Repairing a guitar belly bulge
Just recently one of my local High Wycombe customers brought me a beautiful high-end acoustic that had developed a significant guitar belly bulge. He had no idea why he had this guitar belly bulge but it didn’t take long for me to find out.
A quick look at the warped wooden bridge told me that the strings had been severely overtightened. In fact, they had been overtightened to such an extent that the bridge had lifted almost completely off the soundboard, causing the soundboard to pull up, the action to go sky-high and – worst of all – creating a huge guitar belly bulge.
As it turned out, the guitar had been left to the mercy of some young grandchildren who evidently had a bit of fun making adjustments to the tuners. Of course, for a short time, this wouldn’t have been a problem but unfortunately, the guitar was left with the strings at extreme tension for several months; it was also mooted that it may have spent some time in the sunshine as well.
the net result was a guitar belly bulge that rendered the instrument unplayable.
If this has happened to you, you’re probably keen to get to the part where I talk about the guitar belly repair, so without more ado, here’s what I did to fix this particular guitar belly bulge.
As soon as I saw the lifting bridge, the first thing I did was slacken off the strings. Because the bridge was lifting so much, it was relatively easy to scrape out the old loose glue deposits and dust from underneath it.
I also put a little hot water under the bridge to re-activate any remaining glue and complete the clean out. This gave the fresh adhesive a better chance of making a good new bond
To reattach the bridge, I used Fish Glue – similar products are available. The important thing is that you’re able to wipe off any spills or excess easily. With Fish Glue, you can use a damp cloth.
Once glued, the bridge had to be clamped. I use two, sometimes three, purpose-built G-clamps through the sound hole; one on either ‘wing’ of the bridge and one in the middle (if the bridge has lifted across the full width).
It’s best to leave the clamped guitar overnight to really dry and harden. The hardened joint should be ‘stronger than wood’.
Now for the guitar belly repair.
For the best guitar belly repair, I recommend JLD Bridge Doctors because they can actually improve volume, projection and tone of the guitar after fitting.
What the JLD Bridge Doctors do is pull down the guitar belly bulge from the inside – it’s pretty much instant. Once fitted, the Bridge Doctors remain inside the guitar for the rest of its life.
Some premium guitars such as Breedlove come pre-fitted with this device straight from the factory. If you develop a guitar belly bulge, you make a simple adjustment.
It’s probably important to mention here that you do need to drill a hole in the top of the guitar to fit the Bridge Doctors so it’s not without risk if you’re thinking of doing it yourself. You also need to be using the right tools, i.e., not a Black and Decker…
Enough said. Back to my story.
With the guitar belly repair complete, all that remained was to restring the guitar, check the setup and the job was done. For my customer, the guitar was now playable (again) and probably better sounding than it ever had been.
Going forward, he’ll hopefully be more cognisant of what’s happening with his guitar.
For my part, I sent him away with these three recommendations to avoid getting a guitar belly bulge in the future.
- Firstly, don’t overtighten the strings on your acoustic, or let anyone else do it – no matter how much you love them.
- Second, don’t leave your guitar in the sun or near a heat source.
- Third, if you’re using a higher gauge of strings, once you’ve finished playing the guitar, slacken off the strings a tone.
Finally, although nothing to do with bellying, don’t forget to wipe off your strings after each time you play; it prolongs the life of your strings and prevents wear on the fret board and frets.
Of course, if you came here looking for guitar belly repair, these words of caution could be mildly irritating but hopefully I’ve given you enough to get going on a DIY guitar belly repair.
If you’re not up for fixing the guitar belly bulge yourself, and you’d like to outsource the job to me, drop me a line to services@bbzguitars.co.uk and I’ll be happy to give you a quote.
With luck and a following wind, you’ll get away with an £80-100 repair.
For questions and answers on other guitar issues, apply to join the BBZ Guitar Fix Group on Facebook – new members welcome. Click here for more information on BBZ guitar repair and set up services near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire . I look forward to hearing from you soon.
