Rest Day Activities: Fix Ibanez guitar bridge

Things are as they are, and as they are I have to rest. As much as I would not take such a waste of a day just to waste more days climbing on rocks, I must. I beat up my body enough as it is, and to sit and relax is necessity. The real question is, as it always is on lazy days, what should I do today? Typically I do some grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, and hanging out. I plan for the next few days of climbing, and do it all over again. Once in a while I'll find a project and work on something. This was one of those times.



My guitar had a bad bridge. Maybe the humidity and climate, maybe it's because it's Japanese made and cheap, or maybe because the strings are too big a gauge. Or, perhaps all three. It was peeling away at the low E string. It was prying away from the body causing the strings to buzz a lot.

I had some gorilla glue lounging around the house along with screwdriver, hammer, razor blade, sandpaper, and clamps (one of which is a guitar capo).

remove the bridge. This was the act of cutting off the glue, without hurting the rest of the body. The best technique was the flathead screwdriver and hammer, using the screwdriver as a wedge and prying off the bridge. My first couple of tries consisted of a victorinox fishing knife, jamming that underneath and working it through with both hands in a sawing motion. This took a lot of work on my part. I cut up my thumb on the dull edge, and at one point completely slashed my index finger of my left hand. That is a bummer dude and total sucketh!

Next you'll Sand down the backside of the bridge and the body of the guitar, where they meet. Such as to create a nice smooth and even merging of the two. Damp the bridge and body, add glue and clamp down. Let it cure for a few hours. I used some scrap wood, an alluminum clamp and my guitar capo as clamps to cause enough force to merge the bridge and body together.

I restrung it, and it plays like a champ.  Hopefully the glue will hold for a while.

What else is going on with me? I'm having an amazing time here at the kentucky. The culture shock wore off weeks ago. The climbing is awesome. My anti-style. huge jugs and steep. I've gotten stoked on a lot of climbs out here. Very gymnastic and dynamic movements. I've become much more fit and my strength and endurance has increased. The weather has been better this month. Very few rainy days. It's been sunny and warm, yet very cold at night.

Flip Flop is awesome. He's doing well. He likes to beg for food and I've been beating that out of him. Not so hard. He learns fast. He gets cold and likes to sleep in the van early, so he warms up my blankets. He's a really good dog and listens well. I sometimes wonder if he's having fun, but we go out to climb and I know that he is having a lot of fun. Good ol' Flap Jack Funk. He's a baller. 

Classic Flip Flop

Night Photography

Double Arch

Removed the bridge

Bridge once removed

Sand that down

Gorilla Glue Ad

Clamp down bridge

Bridge Clamps

Scrap wood, capo, clamp, glue, bridge, sandpaper

fixed

ugly, and fixed

Classic Flop

Johnny Slice on Second Nature. Henios dyno to sloper. 

Double Arch