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Here, I'm using my drillpress as an overhead router to slot the blank for the inclined saddle.
The blank is temporarily glued to a tapered stick that holds the workpiece at the correct inclination
during the routing procedure.
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The rosewood bridge takes a nice buffed finish after it has been sanded to 800 grit.
Actually it's the wax in the buffing wheel rouge stick that does the trick.
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The bridge here is being located along three separate axes, before it gets glued down.
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A Pony 245 clamp and two medium cam-clamps is the only way to go, for my money,
for an adequate bridge gluing.
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Three hours later, the setup starts. The pin holes in the bridge are drilled,
and the string relief slots are sawed with a padded sabre-saw.
The strings and the pins should not compete for space in the pin holes,
or any number of annoying string-changing problems arise. This point is controversial:
some claim that the bridge pins must actually wedge the string into the hole.
But it's adherents can't point to any clear evidence as to why that's necessary other than
it's "good for the tone." It would seem so. But that doesn't mean that it IS so.
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The outer strings are installed according the setup sequence.
The saddle must fit in without wobbling, but must be removable with the fingers. That's hard to do.
But it's important by my reckoning.
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Final setup is complete. Should I slap it on the back to get it breathing?
The newborn gives a characteristically brash initial cry. Ten minutes later, playing it,
it's sound magically smooths out and becomes fine and loud, and proud. One of my best.
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Filed away in it's case, the guitar awaits finishing.
I've only glued the back half of the bridge with white glue, which will allow me to remove it easily
for finishing. I have guitars that have been strung up for over a year with this half-gluing with
white glue.
The guitar's glorious sound is indubitably a result of the excellent tonewoods provided by Mario
for this project. This guy really knows his stuff. I'm lucky to know him.
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