NEW SOUND N OLD GUITAR
needed piece of Indian rosewood from my
“stash” and traced the new footprint out
on the perimeter. Next I clamped the old
Gibson mahogany pin bridge to my rose-
wood slab to begin drilling into my blank,
one hole at a time and using the
old bridge as a guide [Photo 4].
I used another bit to fit the inner
end of the adjustable bridge slot
and make the holes at either end
of the bridge opening.
old bridge plate; since the bridge adjustment
nuts in this instrument were sunk slightly
below the top, I decided against both courses
of action and chose to leave the nuts in place
and keep the existing bridge pad. I cut a solid
I began volleying ideas back and forth with
Don Kendall of Bridge Doctor fame. I had
returned my Bridge Doctor after deciding it
wouldn’t work under the cluster of 12 bridge
pins [Photo 5]. Initially, I thought of making
my own modified Bridge Doctor
with two dowels going down to the
guitar’s butt and a suspension strap
at the end of the dowels to keep
the pressure transferred to the end-
block inside the guitar. This seemed
to work, but I had to carefully
countersink the “all-thread” into the
outer edge of my new bridge with-
out coming through the top, since I
had determined that the feng shui
of the bridge would be unbalanced
if I had inlaid rosewood or pearl
dots over the new bolts. I thought
about the same bolts going through
my soon-to-be-added spruce top
braces for additional strength and
then began thinking about what this would do
to the flutter capacity of the top.
Afterwards I began cutting out
my new bridge blank by hand
with a hacksaw and a coping saw.
Mechanical saws move too fast for
this delicate process, although it
took many hours to hand-file and
sand the new rosewood bridge to
shape, plus another four hours to
fit the new bone saddle into not
only the new bridge base but the Photo 5: The Bridge Doctor at work
old one as well, in case I reinstall the adjust- piece of maple for an extension of the bridge
able ebony saddle at a later date. Luthier pad underneath to match my cardboard tem-Don Teter once told me to dig out the bridge plate and saved the bridge adjustment nuts in
adjustment nuts in the top and take out the case I needed them in the future.
