Re-gluing a Maton Guitar Bridge

Seems like lately, we’re getting a lot of guitars with lifting bridges.

This Maton ECG80W came into the shop with the bridge lifting.  Here are a few photos to tell the story.

These images show the bridge lifting from the top. Once the string tension was released, the bridge dropped in place on the top indicating it was barely attached, if at all! It appeared that the bridge pins were the only thing keeping the bridge from coming off completely!  The bridge pretty much fell off once the strings were removed revealing the primary reason it had come off.

The images below show the problem which we often see with production guitars – the top surface is not properly cut in around the entire bridge area before gluing the bridge.  A ~2mm line of finish remained under the perimeter of the bridge, preventing a strong bond particularly along the back edge. The image on the right shows how we clean all the finish off the top over the full footprint of the bridge.  To achieve a strong wood to wood glue joint that we can guarantee, we also scrap all remaining glue and finish residue from the bottom surface of the bridge and check it conforms perfectly with the shape of the top.

We used 3 Sound hole clamps to apply pressure from above whilst supporting the top internally. A set of old plastic Bridge pins were used in the outer string holes to locate and prevent sliding. They can be easily knocked out later once glue drys, or as soon as the clamps have been engaged.

A quick set up and fresh strings has this beauty playing better than ever!