Repairing a Lifting Acoustic Guitar Bridge

I am by no means a professional guitar repairer but I will often take on little jobs here and there for friends and thought you might find the process to fix them interesting.

My friends tennis coach had a guitar with a lifting bridge and although it wasn't a very expensive guitar we thought it was worth me trying to re-glue it and save an otherwise perfectly good instrument from the bin.

I removed the bridge after heating it with an iron and then cleaned up the finish and old glue before re-gluing it with titebond original.

I made a small adjustment to the action and now its playing better than ever!

[williambrown]

I have an old Yamaha acoustic guitar that was my brother's who passed away in 2011, my brother lent it to a friend of his before he passed away! And he stored the guitar in his shed I just got it back from him and I was devastated because it bellied out pretty bad where the bridge of the guitar is.. thanks to you I figured out how to get the bridge off!! So hopefully I'll be able to fix the belly of the guitar...thank you so much!!..

[beaucarbary]

There are no music stores around where I live, and getting a guitar professionally repaired requires me to drive an hour and have it in the shop for 1-3 weeks. I'm a music therapist and use my guitar every day and that's not really a practical solution, so I've been learning to do repairs myself whenever possible. My guitar's bridge was lifting, and this video was so helpful. I haven't restrung it and tried to play yet, but fingers crossed!

[anthonysmithtube]

Wow- this is a great tutorial for those with inexpensive> mid priced, guitars (where it's not worthwhile sending it to a Luthier or even buying heat lamps/ tons of expensive tools) Cheers!

[billknudson]

Excellent work, especially the scraping away of the finish that surrounded the outer edge of the bridge. Bridges can be a real headache sometimes. You made this repair look very easy. Well done, sir!

[douglassloan]

Bro you did an amazing job! Great care and patience.

[finemeat]

One of the best videos I’ve seen on a bridge repair! Thank you so much and thank you for answering the comment questions, bravo!

[patl]

Excellent job😊 that home made clamp is very nice, ,

[polyton]

wow that clamping tool looks pretty neat! funny how often I think I need to buy a bunch of stuff and then some diy dude comes around with a better version, made of things I already have

[CretvMG]

This is the best bridge clamp method I've seen. Much simpler than the multiple huge C clamp method most people use. And with the adjustable wings you still get a good even pressure. Thanks.

[hardlines]

Thank God for you video. Found a Epiphone acoustic dreadnought guitar at the local tip. Bridge was coming off for the same reasons as yours. Too much finish encroaching on the gluing area. Sorted. Thanks man!

[edwardippoliti]

Great video! Great idea to trace out the bridge first so you know exactly the area where the bridge sits down, so you clean, and sand the area, and keep the bridge in the exact same spot, my bridge did the same thing on a DIY acoustic I built, I had nailed the location of the bridge dead on, but I forgot to sand down the finish first, used 2 part epoxy, instead of just good wood glue, and then I didn't have the proper clamp, which I now do, so gonna follow your method, and use the same wood glue I used to set the neck, thank you !

[giulioluzzardi]

I like the "Home made" clamp, great idea!

[unsoundmethodology]

Very cool! I just found an electroacoustic bass at a local thrift store that's got much the same problem — with any luck I can get it also back into shape. Thanks for making the video!

[hwfranjr]

Remember people, right tool for a job really makes it easy!!!!

[joemcgraw]

Im doing the same thing right now to a guitar that was left in a hot car(the company used epoxy or something to glue the bridge ) I scribed around the bridge so I came on to see your process of getting the paint off before regluing the bridge

[tomasskrinskas]

How long did you heat up the bridge for with the iron? I've seen different heating methods and this one seems convenient...

[aliza_t]

would it work to use a hair dryer on the hot setting to heat up the glue?

[irbjrez]

Is that wax paper you used in between the bridge and the iron or parchment paper?

[lorencing]

Nice job man. Thanks for the video, nice impro with the custom clamp! Will borrow your system for my first acoustic repair, a friends 12 string Suzuki. Seem like a good idea and you do not need the big U clamps.

[kagomeotilia]

That clamp is a genius invention :')