1957 J 45 With " Bubbled Top " issues

[thefishinmusician]

 The patient,..A 57' J 45..It's been ridden hard and put away wet....The bridge has been replaced with a solid saddle hand made affair that is way too thick....That is now off the guitar, and can easily be decreased in size, and give me good saddle hight( there was none )..and good action..The big problem....The top dips down in front of the bridge, and there is a pronounced " Bubble " behind it...There was only one loose brace...( see drawing )..and that does not look like a major contributer to the problem...On a cheap plywood guitar, which I see tons of, I would just make a larger bridge plate to pull the bubble out...I'm thinking of a modified extended plate to pull it down,..( again, see drawing )...And I would like to hear some opinions on this design...Would it be less tone killing than just a larger plate?...How would you approach this problem?...The customer doesn't have a big pile of money to spend on this, and plans on keeping the guitar till forever..Neck,frets, finish, all pretty good...Also, since the bridge has been off twice, It's a bit ugly underneath..( It had the adjustable saddle )..Lot's of wood is missing, and holes were not plugged or filled....I have some close to quarter sawn maple for the new plate, altho' to make it as wide as the original, and keep the grain running opposite of the top grain, I'm tempted to join small ears on the sides of the plate to make the width right....Love to hear some opinions!...Thanks!

[Ned Knepp]

Hi Rob. I'm not sure I understand what you are disagreeing with me about. I don't have a problem with Bridge Doctors. I think they are great. I just think that this particular instance may need to have some work done on the guitar before the bridge is reinstalled. That is when I think I would install a BD for support.

I've seen what a BD can do too and it was on a fairly pricey instrument. I don't consider a Bridge Doctor to be only a fix for cheap guitars. It works very well.