Glue -Set Moved a Touch!

[Rob]

Gluing this 64 Martin copy bridge turned out to be a bigger job than makinging it. Came up with a bracket that needed to have the hold down piece shoved under two shimmies at both sides of the guitar. Got the " Original Tightbond" ok after the exchange from Tightbond III.
Was worried aboutprotecting the brige and made mistake of making a rubber template . Had the front cornerpoints marked on the wings of the bridge with arrow marks. Had it perfect then when I tried to push the tight hold down piece under the shimmies Inever noticed at first that the high - E side moved back my guess 2- 3 32nds. Having read some people think that its better to be a little longer or flat on the final 12th to center bridge placement and since it was already setting where it didn't want to move I left it.Will try to give you exact measurments when the hold down bracket comes off at 4pm EST Thursday.. Will verfy the middle nut to twelth fret and middle 12th fret to middle saddle measurment and middle 12th low-E to middle saddle and middle 12th to saddle high -E and have the experts tell me if I can ive with it.
Iknow they say a staraight edge down middle of board should clear front of bridge but mine hits about 1/32" down front of bridge from clearing it.Hope that should be ok can you tell me. Iknow my good GUILD doen't clear the bridge on a straight edge.-nanccinut

[Rob Mercure]

Rob,

How long have you played it in this condition? Iv'e found that anytime I've made any significant change or adjustment to a familiar guitar I need at least a couple of days - say 4 hours at least each - to really get some idea of the impact of the changes and how they affect my style if at all. Somethine having a bit more action might turn out to be a blessing after you're used to it - might allow you got be able to get a pick under more easily during a trickly flatpickin' passage. Or may turn out to really inhibit much of your style but until you've "wore it out" a little you're just whittling around the issues without gathering sufficent information to make decision easier.

And I hope the ivory is from a fossil species or perhaps that Great Dane you lost last spring cuz all the other elephants are getting scarce and it really ain't worth wiping out the largest current land mammals for a purpose that plastics, or bone, servers as a 99% replacement (I've been experimenting wiht Tagua nuts - "vegetable ivory" - that is a sugar that dries almost identically to ivory 'cept it scorchs when cut too fast with power tools. While my pieces are only long enough for two piece saddles nuts are easily made and I've had another experience musician fooled into thinking that a nut - and a few carved knick-knacks were actual elephant teeth. Bet there are some larger nuts out there that would make great saddles - I just got a grab bag from a long lost girlfriend.).

Rob

[Rob]

Yes -played it for two hours plus straight yesterday and fingers were cooked. Just know if Ihad been playing my Guild the pain would not be there thus action needs to come down. Also the height of the 12radius saddle on the Guild is much lowerand the nut just a touch so sounds like the back end is the big problem to reduce finger pain. Don't get me wrong before the work started it was next to imposible to play so it is easier already and I stayed on the Martin MAX saddle height specs their info line gave me. My guess is most people try to get to minimum spec nut & saddle heights on their Martins. Should some Martin pickers want to chime -in with their exact specs it would give me a good idea which end of the scale meeds more attention. -Rob

[Ned Knepp]

Rob,
It seems to me that your fingers should be able to tell you what needs to come down. You want a martin setup but you aren't working on a martin and it wouldn't necessarily be the same for everyone anyway. It seems to me that you should be setting the action to fit your needs not the setup of another guitar. Just my two cents.

Ned

[Rob]

Thanks for the advice as I know Iam asking the best of both worlds sort of speaking. With the neck angle only being ball-park correct compared to a well set up Martin I know I'm swimming against the current.Just trying to make any adjustment towards a Martin in hope that it plays better. Just played Willie Nelson's Georgia on it last night and sounded very good indeed with the exception of the finger pain. Might have a bite the dollar bullet now and have a pro see what he thinks he can do.-Rob

[Rob]

Acually from a old blind piano tunner got some what he called (depression era) pure ivory piano keys. They were yellow to brown in color but sanded with 1500 wet/dry paper to a beautiful white. Then put the 16 inch saddle radius on first then took some off the bottom to what I thought was ball-park on the max high side. That was as far as I went till someone can give me the brIdge to saddle clearances for the two -E strings.The radius should find the rest.Anyone know for sure how ivory found its way to piano factories back in that period?There are laws out there that prevent ivory makers like the lad I talked to in Alabama who has a web site to allow them to ship to Canada. This is why I went to a plan-B. Some day, just to save the elephants, I will try a TUSQ 16inch radius saddle just to see how bright the tone is in comparison and my guess from what I hear it will be very close.-Rob