Hello all,

Picked up a sweet Bad Black 1778 T that had a failed bridge, for a song thanks to DanSavage!  Then he was kind enough to step me through a reglue so I thought I would share the progress and his instructions here.

FROM DANSAVAGE: 

I recommend using Hysol 9462 to re-glue the bridge. You can order it from McMaster-Carr. At $16.60 a tube, plus $22.60 for the dispenser gun, it's a little pricey, but your bridge will stay in place and the Hysol won't inhibit the vibrations from the bridge to the top. You won't need the mixer nozzles because you can just squeeze some glue onto a piece of clean cardboard and mix it with a pop-cycle stick. I wouldn't use a hardware store grade epoxy. They work okay, but they're a little on the rubbery side once cured. The glue takes a minimum of 24 hours to cure and you shouldn't disturb the glue joint during that period.

Needless you say, you'll want to do a dry run to make sure the bridge fits back into place before applying the glue. 

You will just need to weight the bridge down with something weighing about 5 lbs. or so. The glue is pretty slippery, so it will have no problems squeezing out of the joint. Clean the underside of the bridge and the top with naptha and let it dry. (lighter fluid) Then, smear glue on the underside of the bridge and the top, then push the bridge into place and put the weight into place.. 

Once weighted, use some denatured alcohol on a paper towel to wipe off the excess squeeze-out, then let it dry. Ideally, you'll want to let the glue cure for 72 hours as that's how long it takes to reach full strength. You can take the weight off after 24 hours, but wait the full 72 hours before stringing it up. 

The good thing about Hysol is that it is very good at gap-filling without compromising the strength of the glue joint. Because it's a slow-drying epoxy, it will soak into the wood and reinforce the surrounding wood. 

The main determining factor is, if the top wood split, then you won't need to do anything but apply new glue and clamp. If the original glue itself failed, then you'll need to scrape the old glue off and prep it for re-gluing, including roughing up the underside of the bridge and top wood. 

If you want, post a pic of the underside of the bridge and one of the top where the bridge was attached.

Glue normally doesn't fail where it splits down the middle like that leaving half on one piece and half on the other. Normally, when a glue joint fails it'll leave whole sections on one side an whole sections on the other with a jagged seam line between the two. It almost looks to me like the bridge was glued to a clear coat under the black finish and that the glue failed to hold onto this clear coat. I can still see the coating on the top, except for the part that stayed attached to the bridge.

Ovation bridges normally have a 1/32" or 1/64" recess routed into the underside of the bridge to give the glue more bite into the bridge. It's hard to tell from the pic, but it looks like the glue is still filling this recess except around perimeter of the bridge. If the ebony bridge pulled away from the glue joint, then this would leave a recess in the bridge and a raised section on the top.

If the top is smooth with no raised section and the underside of the bridge is smooth with no recess, then I'd say the bridge was glued to a clear coat.

In any event, I would most definitely sand the underside of the bridge to remove as much of whatever glue is left as well as sanding the top to get down to bare wood. I would use a narrow chisel to scrape the the top. It'll be neater than trying to sand as you'll have more control over how close you get to the edge. I would also mask the top area around the bridge location.

If you've ever sharpened a chisel, you'll know that it leaves a burr on the edge along the flat side. For scraping, you'll want to leave this burr. Here's an article on Stewmac that explains how to sharpen a scraper. For this job, I wouldn't worry about drawing out the burr or turning the hook. Just sharpening the chisel will give you enough of a burr to scrape off whatever is on the top.

See: How to sharpen a scraper.

So here are some pics of my progress:

Taped off Top:

scraping with freshly sharpened chisel - followed by 125 grit sandpaper then Naptha rubdown

Testing the fit of the bridge after scraping and sanding top and bridge back:

Mixing epozy on a silicone pad:

all mixed up and ready to apply:

Using a "nail t" Q- tip with alcohol to remove excess glue:

Ultra Custom 5 lb weight (modeling clay 5 lb block):

Now I just have to be patient...

Will pull the weight and tape in 24 hours... restringing in 72 hours !!!

So looking at the saddle I notice some fairly deep grooves caused by the strings. Is this something I can sand/polish out or do I need to place an order with the MiniMother?

Also I noticed that the soldering on the pickup wire is split up near the pickup. Is this something that can be resoldiered or is it another MM purchase.

Everything is all cleaned up and ready to go! 

Ok so I can not wait for my new pickup and saddle to come before seeing how this thing plays, so I am going to put the old saddle/pickup back with extra string so I can swap it out when the new one comes.

And here it is all done up and strung up. Damn this guitar sounds GOOD!  and the action is great... I am super happy and want once asgain to give mad props to Dan and everyone who has helped me through this process!!!!

New Photo up on Reverb.  Next week my buddy who is a great guitar player is coming over to record some videos so we can all see this guy singing like he should!

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