#1-The Bridge and The Neck

The Bridge and The Neck | This is the point where these various small pieces of wood come together as a guitar, or as the most expensive piece of firewood in Memphis. Time to glue on the bridge and the neck. In terms of basic functionality, the bridge and the neck are crucial. If I get this wrong, all my work up to this point will be for naught. This is the part that has been the catalyst for bad dreams, flop-sweats, and panic attacks.

Although this issue has come up before, attaching the bridge is determined by the scale length of the guitar. Scale length is a measurement of the distance from the break point on the nut (at the end of the neck where the strings leave the neck and connect to the tuners) to the saddle (the piece of bone/ivory/synthetic material over which the strings ride as they pass through the saddle into the top of the guitar). If these measurements are off, or if the bridge is placed at the wrong measurement, the guitar will never play in tune. Needless to say, I wore my measuring tools out on this one.

First thing to do is attach the neck and glue down the part of the finger board that extends above the upper bout. This was no big deal since I had already made sure the neck attached straight and was aligned with the center-line of the guitar. A little glue and some clamps and we are did.

The plans for this guitar call for the traditional Martin scale length of 25.4 inches. So measuring from the nut I determined where the bridge would sit on the top of the guitar.

There is a lot of measuring, re-measuring, squaring, sweating, panic attacks, etc. at this point. I forgot to take pictures of this part of the process because I was stressing. Once I was sure that everything was aligned and in the proper place, a little glue and a few clamps are applied. No turning back now.

I will let all the glue cure for 24 hours then we can install the saddle and nut. After a few things to dial in some of the final parts, we will see what this thing sounds like.