anyone versed in guitar repair?

nadams

I've got an old Harmony 12 string acoustic that was given to me years ago. It's led a rough life, spending quite a few years in a barn since it was born sometime in the 70's. Still, it has a great sound. It's a little odd to play, since it's only strung with 6 strings.

Anyway, the issue that I have is that the surface glue for the bridge and pick guard has let go. The pick guard's been off for a while, but now just recently the bridge broke loose. Makes it a little hard to keep in tune...

What type of glue should I use to reattach these two pieces? Should I sand the old glue remnants off first? Thanks,

Noah

John30_30

That's kind of a tough one because you've got several variables going. It is definitely recommended to remove the old glue before re-gluing. Sometimes you can use a heat gun or hairdryer to loosen alot of it. Sometimes an exacto knife and/or mini-scraper used very carefully. If you need to preserve the finish, you can tape around the area with masking tape and carefully sand the residue after you've tried the other methods. Some glues are water-soluble.

You'd probably be best advised to look for a guitar repair book from the local library.

There was a guy in Oklahoma City back in the 70's who was an authority, came out with a book. Friend of mine used to go to him to do his instruments.
Give me a week, I might remember the guy's name.;)

Seriously, there's lots of different glues, and different methods that would work to redo it.

unc2701

Ok, since you say that it's hard to keep in tune, I'm assuming that it's got a tailpiece that the strings attach to- they just go over the bridge and don't attach there.

If that's the case, you can just remove the old glue and reattach with plain old wood glue- it's not under any tension, so really it just needs to be held in place.

Removing glue:
John30_30 hit most the methods; Heat gun should work on most from that era. Just be careful not to loosen the bracing inside the guitar