Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello,

I have a Yamaha FG-441S which had a heavily slotted bridge. I ordered an ebony martin-style replacement bridge from stewmac and found that it does not have the same shape or pin slant as the original. This model (the fg)is the most "sold" guitar in history yet I cannot seem to find a replacement. Is there any way that I can get the Martin oversized bridge to work and to look good? It does not completely cover the one left by the Yamaha bridge.

I know that this is not an extremely valuable guitar, but I am using it to learn proper repair techniques and setup. In addition to the basic "how do I make it work "question, can you answer the following for me?

1) I took up a bit of the spruce top (not much) when I removed the bridge. How would I best fill in the divots (if I need to do it at all)? Could I use CA or even plastic wood?

2) I removed the pick guard because it was pretty beat up. Under it is a sticky mess. How should I remove this stuff?

3) There was a very, very thin centerline crack which I filled with CA glue. The crack is now sealed, however, the finish above it and to some extent, the sides of it, has CA on it. Would I need to sand and refinish the ENTIRE top for it to look right or is there a more localized approach that would look just as good and be less work?

Thanks so much!

1- If you have any spruce slivers from the old bridge try to glue those back in. Don't use fillers. Make your own shavings if you have to and fill those in. Use hot hide glue, titebond I or LMI white.

2- Naptha and paper towels should work and not harm the finish.

3- Take a single edged razor blade and put tape over the outside edges so that only the center of the blade will scrape. Then scrape the glue off with the grain. When it's nearly level, wet sand with a hard block to finish leveling. Then buff.

_________________
Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

I happen to have an old FG-150 on my bench right now and I laid a Martiin style bridge on top of it - you are right - the belly on the Yamie bridge is quite a bit deeper. Also note that the saddle slot is closer to the top edge of the Yamie bridge - to use the Martin one you would have to shift it towards the sound hole (and probably fill and redrill the pin holes). You could use it, but it isn't going to look good. You can buy oversized Martin bridges (or maybe a Taylor or some other shape) but carefully check all the measurements. Obviously the best way would be to make your own that conforms to the Yamie size/shape. Also, because of the shift in the saddle slot, if you do buy one I would suggest getting it unslotted and use something like the StewMac jig that lets you slot after gluing on the guitar.

Ken told you how to do the other stuff. I'll add that you are probabl aware that old Yamaha's are notoriously hard to work on - they used a glue that does not separate easily with heat/moisture. I had a great deal of difficulty separating the fingerboard extension from the top and had to do the "sawn neck reset" on mine. An FG-441 may not be the best choice to learn guitar repairs.

Oh, one reason to NOT use the Martin bridge is that, at least on mine it would be considerably thicker - the Martin bridge measures 0.364 and the Yamaha 0.309 in the center. That will probably force you into a neck reset (you may have to do one anyway, in that case you can use the thicker one and set the angle to match).

Yep, I've heard that it is marine glue. As the name suggests, it doesn't care if you moisten it - it was built to stick forever.

the solution to the bridge problem is to make a new bridge to suit. then the size, saddle slot and pin holes will be what you need and want, not a poor compromise.