Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi, I'm building a crossover between an acoustic and electric(think Taylor T5, but with just the acoustic pickup). I'm using a spruce top, and a Martin style acoustic bridge.
I know from much reading on the forums that the usual practice with an acoustic guitar bridge is to mask off the area under where the bridge will be located with tape before finishing.
My question is as follows:
When do you remove the tape? Before or after the wetsanding of the top finish?
If before, how do you keep water/moisture from the wet sanding process, or buffing material/polish off of the unfinished bridge location?
Also, what kind of tape do you consider best for this? Standard masking tape? Blue painter's tape? Or something else?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I finish and rub out first, Then I locate the bridge and mask around the area the bridge will sit. I trim out the masking in shape of the bridge and then I then chisel and scrape the finish off that area. Some rout the finish off....Mike

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Another day, another dollar.

Thanks, both of you. Just the info I needed.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I like to tape of a slightly smaller area then the bridge. Partly this is to obviate problems of the the neck set changing on you: if you masked it off to the edge of the bridge, and the neck ends up just a little further out, it's difficult to hide the problem. Also, the finish builds up around the tape, and making it 3mm or so smaller all around avoids having a ridge of finish along one edge of the bridge.

I use blue painters tape. I don't put the bridge on until the very end: get the body and neck finish almost up to final polish, plug in the neck, locate the bridge exactly, drill the two outer pin holes to hold it in place while it's being glued, scribe the finish, peel the tape, clean up, and stick the bridge down.

Thanks, Alan(and the rest) for such detailed instruction. It really makes it easy for me to come up with a plan on how to approach this. Much appreciated to all.
One final question, if i may?
What size drill bit(in fractional inches) would you recommend for drilling the pin holes?

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

3/16"

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Thanks, Ken.
O.k. fellas, I'm good to go now. Appreciate all of your help with this.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Hey Mike.
Are ya going to post a build thread on this one?
I for one would like to see what you're doing there!

Thanks Filippo. I actually meant what size would I drill the bridge pin holes? This is the first acoustic top I've ever done, and I really did not know what size those holes needed to be, lol.
Alan, as for a build thread, it's at the link below. The good, the bad, and the very ugly.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/293519-faux-acoustic-build.html

I am close to finish stage now. It has been a long build, which is why I did not post it here.
I started in September of last year, and it will probably be September of this year before it is completed. Please take a look at the thread, if you are interested. That would be really cool.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.