The Seagull and the Bridge Doctor, a most interesting story:
A friend of mine brought me an old Seagull guitar a few years back that was unplayable because the back of the bridge had pulled up from the top and she had a big old belly. I took it home, put a repro Gibson ES trapeze tail piece on it, strung it up and gave it back to him. It didn’t play or sound that bad at all, so he was quite pleased since I didn’t charge him anything. Fast forward to a week ago, I was getting ready to ship back a JLD bridge doctor that I decided not to use in my F50R when the thought came to me :idea: “I wonder if my buddy still has that old Seagull”. So I got on the phone and gave him a shout. He thought he may have sold it at a garage sale but would check. A couple of days later I had the guitar in hand (I guess nobody at the garage sale could see the guitar’s potential :wink: ). The first thing that I noticed was the action was a bit higher than I remembered, I looked at the neck joint and the neck had separated from the body (I know what you are thinking, firewood….). Well I looked at the neck joint from the inside and saw a Lag bolt, so I pulled off the strings and put a socket on the bolt, sure enough it was loose but tightened right up for me, one down one to go. I turned my attention to the bridge and was instantly reminded that I had to remove some of the bridge with my Dremel tool to allow the stings a clear path to the nut (remember the trapeze tail piece?). So here I am looking at this thing thinking I can clean up the back of the bridge and make it about 1/8” lower than the front (Break angle folks!) and then install the Bridge Doctor. After I finished my work on the bridge, I installed the Bridge Doctor on the D string then installed the rest of the bridge pins with the threaded nuts that Don supplies. After the surgery I put strings on her and……
IT’S ALIVE!!! :mrgreen:
The tightening of the neck bolt made the neck joint nice and tight, The Bridge Doctor got rid of the belly, the other bridge pins kept the bridge attached to the top (they basically bolted the bridge to the bridge plate), and shaving down the back of the bridge created a great break angle, while leaving the front alone gave the nut plenty of support.
Not only does she now play like “butta”, she sounds really really good!
Phew what a ride….
A friend of mine brought me an old Seagull guitar a few years back that was unplayable because the back of the bridge had pulled up from the top and she had a big old belly. I took it home, put a repro Gibson ES trapeze tail piece on it, strung it up and gave it back to him. It didn’t play or sound that bad at all, so he was quite pleased since I didn’t charge him anything. Fast forward to a week ago, I was getting ready to ship back a JLD bridge doctor that I decided not to use in my F50R when the thought came to me :idea: “I wonder if my buddy still has that old Seagull”. So I got on the phone and gave him a shout. He thought he may have sold it at a garage sale but would check. A couple of days later I had the guitar in hand (I guess nobody at the garage sale could see the guitar’s potential :wink: ). The first thing that I noticed was the action was a bit higher than I remembered, I looked at the neck joint and the neck had separated from the body (I know what you are thinking, firewood….). Well I looked at the neck joint from the inside and saw a Lag bolt, so I pulled off the strings and put a socket on the bolt, sure enough it was loose but tightened right up for me, one down one to go. I turned my attention to the bridge and was instantly reminded that I had to remove some of the bridge with my Dremel tool to allow the stings a clear path to the nut (remember the trapeze tail piece?). So here I am looking at this thing thinking I can clean up the back of the bridge and make it about 1/8” lower than the front (Break angle folks!) and then install the Bridge Doctor. After I finished my work on the bridge, I installed the Bridge Doctor on the D string then installed the rest of the bridge pins with the threaded nuts that Don supplies. After the surgery I put strings on her and……
IT’S ALIVE!!! :mrgreen:
The tightening of the neck bolt made the neck joint nice and tight, The Bridge Doctor got rid of the belly, the other bridge pins kept the bridge attached to the top (they basically bolted the bridge to the bridge plate), and shaving down the back of the bridge created a great break angle, while leaving the front alone gave the nut plenty of support.
Not only does she now play like “butta”, she sounds really really good!
Phew what a ride….
