Martin bridge at wrong position

[Andras Novak]

I have seen it many times. The bridge is located at the wrong place, and the guitar has a very bad intonation. There are three ways to solve it as I see it. Replace the bridge with one that has the saddle and the holes at the right place. Reroute and redrill the old bridge, or reroute only the saddle slot.

 

This time it's an early '70s D-35. I usually remake both the slot and the holes on the old bridge, sometimes also making new bridgeplate. This prevents one from lifting the bridge. I always prefer to avoid this, I think a reglued or new bridge can effect the sound in a bad way on an old guitar.

 

How do you do? :-)

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

If possible, I like the less time consuming and less visible way : fill and re-route the saddle slot. If not possible, I unglue and re-set the whole bridge, checking for touch-ups and bridge plate problems before the gluing process.

[Andras Novak]

The problem there  will be that the saddle gets too close to the holes, and string break angle will be too much, bending the saddle forward. But yes, it's the less time consuming way, so it's attractive to me too.

This time, I have to move it about 2,2 mm backwards, so I think I have to replace the holes also.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Yes, it depends on how much you'll have too move the saddle, of course.

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

I have a 1977 D-28 with this problem. Martin warranty covered moving the saddle (very close to the bridge pins), which improved things. It is possible Martin would cover putting on an oversized bridge but I don't think that would look right. When I feel comfortable with doing the job, I think I would plug the bridge plate and top, make a new bridge with the saddle in the correct position, and the pins placed appropriately. Dan Erlewine makes plugs that are a sandwich of rosewood, spruce and Ebony for doing this with the bridge in place. One could also use Dan's bridge plate repair tool.

 

Joshua

[Andras Novak]

Yes, that sounds like a good thing to do. I also think it is preferable to avoid removing the bridge. And yes, the oversize bridge does not look good. I did that earlier, but now I prefer the replacing of the saddle AND the pins.

[Charlie Hoffman]

For what its worth, Martin will pay for replacing the original bridge with an oversize bridge that puts the saddle in the correct place (if the guitar is under warranty).  Martin calls this a "saddle back bridge".  I think this is an OK solution in many cases.  Very often the saddle cannot be moved enough on the original bridge - the saddle ends up in the middle of the low E pin hole.  While the oversize bridge does not "look right" I think that this is a minor issue compared to a guitar that does not play in tune.  I have yet to have a customer complain about the look and they love having a guitar play in tune.  Moving the original bridge is problematic because of the finish touch up that is necessary - to my eye that looks worse than the oversize bridge.  Making a new original size bridge with the pin holes and the saddle slot moved back will work but that too doesn't "look right,"  Bottom line, there are no perfect solutions to this problem and my recommendation is always to get the guitar to play in tune.  Keep in mind, this is a problem pretty much only for 70's Martins and they are hardly "vintage" enough to make the visual aspect critical.  Just one man's opinion.

[Paul Hostetter]

This is the critical piece of information. I just had to vet (and scotch) a potential deal on a very nice sounding Martin that had already had the factory fix on saddle placement, as far back as it could possibly go. It was still terribly off. It is possible to make a new bridge with an identical footprint but with the bridgepin holes moved way back and the saddle moved way back that will intonate correctly. On this particular guitar, it would have been extreme and it would have looked rather weird. What nixed the deal was that it also urgently needed a neck reset and a complete plane and refret as well. This was a financial investment (on top of the generous asking price) that totaled more than the guitar was worth.

 

One other fix, which works better on mandolins than on guitars, is to replace the board with one with a slightly shorter scale. Again, you have to figure how much you're willing to invest in any particular instrument.

 

I have a little page on intonation here that might be of interest.

[Andras Novak]

That slightly shorter scale is a great idea in theory. But nothing you can do when the customer will not pay for all that work. But in the future, I will probably be able to use that idea. Great, thanks!