Acoustic warping

Mannemarak

Hi,

a Friend brought me his Yamaha acoustic, it has a R 2500 value if bought new, to see if I can sell it for him or would buy it from him. Problem is, the front of the body where the bridge is located is warped (imagine strings being too tight and pulling the wood to make a bubble towards the outside.
Is this fixable? relatively cheaply or is the guitar due for the graveyard?

Thanks for any feedback guys

AlanRatcliffe

Depends. Usually it points to poor construction, loose braces or heat damage. If it's one of the cheapy Yammys then probably the first applies, and this is the best fix:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for_Bridges/JLD_Bridge_Doctor.html

Price to fix is usually the part plus the labour to install. So whether it's worth it is down to who does the labour...

Big-G

I was also going to suggest heat damage.

A local Luthier suggested to me that when a board is lifting behind the bridge, the best way to fix it is to clamp it all down, then stick it into a hot car so the glue softens and then resets in the correct place.

Dunno if this would actually work well enough, but it certainly makes sense.

Personally, I wouldn't waste the time or money on a cheap guitar that has done this. Even if you manage to fix it, sooner or later it will start to do it again. Thats how I'd view it anyhow.

Regards
G!

Mannemarak

Thanks for your views guys!!

StefStoep

I'm going to Pretoria to take one of my guitars to be worked on in the near future. If you need to get the guitar to a guitar tech to have a look I can take it along.

slyd

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Depends. Usually it points to poor construction, loose braces or heat damage. If it's one of the cheapy Yammys then probably the first applies, and this is the best fix:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for_Bridges/JLD_Bridge_Doctor.html

Price to fix is usually the part plus the labour to install. So whether it's worth it is down to who does the labour...

+1

Installed a number of these, . . . they really do work ?