Fixing a friend's cheapie: lifting bridge with a UST

[Neil K Walk]

I'm more of a guitar player than a repair person and up until recently I've only ever just changed strings but the building bug has had me wanting to tinker. When a friend in my church's band mentioned that she bought a guitar that needed to be fixed I offered to take a look at it.

When she described it I didn't have a good feeling about it: she bought it online sight unseen and didn't purchase a warranty or a case for it. She's not well-versed in gear and doesn't get GAS but she wanted something cheap to play plugged in and essentially just bought this guitar for the pickup. She told me that it didn't stay in tune anymore and was really painful to play. That alone gave me an ominous feeling that I might not be able to help her.

So last Wednesday she brought it to practice and my worst fears were relieved. Turns out the neck is solid but the bridge is lifting up. It's clearly a manufacturing issue though; the finish extends underneath the bridge so there wasn't a good glue joint for it to take hold.









BTW, it may be black but it's NOT an Esteban!

The only trick I can see is that it has a UST so I'd have to be careful removing the bridge. Does anybody have any advice on what I should do? Should I snip the wire and remove the element before heating up the bridge to soften up the remaining glue?

[Kitchen Guitars]

Looks like they used a glue gun for assembly. Did you check the neck angle? The bridge might not be lifting, it may be trying to escape lol.
I am betting the tuners are a good chunk of the staying in tune problem. I have heard Estaban laughs at these Rogue (GC House brand) guitars.
Yep I have a Soldering Iron.
You might want to de-tention the strings till I see you