Ibanez Acoustic Bridge is Lifting

Hey hey! Here we have an Ibanez Artwood AC30 acoustic guitar, not to be confused with the famous Vox AC30 amp! The bridge is separating from the guitar top. I am just gonna upload a bunch of photos so here’s what I did to follow along!

Anyway, the course of action in this situation is to remove the bridge, prep the surface, and reglue it. I heated up the glue joint with my iron, being careful to protect the finish, and carefully loosened the glue with a putty knife.

The bridge had been lifting for quite a while I suspect, so it was really warped. I clamped it down flat while it was still hot. There was a lot of extra finish under where the bridge was so I removed that. After the bridge was clamped flat I removed any extra glue and sanded it so it sat flat on the guitar top. Then I glued and clamped and did some final cleanup and presentation.

The guitar still needs some fretwork and setup, so stay tuned!