Acoustic Bridge Shave - Trim Router
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Trimming/shaving an acoustic bridge to improve break angle. This can also be used to lower the action, by giving the saddle more room to come down. If the saddle is low enough, the strings will be touching the bridge instead of the saddle. This can make some extra room.
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if you dont have an power tools like that how elce could you do it would sand paper work what would be better
A bastard cut file would probably work fastest. Any really aggressive hand file you can find. As you get it down farther, you can go to a smooth cut file and/or sandpaper.
80 grit sandpaper on a block would also work, and going to finer grit like 150 - 220 as you get closer to keep it clean.
I'd probably protect the top with some Ram Board or a couple layers of tape and then use a large aggressive file with two hands. With the really big files you can bear down on them with one hand while you guide it with the other and remove a lot of material fast.
All your videos are invaluable. They are not long but there’s always multiple new thing and principles explained. John Miner has a steam only neck rest video, which I will probably try on a low cost Ibanez. Maybe that’s worth trying.
Thanks so much! I try to pack a lot of punch into a small space with my videos, and do my best to get good camera angles/shots to clearly explain what I'm doing.
The main thing to watch out for with removing the neck is that it's possibly held on with dowels, instead of using a mortise and tenon or dovetail joint. If that's the case, when you go to press the neck out, it can split the heel in half. That happened to me about 15 years ago when I attempted it on my own Jay Turser 12 string. I ended up making a new top for it that actually came out pretty good, but never messed around with that depth of acoustic stuff again.
I've seen a lot of other techs and luthiers on Instagram using the Stewmac Heat Sticks for steamless neck removal. They're copper rods that fit over a soldering iron. A lot of people swear by them.
The guy I learned from has been using steam for decades with great success. Hundreds or thousands of neck resets. The advantage of not using any steam is you have much less risk of loosening other things you don't want to, such as the neck block, or some of the bracing.
I've never done a full neck reset on my own. I fully understand the concept. But it's something I'd want to practice on my own guitars first before offering it as a service. The main risk of course is going to be damage to the finish. Sometimes the finish is really caked on thick, pooled up around the neck heel, and I can imagine that would be tough to deal with.
My friend and mentor Steve K. and I, many, many years ago came up with a revolutionary bolt-on acoustic neck design, with a fully adjustable angle. I wish we'd patented it. If I could figure out how to do that affordably I'd love to share that idea on here, though it would be critical to have legal protection first.
For every blade of grass in the world, there's an acoustic that needs a neck reset. Pretty much all of them need it now, and if they don't need it now, they'll need it in the future. Just the nature of the beast and the top slowly bellying up over time. One reason I am a tremendous fan of bolt-on acoustics, and nowadays I almost exclusively play electric guitars. I actually got a Cozart 12 string Strat recently and plan on setting that up for playing Leo Kottke songs that I've exclusively played on my Blueridge 12 String for many years.
Great guitar, really great. But sometimes you want to play slide, and sometimes you don't. Re-angling the neck quickly is the easiest way to deal with that, which unfortunately isn't an option on set neck guitars.
And absolutely try it! That's the best way to learn. Do watch out for potential dowels though. You may be able to cut through those with a flush cut saw if necessary once you get the neck heel lifted enough, and the fingerboard extension unglued and separated.
I think of neck resets like working on cars. What you're trying to actually accomplish is usually very, very simple, but it's the getting to the components and being *able* to do the job that's the hard part. Much like regluing a bridge or regluing braces. Super simple concept, but man, getting there is another story. Acoustics were not designed to be worked on and ironically they need more work than any other kind of guitar over their lifetime. They certainly don't make things easy for us.
@@guitar_md no, check out his video, John Miner… They are zero disassembly, just steam in the area and reposition. It makes sense and he seems to have a lot examples. Lignins, glue and heat is a recipe to make some really flexible wood structures.
@@womplestilskin Got it. I see what you mean. Had no idea...was not expecting that! Very, very interesting. There's some real outside the box thinking.
I just may have to give that a try sometime soon. Definitely have never seen that done before, and it'd make sense if it's a John Miner exclusive.
