Too Much Crown?

[Brian Trout]

Hi Terry,

A thought I had in reference to your bridge body popping off the
soundboard,... uh, oh... was it the bridge popping off the soundboard, or
was it the cap popping off the bridge body?...

Well, anyway, if it's the bridge body coming unglued from the soundboard, a
lot of board / bridge setups have screws with soundboard buttons underneath
holding all this stuff together.  I've seen screws with buttons between
ribs, and I've also seen screws directly through the ribs.  Some glue in
dowels up through the ribs.  Lots of variations.  But it struck me as odd if
there are none in your setup.

Just an opinion... if I had the opportunity, I think I'd add whatever
buttons / screws / dowels I thought to be prudent to hold this thing
together, then schmutz it up good with glue, screw it all back together,
maybe even do the go bar thing too.  I'd want to put it together so that if
the glue joint did fail, that puppy wouldn't be going anywhere.  :-)

I don't know if it's anything others might have more experience with, but I
have heard rumored on occasion that Titebond type glues might not hold as
well to surfaces still covered by hide glue.  Since this thing was probably
originally glued up with hide glue, a mechanical fastener or two seems to be
a good investment.  Also, if you're into using hide glue, on a small repair
like that, it might not be too difficult to get it all put together before
the glue starts to set up.

Take care,

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net