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Please see the pic I have attached - click to expand it. The bridge on this guitar is floating but the two "mustaches" on either side of it are glued down. Since I have been making this type of guitar, I have carefully scraped an area to bare wood under where the "mustaches" goes, then I glue it down with a couple of go bars with almost no pressure on them. It works great but takes a long time for the prep and I am pretty certain that if there was a glue out there that could go over and bond directly to the nitro (McFaddens/Seagrave) and be cleaned up without screwing up the lacquer... well lets say that I would be quite happy. I did check out the contact adhesive that LMI sells for pick-guards but that stuff is pretty weak. It needs the larger surface area of a pick-guard to work..

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Peter Z

You should not glue your mustaches on the lacquer. As much for an adhesion question as for vibration transmission.

Maybe try to mask the area before finishing..?

I love these guitars, by the way!

Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Do the mustache parts really transmit any vibrations?? I thought they were separate from the bridge and just decorative. Seems to me that its more like gluing down a pick-guard than a bridge

ditto on that

Joe

Also ditto on that, although the moustaches do have a function in that they mark where the bridge position is. My initial thought on gluing them in place would be to use balsa cement, which is a cellulose glue, and therefore really a thicker version of nitrocellulose lacquer. However hot hide glue may be a better alternative, because cleanup, if necessary, would not involve solvents which may mar the finish.

The guitar looks very impressive. Can we see some more pictures?

Try on scrap. Use all the glues you have at your disposal.

If it's not a structural part of the bridge (looks like it is free of the bridge) than I can't see why you couldn't attach it to the finish. CA will work but clean up will be tough. A couple of small drops might be sufficient. If it is structural, you don't want to glue to lacquer.

Again, try it on scrap and you'll know better than the rest of us.

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I'm also of the opinion, from what you said, that these are more to mark bridge location
than to perform any structural/transmission function. I think the hot hide glue, or maybe
better, fish glue, would work well. As Rod suggests, try the glue out on some scrap.

And I'd also like to see more of your work, and more details on your guitars. I've build one
SS flattop with a tailpiece, and love the sound. I'm getting more top deflection than I'd
prefer, however. I'm thinking I'll use ladder bracing on the next one I do, rather than an
X-brace.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain