Latest Bridge Doctor Tale

[Rob Mercure]

Well being sold on these contraptions I agreed to get a couple of guitars working for a friend, a Yamaha acoustic/electric and a Peavey flat top. Having only installed one of these it really didn't occur to me that they might not fit a shallow guitar and when installing them this afternoon I had to substantially modify the BD for the Yamaha which was only about 90mm from back to top - I had to trim down the body of the BD, the part of the body that bears below the saddle and also the nylon post which was tricky. The nylon is much tougher and more brittle than I expected and I wound up using a Dremel type tool cut off wheel to melt my way through it and then snapped it off - I also had to cut the screw that attaches this nylon post. Anyway I got it working but what should have been a 20 minute installation took almost two hours. Part of this being the difficulty of working inside this shallow box. So if you're considering using one of these be aware that they don't "naturally" fit shallow instruments and I don't think I could have installed one in an box any more shallow.

The Peavey was easy to install but it's an amazingly dead instrument which features a nice narrow bolt on electric guitar style neck (bolts on with four long bolts from the back like a Strat). When my friend got this guitar it was fairly easy to play but then I had to shim the neck to lower the angle/action. Now after only a year or so I need to increase the shim thickness and I had to do much more truss rod adjustment than I'm use to for such a short time. The neck is probably actually too skinny for the instrument but if any one is familiar with these do you have any suggestions for making the body more "alive?"

Rob

[Mike Kolb]

Wow... funny you should mention this! ...I'm also in the process of installing a JLD on a shallow-bodied Yari steel-string, and ran into the same problem. I need a total of just over 3/8" more clearance to make it fit. I'm in the midst of removing a fat 1/8" from the bottom of the JLD body; another fat 1/8" from the nylon post (and adjacent body post) and my 3rd fat 1/8" by chiseling-down an overly-thick back brace,,, which was the prime offender anyway. Thanks for the preparation on what I have to look forward-to on the toughness of the nylon post. And two hours sounds about right:) Thanks for sharing the experience. ... and good luck on the Peavey.

[Len Biglin]

Mike what's a JLD ?I must admit I was surprised to hear that BD's are good but that's what I'm hearing.Len

[Mike Kolb]

Oh, it's just another moniker for the bridge doctor.... the official name is the the JLD Bridge Doctor. Breaking it down further, the "JLD Bridge Doctor" is their system that uses brass mounting pins with holes for the strings (at easily twice the price) and what I'm referring-to is the "JLD Bridge System" that uses the same tension system but has a single screw for installation. The more expensive one can be removed without a trace, whereas the "Bridge System" requires a single hole through the bridge and plate.

This is about my 6th or 7th installation and I was also skeptical at first, but they actually seem to work... although better in some cases than others. It seems related to the thickness/stiffness of the top, being that thinner and more pliable tops make better candidates. Seems that Breedlove installs them as original equipment at the factory, which sorta took them out of "too-good-to-be-true" status for me.

In any event, results seem positive, but to varying degrees. One of the keys is waiting for the top to readjust to the new tension, then going-in and readjusting the tension on the post... maybe a few times over a month or so. Anyway, At $22.50 a copy from Stew-Mac, it's not an expensive option to try to save an otherwise playable guitar.

[Rob Mercure]

Hey Mike,

Glad I could help. At first I started to remove part of the bottom of the BD but a friend pointed out that is would be just as easy to remove part of the body from the top of the "block." Which I did but then realized that the nylon post screw would project into the rod cylinder. But after studying it I realized that both the post screw and the top/bridge screw are longer than needed to get a good bite on the nylon so I took the dremel cutoff and shortened the post screw to remedy interference with the rod. The reason I mention this is that if I were to approach the job again from scratch I probably wouldn't cut the nylon rod at all unless absolutely necessary - to provide sufficient bite for the bridge screw I had to remove some of the nylon from around the rod screw and that was a royal PIA! So I hope this reaches you in time to make the job simpler by only removing wood.

