Bridge lifting Finish repair advice

[Ben-Had]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

Lots of Asian guitars have been made with the bridge glued directly to the finish, using cyanoacrylic glue and a polyester or polyurethane finish.

Thats' good to know. It's know wonder there are so many problems with them.

[senhorzorro]

I have already searched for other types of aliphatic glue here, but it seems that the Brazilian luthiers are nearly all using Titebond! It is possible to buy it online but for a stupidly inflated price and you have to buy a lot. Since I only need a little, I'll get a small quantity some mailed out to me.

Howard, I think you hit the nail on the head there. This guitar is obviously cheaply and poorly constructed. I shaved the saddle down to lower the action almost immediately after I bought it. The action does not seem to have changed much since then, so I guess it was just never built properly in the first place.

Cyanoacrylic glue is like Superglue right? I am just wondering how the heck I am gonna get this off the underside of the bridge? It won't soften with heat, right, so I guess you just have to scrape with a razor blade?

Definitely not going to pay for a pro repair, I just want the thing to be playable after I'm done with it. Looking back, it was one of those really stupid purchases. I should have spent a little more to get something of higher quality. I got sucked in by the fancy sunburst finish and pickguard and a bunch of reviews saying how great these epiphones were! To be fair, I don't mind the sound of it, even without having changed the strings in ages, the bridge half lifted off, high action, peeling finish and poorly set neck. That's because as my playing improves I realize that the skills of the owner are far more important than the guitar itself, and sometimes I even manage to impress myself with the sounds I can get out of it! You only have to listen to any of those old blues players playing with beat up old guitars to hear that.

[BradHall]

I fly r/c gliders and do more than enough repair with CA (superglue). If there is a hobby store near you that sells CA, check to see if they have some release agent on hand. A few drops will work like kryptonite on superglue.

[senhorzorro]

Thanks Brad. Release agent sounds like just the stuff... will try and track some down.Like I said in my first post, I didn't think this was going to be a regular bridge removal job!