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Thought fellow looths might enjoy this geekery. I've often wished for custom size heating blankets, but didn't even try uploading the file to get a quote from some of the major manufacturers. I was looking to spend countless hours of my life on something and save a hundred bucks. So I did some research, a little bit of head scratching, a slight bit of math reckoning, and made this '70s Martin bridge plate remover. Pretty slick, nice…

Hey All! I hope everyone has been loothing and living as well as possible. I'm checking in to ask for an opinion. I have been asked to fix or improve some top sinking/splitting of a Mahogany top 1930ish L-0 that sits between the bridge and the junction of the X-brace. It's showing signs of wanting to crack further but neither seems to be all the way through the top. I have removed the bridge plate cleanly and have tried wetting the…

The COE reviewed this bridge disaster in January, a Tanglewood acoustic given to me that had the bridge ripped off as well as some of the underlying top, and an attempted repair with spruce veneer (COE video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlpOIWQrAlw&t=2685s). The general opinion was to install a bigger bridge plate. However, once I removed the existing bridge plate, I found that the underlying repair had not been fully done,…

An Alvarez MF350C arrived on my bench recently. The bridge was lifting ever so slightly, which prompted me to look inside. It's got a bridge plate like I've never seen before. The pin holes are on the very edge of the bridge plate. Seems like you'd want some of the re-enforcement behind the bridge pins. This one, there is none. Some questions: Is that normal for an Alvarez? Could this have been replaced at some point? What are the implicat…

Hey all. I've got the above-mentioned guitar on my bench. It had a neck reset and what appears to be a new bridge pad put in 14 years ago. It's a crack-free guitar except for a couple of little hairlines running from the back of the bridge to the upper tone bar. I thought that was a bit weird. Inside, everything looks okay until I turn off the inspection light, at which point I can see the rosy glow of daylight through the top - this…

Hey all. I have a Martin D18 with a severe belly up. The bridge has nearly popped off all the way at the time it was brought to me. Looking inside, the bridge plate has a crack going across all the pin holes. There's a few additional cracks above them toward the sound hole. Replace, or not replace, that is the question? Is this plate salvageable, with a tool like StewMax's BridgeSaver? I'm planning to heat treat the footprint of the bri…

Owner complained about buzzing and just a thin, wimpy response....After getting the nut right and making sure the relief was in range, it was still suffering the same symptoms....Then I took a look to see what might be going on with the pins/ball ends, or if there was something loose, and found this.

I have a 1915 Washburn parlor that just walked through the door. Bridge plate is pretty chipped out and led to a top crack and the bridge pulling up. The plate is tucked in the kerfing so removal isn't an option. Anyone ever dealt with this sorta thing before?