Fixing my college beater

[tippie53]

Bridge shaving and lowering the saddle are band aid repairs and in the long run will devalue the guitar and add cost to the inevitable reset. There are very few examples of it being good to shave a bridge. The only time I would recommend this is on some Guilds with high bridges to begin with. A few Martins in the 70's come out of the factory with a heavy bridge and can be safely removed and reshapes of if you are good , do it on the box. They are a heavier bridge at about .465.
Other than that , a cheap guitar guitar may be a bridge shaver but quality instruments need to be repaired accordingly. You don't put duck tape on a BRW .

[Ben-Had]

Back on point with a question -- I am hearing more of the "bridge shaving" repair and one of the elements is to also re-cut the saddle slot all the way down to the sound board -- Any comments?

IMHO, delicate balance - too low, the bridge can crack, too high, the bridge can crack. I just don't like to do it.

[tippie53]

Having seen about all you mention Rick , In most cases the repairs or should I say disrepairs were either done bu non informed or amateur repair people .
All of us will or have at one time had the customer come in an say that I want it fixed, this way . I have learned to hand the guitar back , tell him if I do fix it your way ,you will be upset and you won't be mad at yourself but at me ,even though I did it your way.
I will send them down the road and call my friends to warn them that he is coming. You can't tell the doctor how to operate on you so don't take a client that will tell you how to repair a guitar unless he is a luthier .

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I am quite disappointed. I spent a fair amount of time crafting a post for this thread this afternoon, hit the submit button, it said it was posted....but alas, another one that must have ended up out there in lu lu land.
Sean, is there anything that can be done about this? I has happened a number of times to me from my home, and my work computer.
:>(

Kevin

[kencierp]

Yes this loss of post info is a big problem -- LIke Rick I also compose off line or at the very least use the "edit copy" function before clicking preview or submit. And it seems it matters not PC or Mac --- Truly a PITA

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Okay, I will try and reiterate what I typed that I lost.
I am just wondering about how bridge shaving is not the answer to helping a change in the setup. I have one guitar in India for almost a year now that has maintained its set up angle, and I am pleased about that. I built it and kept it at around 55% humidity until it got there. I now have the last guitar I made that is still in the states, but will be in living in India eventually. I built it lighter and it may not stand up to the humidity increase (and changes) as well. It is being maintained right now at around 60% humidity in its case by its owner and when I saw it a couple of weeks ago, the top at the bridge has risen a teeny tiny bit....it may raise more in India. I told him that when He gets it there and it settles in some, if the action rises anymore, he may have to "shave the top of the bridge" about 1/8". It is at almost 1/2" now, the saddle slot is 1/8" from the bottom of the bridge and the saddle currently sits about 3/16" high in the slot, and I figure he will might need to take the saddle down around a 1/16" or 3/32" (of course we don't yet how much, just estimating). I do not want some Indian guitar shop luthier wanna be trying to do a neck reset on this guitar, so I thought this would be a rather simple way for him to lower the action if need be.
Any More thoughts guys??? I won't be there to do it for him, at least not for a year or so. Oh, and it is a bolt on neck, with the fretboard extension glued down.

Kevin

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Yes Rick, this is why I set it up with the saddle a little high, so there was a little tweaking room to just lower it if needed. I also did this on the last guitar that went to India.
Thanks for the info and confirmation that it will probably be okay.

Kevin