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Repairing Bridge/Top on an Applause Acoustic

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by cheepaxes » Thu Aug 18, 2011 12:58 pm

I posted this to The Gear Page, but will post it here as well, in case anyone has any ideas.

One of the items I rescued from a flooded music store a few years ago was was an Applause acoustic guitar. It has a plastic bowl back like an Ovation and what appears to be an aluminum neck and plastic headstock. AFAIK it was submerged in river water for at least 2 days, The only apparent damage was that the bridge was pulled up a little. This guitar became my leave-it-lying-around-the-house acoustic because it's pretty indestructable. I covered the Applause logo with a variation of the old pre-war C. F. Martin logo. Mine says C. M. Fartin.

Last night I was tuning it and the bridge started to pull off the guitar. I realized that there are two screws through the bridge and top, helping to hold the bridge on. When the bridge came up it actually tore the top up where the screws went through. Because of this, I think the parts that were glued actually pulled (ripped) the top up rather than separating from the top.

I would like to repair the guitar if I can do it reasonably easily. There's not much point putting a lot of money into it, since it's not worth much and will only continue to be the guitar I leave out because I'm not worried about it.

I would think I could completely remove the bridge, find a way to patch the hole where the top has been torn up, put a trapeze tailpiece on and an archtop-type bridge that sits on the top and is held in place by the strings. I seem to recall that Vintaxe Forum's Michael Ambrose was using these bridges on flat-top guitars, but had to modify them pretty heavily to sit on a flat top (Michael?).

Does that make sense? Any other ideas? I'm not too concerned about preserving looks, tone or volume.

I'll try to post pictures in a day or two.

-Scott
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by johnnyb » Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:04 pm

maybe just put a trapeeze tailpiece on and keep the old bridge where it is. its already the right height for it and you dont need to buy more stuff, besides the tailpiece. im not sure there would be enough tension to keep it from buzzing though. acoustic bridges are pretty low to the body.

or just glue the bridge back on. get some nuts, washers and bolts that are the same size as the pegholes in the bridge, and use them as clamps. it will line itself up from the holes on the bridge to the holes on the body. glue, tighten and let sit for a few days.
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by ksdaddy » Tue May 22, 2012 6:42 am

PM sent about the Applause.
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