Thanks for sharing that! I absolutely love outside the box stuff, and also do my best to provide some outside the box solutions to things. Really, it's what keeps this job interesting, and inspires me to keep going and creating.
@@guitar_md the vid from 4 years ago has a lot of great comments and testimonials. Including one peep resetting at 70% humidity. You can tie knots in wood if it’s hot enough, the principle is sound.
I shaved my bridge using a $24.00 hand plane from Grizzly Tool. Practice first on other wood pieces to get the depth of cut for each pass. My shavings were tissue paper thin. Then sand and ream carefully for the bridge pins. My 5 degree reamer was $8.00 from Amazon and I recut the string ramp with miniature Exacto saw blades that fit into the pin holes. A guitar tech I know was blown away by how improved my guitar was. You don't need a router, just be carefull. Best regards.
Excellent. Thanks for sharing. I've heard of router planes as well -- perhaps an additional option. Hand tools over power tools also do carry much less risk of mishaps in general. And of course are much less expensive.
Thanks so much for sharing this.
Thanks to my luthier.
He finally solved the mystery of my Yamaha F310.
He did the trimming free of charge for introducing my friends to him
A COINCIDENCE???? YESTERDAY 4-16-2023 I STARTED WORKING ON AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR TO REMEDY THIS EXACT PROBLEM, REMOVING THE STRINGS, TAPEING OFF THE BRIDGE AREA, TODAY 4-17-2023 I SEE THIS VIDEO ON UA-cam. IS MY PHONE READING MY MIND??? WAS I TALKING TO MYSELF AND THE PHONE HEARD ME???? VERY STRANGE!!!! BUT ANY WAY THANKS FOR THE HELPFUL VIDEO!!!!
Most my string breaks are at the tuner post
Make sure there are no sharp breaks on the holes using a round file
This is about the best tutorial style guitar repair/maintenance video I’ve ever seen.
Thank you so much. I'm working as hard as I can to make the best tutorials I can. I'm excited to get another acoustic repair video up -- Piezo pickup volume balancing.
That, and making a permanent shim for nuts/saddles. I use that method all the time with acousitc saddles, especially ones with piezo pickup volume balance issues.
Thanks so much for the vote of confidence and the support. I put a massive amount of effort into my videos and while I don't expect anyone to notice or care -- it's nice when they do. Very much appreciated!
i need this but ,can I that manually using a sand paper?
Absolutely! The power tools merely help it go a lot faster. But you can certainly do this with sandpaper. A file will also work.
Does this allow you to keep the radius on the bridge that you have in the beginning?
Yes. The saddle will be 100% unaffected. So the radius of your strings will be exactly the same as it was before. The top of the bridge itself can be filed/sanded back to the original shape although typically they have a very, very big radius already --- so it doesn't take much to restore that.
@@guitar_mdHow do you figure, your sanding the bridge flat. My acoustic has a 16 radius so my bridge radius matches that of the neck, if its sanded down it changes it depending on how much it is taken down. It no longer matches they both should be the same . Not estimated
@@eddiehiggins1714 The saddle is not affected by routing the bridge down. The procedure I'm using here routs down the bridge, not the saddle.
If you place the saddle back into the saddle slot after this procedure, it will be 100% the same as before. The only change will be a steeper break angle as the saddle will now be higher above the bridge.
The saddle will however be the exact same radius and your action will also be exactly the same. The saddle height is what dictates the string radius and action, as that is the contact point of the strings -- not the bridge
@@guitar_mdOf course, I feel so silly! I was cutting a new black Tusq saddle for my J45 yesterday .I couldn't see the forest for the trees.
"on a budget" brings out 100's of dollars in power tools
"On a budget" for the person wanting the repair. Taking it somewhere for a neck reset, they would have paid around $500, and many places these days are charging a lot more than that. Repair shops can charge much less with a much faster turnaround when using this method compared to doing a neck reset. Bridge shaving is a much more appropriate option for *customers on a budget.*
If you're looking to do this yourself you can do it much more cheaply using a hand plane and/or hand file.