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Hesh Breakstone is a recently retired tech with Ann Arbor Guitars. He was quite prolific and shared all of the techniques used in the shop, and the shop was VERY busy and had to have all their ducks in a row.

He always used Hot Hide Glue for bridges, and it needs to be clamped very quickly. He used these with the little leg in the middle:

https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/T ... 9TEALw_wcB

And set everything up and clamped the bridge dry - then just opened the clamps, applied the glue, and tightened the clamps. I wanted to try this but these clamps are pretty outrageously priced, so I got some deep throat C-clamps form Horror Freight for $4 on sale, taped a piece of wood the right thickness in the center of the arm, and did the same thing. I still used the home made fox clamp with the 2 bolts with paste wax on the threads to line it up and hold it in place, but I added 3 of the H-F clamps.

Ed

agree using HHG on bridges
you will be surprised how fast you can learn to clamp .

Hi, I'm looking at the Lee Valley bridge clamps, for a OOO body would I use the 8" and not the 6 1/4"? Tnx.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... ,250,76068

Ed -- thanks for calling attention to those StewMac clamps with the intermediate clamping screw. It appears that one uses that screw to hold the clamp in the proper position while one applies glue, then all one has to do is set the bridge in place and tighten the end screw of the clamp that is already pre-positioned where it needs to be ... is that correct?

Fit your caul inside, then tape it in place with a couple of long pieces of tape. Adjust the bottom screw on the clamp so the clamp clears any braces in the way. Adjust the upper screw so it holds down the bridge using whatever caul. Adjust the extra leg so it touches the top. Do it again for more clamps. Once your dry run is done, just back off the the upper screws, glue up your bridge, stick it on the top andtighten the screws on the clamps.

I do the same thing with cheap Horror Freight clamps by fitting a piece of wood the right thickness under the upper clamp leg so that it suspends the screw end ready to put the bridge under.

Ed