DV-52 Bridge

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West R Lee

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No, but I know a man who took a D55 I used to own, with a fairly large crack running though all the bridge pin holes, and made it look like a new bridge. You'd swear it had never cracked. He took ebony shavings/dust and mixed it with glue and put it in the crack, then lightly sanded it down. Absolutely incredible/seemless job, and it negated the need for bridge removal and the associated finish worries. It can be done.....and beautifully.....you just need the right guy.

That man is Scratch's repair guy in New Braunfels, Texas.

West

NEONMOONY said:
The bridge on my DV-52 has cracked. Anybody have an online source for a replacement?

Thanks in advance.
Mike
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kakerlak

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West R Lee said:
No, but I know a man who took a D55 I used to own, with a fairly large crack running though all the bridge pin holes, and made it look like a new bridge... It can be done.....and beautifully.....you just need the right guy.



West
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+1. There aren't too many scenarios in which I'd likely have a bridge replaced, rather than repaired -- really, the only ones that come to mind are either one that's been sanded down on the topside or one that's an ill-fitting replacement in the first place . Assuming it's still glued down to the top, you've got a lot of reinforcing lamination in that spot, considering there's a backing plate glued to the underside of the top, which, itself, offers grain running perpendicular to the crack. Cracks like that are usually either from dryness (shrinkage) or, more likely, from tight-fitting bridge pins inserted snugly in one season and then becoming tighter as the season/humidity/temperature changes. Either way, since it's not cracked all the way through, like an open top crack, there should be no harm in filling it as West suggested. Heck, even a top crack would get glued up, rather than see the top replaced.

Ought to be a pretty cheap repair from a competent luthier, too (I'm guessing $30-50), since it's just glue+dust and some light finish sanding.
 
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wileypickett

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And follow up the repair by using a tapered reamer (NOT a drill) to slightly enlarge the bridge pin holes.

Every cracked bridge I've ever seen that's cracked across the bridge pin holes has cracked because the original bridge pins had been replaced with ones that were too big.
 
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adorshki

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NEONMOONY said:
So, I ordered the bridge for my DV-52 from Guild on the Monday evening and it showed up in the mail today (Thursday). Quick response from Cordoba. Very nice.
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Interesting. Pin spacing and footprint ok? Do you think it's a "NOS" part that's been traveling around from factory to factory all these years?
Not that I'm aware of any great changes in dreadnought bridges except for some early Coronas we saw recently with unusual bridge shape, just kind of curious because of Fender's flip-flopping on how repairs would be handled when New Hartford was going into production, like the closure of Nashville repair facility (the former Guild Custom Shop)..
 
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