ridgerunner

Hi Been a few months since I have been here. This problem comes up pretty often. I posted about it some time ago. The cheapest and easiest repair I know of for bulging tops, caused by string tension, is the JLD Bridge Doctor. The have a web site or at least they did, just search by their name. Also, Stew-Mac sells the product. I installed one on an Alvarez 6 string. They work and also improve the sound of your guitar and they are very reasonable in price. They are friendly and helpful if you wish to call them. You can probably do the job yourself and make that old 12 string hum once again. (By the way, I do not work for Bridge Doctor)

Ok, here it is: The company is JLD Guitar Research www.jldguitar.com The product is called the Bridge Doctor. It is easy to install and it works! You can do it yourself in less than an hour. They have pictures and directions, of course the kit comes with instructions. Check it out!

I have not been a member for very long and don't know all the rules about posting (recommending products), so if I am out of line here let me know. But, this might save someone some big bucks. I noticed over the years that I had to keep lowering the saddle on my Alvarez acoustic. Finally realized that a bulge was slowly developing behind the bridge (from string tension). As I looked on the internet for the fix "neck reset" kept coming up, but at $300-400, that was beyond my budget and not worth doing on a $300 guitar. I finally found a product that looked promising. It was cheap and I could do it myself. I ordered one, installed it and it worked! Also made my guitar sound better! I am not associated with this company in any way. Would be glad to post their website. Someone let me know if this is okay.

Thanks for the encouragement, I'll give it a try to get some pics up (if it works)

I really enjoy this site. Great info.! I am probably older than most of you guys (60) but I am learning a lot. I have a saga tele kit. going to install new tuners, Bill Lawrence pick-ups. I was going to finish it in Vintage Cream (ReRanch), but have become interested in a swirl finish. The Jackson Crimson Swirl is killer, but have been thinking about doing a gold swirl over black paint. Anyone tried this, is there anything different about using gold paint? Thanks and keep up the good work!

Since you cannot do any measurements on the neck this will not be of any help right now, but perhaps this might be helpful for future reference: 1. To determine what scale length a neck was made for, measure from the nut to the 12th fret (one octave) the scale length will always be 2x's that measurement, example a strat or tele neck will measure 12 3/4 inches nut to 12th fret, twice that is 25 1/2 inches, the scale length for those guitars. 2. This is valuable to know because if you are building a guitar, with the neck bolted on the body you can determine where to place the bridge, i.e. the distance from the 12th fret to the bridge saddle must be the same as from the nut to the 12th fret. 3. Lets say you buy this neck and it is 12 3/4 inches from the nut to the 12th fret, but when you bolt it to the body the distance from the 12th fret to the bridge saddle is 13 inches. It will not work this way, you will never be able to intonate it. But if you have room, you might be able to make the neck pocket 1/2 inch longer, moving the neck the necessary 1/2 closer to the bridge. Now you would have the proper scale length and be able to tune and intonate it properly. If the distance is too short I don't know if you could shim behind it and move the neck back, I guess it would depend on the body and the neck bolt holes, also you would have a gap between the end of the neck and the body neck pocket. kind of a long post, but hope it helps.

One other measurement that might be useful: The distance from the nut to the 12th fret (one octave) should be one half of the total scale length; i.e. for a 241/4 scale length that distance would be 121/8 inches, for a 251/2 would be 12 3/4 inches.