Overlayed bridge plate, effect tone...?

[Allan Lang]

Hi everyone,

I have an older, 1974 Alvarez Yairi DY-77, a nice guitar. The typical chipping on the bridge plate had occurred over  time and the string ends were starting to cut up into the plate. Rather than replace the plate as it was not warped, cracked and in good shape except the widen pin holes I decided to do an overlay with a piece of maple. Of course I'm a fan of running the grain of the overlay with the top, like Frank would have.

All worked out well for the repair that is except I feel that the guitar sounds like a blanket is covering it when playing, there seems to be a loss of high end cut. The bass is there, so are the mids but the high end seems to suffer...? Could this overlay be causing the problem? The original plate was rosewood about 3/32" thick and the maple overlay is 3/32" also. The original plate was rather wide, 3" my overlay was narrower, an 1 1/4" at most. I was thinking of removing the overlay and filling the chips with something...? And drilling the holes with a hardwood backer. This is a lot of work on a not so valuable guitar and unless I "knew" this was the cause of the weak top end cut, not worth the effort..?

Unfortunately, I repaired the guitar when I first got it without playing it much and don't know if the weak top end cut was there or not before the repair. I'm going my my experience. The guitar is aged spruce, 38 years aged with a Brazilian Rosewood laminated back and sides. The DY77 was a nicely made copy of a D28 by Yairi.

Any advice, greatly appreciate,

Al Lang, Philadelphia

[Allan Lang]

 Hello Scott,

You get the neck off the traditional way, removing the fret just pass the body, drilling a small hole and inserting your steaming plug. The only difference is the glue is not hide glue and takes a lot of steaming, wiggling, etc. Be sure to lift the tongue first. You'll have to cut the poly around the heel with a sharp utility knife, you'll surely damage the finish but there is no other choice. You'll have to refinish the area, blending into the old finish. Almost impossible to avoid  major touch-up. It will come off use a lot of steam and heat lamp on the tongue. Getting it back on with the right angle is difficult, you basically get one shot once it's glued back and not correct, you start all over again. That's why I changed mine over to a bolt on, bushing are available through Grizzly Woodworking Machinery, that's right they have the bushings in their catalog, the owner of Grizzly is a guitar nut like us. Unless you have a lot of experienced in neck resets, I'd think twice, mine was a beater so I wasn't concerned about screwing up the finish, a nick here or there. A professional will charge a lot $400 to $500 so you have to think about is it worth the cost.  Even though it's a poly finish, I sanded the body around the neck area with the neck off and sprayed Nitro lacquer, it blended well which is unusual, guess it was the age of the poly, hard as a glass . You can tell mine was refinished in that area but you have to look hard.

I think a neck reset on these Japanese guitars is one of the hardest repairs, good luck.

al

[Robbie Collins]

Howdy Al....Are you familiar with the StewMac BridgeSaver? I don't know what the experts here think about that particular method of fixing bridge plates. I have one and have had good success with them.

[Eric Steven Johansen]

Was waiting for someone to mention the BridgeSaver. I've had mine for about 4 years and it's become routine for me to refresh the bridgeplate on all the vintage guitars I work on now. All I can say is "why not". No added weight, a solid seat for the ball, and, when done cleanly, it's almost invisible. Win, win, win.

[Allan Lang]

I'm in Philadelphia PA and there's are not many professional guitar builders, repair guys around here anymore. The cost of that jig is worth the outlay if you'd use it to make money, I just fix my own guitars and friends as I'm just a woodworker . Wish someone here with that jig lived close.

Thanks Eric,

al

[Allan Lang]

I saw that plug cutter and filler device but for a one or two time use $160 is a lot of money. I'm a cabinet maker that fools in guitar repair, I'm not a professional repair guy. That set-up would sure solve chipped out bridge plates. Thanks for the tip,

al