And, if I were installing as many of these as you are, I'd be tempted to just make one of my own. After all there really isn't any "magic" to the engineering - it's one of those "why didn't I think of that" devices. Also the parts quality while adequate isn't "exquisite" - the rod seems to be made of oak, red oak family I suspect, and one of the ones I got had dust filled worm holes indicating that it came for a tree that was cut already dead or pretty well dying. Not that it really matters but I like working with black walnut (Juglans Nigra) - partially as I salvaged lotsa wood destined for firewood and have many various billets that have aged around 30 years - so I'd probably make the post out of walnut just for elegance sake. The block seems to be some sort of spruce - do you agree? - so I suspect it's used to add the least mass to the bridge. While I don't have spruce locally I've got red cedar (juniperens virginiana (sp?)) and other stiff light wood but I could also probably salage some spruce from old guitar end blocks and such. And I wonder if the overall device could be made lighter by using a "harder" wood but less of it? Anyhoo if I buy any more of these I believe that I'll probably custom cut-down the block to the least amount of material that seems reasonable ("instinct vs. engineering" - used to get me in trouble but seems to work well while older) - when I installed the device on my Martin I didn't do so with the idea of it being permanent and so I left the plastic dot off the bridge screw - the screw top doesn't bother me and if I were to leave it I'd probably match the rose wood and make an "inconspicuous as possible" installation. So I can easily remove the BD and will do so to experiment with removing mass. Will let the forum know how this works when done.

Rob

[Mike Kolb]

Hi Rob... Just finished the installation and it worked-out fine. I was hesitant to take all of my needed cut from the top of the block and nylon post, thinking there might be an inherent fulcrum effect in that distance that shouldn't be played with too much... but that's just a hunch on my part. The nylon post cutoff was accomplished on a belt sander, which actually melted-away enough to get my "fat 1/8" from that segment of the cut-down; a little cleanup by hand and it looked fine. The bridge screw went into the hole far enough without cutting it, so luck intervened there.

I agree with you 100% on the idea of making our own, but hesitate to "publish" that for fear of patent infringement problems or some-such (yes, my paranoia reigns supreme!) Somewhere in the data the mfr states the body IS, indeed, spruce.... so good call on your part.

Now it's just sit and waiting for the top to come down, readjust, wait some more, readjust, ad nauseum. Just to be overly careful, I like to do that over the period of a month or so. The customer can take his guitar and usually brings it back once a week or whatever until everything settles down. Or they can do it themselves, but there's always a tendency to give it just "one more turn" too quickly... and that can't have a happy ending:)

This particular customer chose to use the supplied white MOP dot, but (personally) I like either an inconspicuous black dot or rosewood fill. But, heck, he's the boss and it's his $$. Bottom line is that this particular install looks like it'll partially solve the problem. The recommended fix, by the way, was a neck reset.... but the customer didn't want to pay for that much work, so this was one of the options presented to "help, but not fully correct". It's helping already after just 3hrs, and should only improve as time allows for further adjustments. If he's happy; I'm happy.

[Rob Mercure]

Glad it's working for you. As to the BD vs. a neck reset I really believe that the value of the instrument (not only monetary, sentimental and such counts) is the determinant factor. In the case of these last two installations my friend had less than $250 in both instruments and I really am not sure that it is worth investing the cost of a neck reset in a Washburn/Samick or "Peavey" (I've not idea who made this thang for Peavey) when the instruments aren't a great. I've got a Washburn laying around that belonged to a bandmate who died unexpectedly a couple of years ago that I was regluing the braces on for him only 'cuz of his sentimental attachment to it and being a close friend - it really wasn't worth the effort (a victim of a hot car - loose bridge and around 60% of the bracing loose). Since he died I've just "stored" it but now I might risk the $22 and see if this stiffens the top sufficiently to give it to someone as I had about 1/3 of the bracing reglue done. So for these marginal boxes the BD may be a way of getting a few more years out of them before scrapping them.

Rob

[Paul Storrie]

Just to let forum members know that we have started stocking the JLD Bridge Doctor in the UK (both the Screw Mount and Brass Pin Mount versions) and you can find both on our eBay shop at: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Better-Than-New-Drums/Accessories-/_i.html...

We are also in the process of developing some bespoke strings to use in conjunction with the Brass Pin version of the product.

 

Paul Storrie

Better Than New Musical Instrument Company Ltd.

020 8252 1034 ext 201