F-50 sound problem

[Brendan11]

I repair guitars. I am not a luthier (from the french, builder of lutes) but a boatbuilder. When I have glued back, or replaced lifted bridges, a new saddle was always done. The reglued bridge was almost always lower than in its "lifted" state. Have you checked your action at the 12th and 14 fret? Do you have any relief down the neck? Was your bridge lift slow or catastrophic?

The bridge transmits vibration to the top. The strings don't make much sound. Since you are losing sound on a fretted note, it sounds like the guitar needs to be set=up properly.

 

[Brad Little]

I repair guitars. I am not a luthier (from the french, builder of lutes) but a boatbuilder. When I have glued back, or replaced lifted bridges, a new saddle was always done. The reglued bridge was almost always lower than in its "lifted" state. Have you checked your action at the 12th and 14 fret? Do you have any relief down the neck? Was your bridge lift slow or catastrophic?

The bridge transmits vibration to the top. The strings don't make much sound. Since you are losing sound on a fretted note, it sounds like the guitar needs to be set=up properly.

The guitar has been setup. The original bridge never lifted, it split across the line of the pins and was reglued. It was after that operation that the sound deteriorated. Since then, the few things done have improved the sound some, but not completely back to its original sound, to my ears.

Brad

 

[Brad Little]

Brad...
OTOH, I think the difference you remember must result from changes that were made to the bridge and bridge plate of your guitar....So, I would think that changing the bridge plate... both in size, and wood, might make a substantial change in how your guitar sounds. Do you know what the original plate was? Dave

I'm not sure, but the current one is Ziricote. All the work done on the guitar since the original bridge repair has helped, but it's down to replace the bridge and hope it does the trick or live with it. Even with the deterioration I hear, it is still a great sounding guitar, just not as loud as it used to be. The loss of sustain on the bass E is minimal and probably not noticeable to most people. Since I will probably never sell the guitar, I'm not worried about affecting its "collectible value," so I will probably go ahead and have the bridge replaced.

Brad