Bridge with Hide Glue dry time

[John Cartwright]

Hi, I have a situation where someone needs a guitar bridge repaired fairly quickly. I should be ready to adhere the bridge tomorrow (Wednesday) with hot hide glue.  The guitar will then need to be slotted/drilled and all of that.  This person would like to have the guitar ready to roll by Friday.  Given that I would need to have the bridge clamped about 24 hours (that puts me at taking the clamps off Thursday morning to early afternoon, I would then really only have Thursday evening or Friday morning to finalize the saddle shaping for proper intonation.  So I would be looking at applying string tension to the bridge within 6-12 hours of taking the clamps off.  

 

Is this wise?  How much time do you allow a bridge to dry with clamps, and later without clamps, before applying string tension? 

 

Many thanks!

[Jeff Highland]

If you have the bridge well fitted, the 30 hours from gluing  to string tension is fine.

I vacuum clamp bridges with hot  hide and have no need to leave it clamped any longer than 30 minutes

[John Cartwright]

Good to know!   Thanks, Jeff!

[Jim Bancroft]

12 hours is enough clamp time, and can be strung up after 24 hours, no problem.

 

Jim

[John Cartwright]

Thanks everyone. All my previous repairs were under no real time constraints, so I would let a bridge sit for a day or two after about 12 hours of clamp time, but I just wasn't sure if I would be rushing things in this case.  Thanks for the info!  This early 30's L-00 is all done now and my friend and I are both very satisfied with the results!  What a beautiful sounding guitar.  Easily one of the most vocal and dynamic guitars I've yet heard!  Feels good to have been a part of it being more than a broken paper weight. Best!