Help with splitting bass bridge

[FirTree@aol.com]

Bill:

I have epoxied dozens of bass bridges, and always expect some movement in the
tuning. The soundboard is surely going to spring up from the removal of the
strings' tension, and I wouldn't think it would settle back in immediately.

One of the fellows in our chapter showed a bridge he had sawn open with a
band saw. It had minimal cracks at the surface, and *larger* gaps down
inside. His favorite method is to heat the pin with a soldering iron to draw
the epoxy into the hole. I prefer to pull *all* pins and shoot thin epoxy
with a syringe. The idea is not just filling the crack, but to reinforce the
wood. When you 'forced in' epoxy, was it thick stuff or thin?

In fifteen years I haven't had a repaired bridge go bad (to my knowledge). I
always worry about using old epoxy that won't set, but so far (knock on a
graphite bridge) I've been fortunate.

Bottom line: Don't panic till you see the bridge. Good luck.

Dave Stocker, RPT
firtree@aol.com
Tumwater, WA

<<
 Hoping to save the customer the expense of installing a new bass bridge, I
 tried removing the affected pins and working in epoxy before pushing the
pins
 back in and cleaning up the surface.  It set up for a week before I put the
 strings back.

 The situation was different from any I have run across.  There was no
 buzzing.  The only symptom was that about an octave of the bichord strings
 had dropped about 50 cents.  Inspection of the bass bridge showed, not a
 crack in line with any of the pins, but about an octave of them had moved.
  The impression I first had was that the offset had been too great.

 On closer examination, it became plain that the wood grain was not parallel
 with the surface of the bridge but was angled from the shelf toward the
 surface.  Being somewhat swirly in that area, its direction matched more the
 angle of the pins; each affected pin was lifting up the grain as it
 approached the surface.

 I was uncertain just how well epoxying the pins back would work, and sure
 enough I have a call from the customer that those strings are settling out
of
 tune.  I had warned her that that could happen just from the loosening and
 retightening in my work.  However, I paid special attention to settling them
 in and am sure it is the bridge pins lifting the grain again.

 Any advice at this point?  Just keep pulling back into tune until it settles
 down?

 Bill Maxim, RPT
  >>