dug into the guitar, I found a cracked brace, but my question is about the bridge. I took some photos of the inside of the guitar and discovered there are bolts holding the bridge to the bridge plate. They are overly long with brass lock washer nuts. I assumed all bridges were glued on.

Is this a repair attempt or part of the original design?

I've looked around the web but have not found a definitive answer.

I can post some pictures.

[Ned Milburn]

A fair amount of guitars were built with bolts intended to help hold the bridge to the bridge plate. Sometimes, bolts are added afterwards as an attempt to fix, but are still less common than original bridge bolts.

[steveknoblock]

Thanks! I took pictures of the bridge and inside.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8...nFOUGZkSzBRaHM

The first shows the bridge. It has two filled in holes, which I assume are hiding the bolt heads.

The second shows underneath. The bridge plate and one of the bolts.

The third shows the location of the bolts and the braces (there is a slight crack in the brace on the left).

Do these look original? I don't want to tear anything out that was original.

[arie]

i would say that's original. i've seen numerous bolted on bridges with long screws. fwiw, diyer's aren't too likely to use brass and tooth washers anyway and the patina looks correct. i had a mid 60's gibson 12 string that looked very familiar to your situation, long ugly screws jammed up against the braces.

[steveknoblock]

Thanks for the help. I know I should not just rip them out.

Replacing the bridge is not going to be as simple as I thought. I'll have to somehow remove the filler from the bolt holes on the top of the bridge before I can remove the bolts safely and then I expect there will be glue to deal with.

I'm kind of surprised to hear about Gibsons of the same period having such rough construction. But then it really doesn't matter to the sound if braces are not sanded, glue from joints is left behind, and bolts are ugly.

[steveknoblock]

Is there a safe or accepted way to remove the filler from the bridge to access the bolt heads?