Superglue or new bridge as fix for bridge crack?

[pcturner]

Recently I bought from England (via Reverb) a used 10 string guitar-bouzouki made by Nigel Forster in 2018. The instrument is wonderful. However, when I came to put on new strings, I realized that there is a hairline crack (0.5 mm or less) below the bridge between the lower 5 bridge pins. The upper row of 5 bridge pins is fine.

When I contacted Nigel Forster, who now lives in Australia, he recommended a superglue fix (fine superglue followed by medium superglue). But my local luthier thinks the bridge plate should be replaced, at a cost of about $500 - $550.
People in the luthier community seem to be sharply divided between the two options.
My questions are:
1) Is the superglue option worth considering, assuming I can find someone to do it?
2) What does putting a new bridge on a Forster instrument (by someone other than the original maker) do to the value of the guitar-bouzouki?
Pete T
Gainesville, FL

[redir]

Bridge plate?

Post some good pics if you can.

Using CA to fix minor bridge cracks is a normal procedure.

[pcturner]

Here's a picture:
https://ibb.co/CbK4JJ6

[Mbroady]

Originally Posted by pcturner

Here's a picture:
https://ibb.co/CbK4JJ6

I am no expert but I had a similar crack on a 6 string guitar. A good tech can make that almost impossible to see.

WIth that said, if money is not an issue and you like the way it sounds, why not replace it with a new bridge

[Bruce Sexauer]

I hope your tech meant "new bridge" rather than bridge plate. Otherwise there is more to the story, I assume.

I have failed several times to repair a cracked bridge with CA, and never succeeded. A whole new bridge on a SS guitar should fall far short of $500 IMO, but I know nothing about your type of instrument. IF it were my work I'd probably do the work as warranty, but you'd pay shipping.

[nikpearson]

Ebony is very prone to cracking like this: beautiful but not the most stable wood.

I think you could try the repair yourself. Take the strings off and remove the bridge pins. Mask around the bridge just in case. If you can get medium viscosity superglue to flow into the crack that will fill the gap better than the thin variety. Once the gap is close to filled you can rub the cracked area with abrasive paper and a little more superglue. This will form an ebony slurry that fills the last part of the gap invisibly. I’d suggest trying 400 or 320 grit first and if that is too fine go to 220 grit.

You can then even the finish of the bridge by going over the whole bridge with 320/400 and then finer abrasives of you want polished finish.

Removing and replacing the bridge seems excessive both in potential damage to the instrument and cost.

[phavriluk]

(1) superglue anywhere on an instrument is an invitation to disaster. For professionals only! Especially if OP doesn't live with the stuff every day. A luthier-made instrument is no place to learn.
(2) A new bridge won't, I think, devalue the instrument nearly as much as a cover-up repair on a broken bridge.

These opinions are worth exactly what I was paid to voice them, but they do offer one person's take on the topic.

[John Arnold]

I routinely use CA to repair cracks between pin holes, with almost 100% success. A crack at the saddle slot is a different matter.

[mirwa]

500 dollars is ridiculous, even if he had to hand make a new bridge

Superglue is awesome for certain things, example slit my finger open this morning, blood everywhere, one layer of superglue and all sealed and back working....Mwahahaha

Steve

[Mbroady]

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer

I hope your tech meant "new bridge" rather than bridge plate. Otherwise there is more to the story, I assume.

I have failed several times to repair a cracked bridge with CA, and never succeeded. A whole new bridge on a SS guitar should fall far short of $500 IMO, but I know nothing about your type of instrument. IF it were my work I'd probably do the work as warranty, but you'd pay shipping.

Just to clarify, are you saying you never had success with this type of repair or with using CA with this type of repair

[pcturner]

Thanks for the different opinions.
P.S. I should have said bridge not bridge plate, sorry for any confusion that caused.

[redir]

$500 for a new bridge is way to much, in my shop it would be less then half that. That is a pretty bad crack though. You would be better off with a new bridge but it could be fixable with CA and it might be worth a try. That would be my first step.

[Ben-Had]

I have to agree with Bruce in this one. Everytime I have tried the CA fix on a crack like this the string tension pulled it back apart. I just replaced a bridge on a Taylor 214 this week that had a crack like that. FWIW.

[runamuck]

That looks like it's too large a crack to be repaired properly with superglue.

[nikpearson]

Using superglue and sanding will cover quite sizeable cracks in ebony and the repair will be invisible. The glue doesn’t dry immediately and the mixture of ebony dust and glue will easily fill a crack of this size. I’ve used this technique to repair cracks in ebony fingerboards, gaps around inlay, and on unbound fingerboards where the fret slots were deeper than the tang. All of these fixes are invisible.

If you mask of the bridge carefully there is virtually no risk (famous last words) of getting superglue anywhere other then the bridge.