A client sent us his seagull guitar to retrofit, he heard about our intonation improvements and wanted to try it on his instrument. Jay hadn’t performed this task before but being an engineer, he thought it a good task to take to help spread the bridges to the world. A jig was made to hold the guitar in plate while a new channel could be routed. A scary thing to do once you put someone’s favorite guitar in the surgeon’s chair. Fortunately, everything came out a success and the intonation was improved on this guitar. The improvements were measured before and after the bridge was put on so we got a good view of the changes the bridge and saddle can make.
Only the first part uses cnc so I cut it off there. Check out the full article at Portland Guitar Saddle Retrofit
Here is our photo journal of how we changed the acoustic guitar bridge.
Here is the seagull fresh onto the bench. The strings must be taken off.
The saddle must be taken out. It appears there was a shim underneath to lift up the saddle in the bridge a little bit.
First the saddle plates are made on the cnc
Then the saddles are routed out.
Here is one of the saddles put together
The plan in making this acoustic guitar bridge retrofit jig is to make a plate which will hold a router so that a channel can be made in the right place. The top plate makes the shape needed available
Here it is tested out on a piece of scrap wood. And it works.
Here is what it will look like
The mounts to hold the guitar are installed. The jig is complete, it’s ready to use.
Foam is placed on the guitar to protect the surface of the guitar.
Placed on the guitar. The side mounts are adjustable and squeeze the outside of the guitar providing a sturdy surface to route on.