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Aria 12 String split and cracked behind bridge

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nonesuchnonesuch Frets: 308
edited March 2021 in Acoustics
I have an old Aria 12 string acoustic from the late 1980s. Unfortunately the string tension seems to have pulled the bridge forwards and upwards cracking the wood badly along the back edge of the bridge.

Is this repairable, and if it even is, would it cost more than the guitar is even worth?




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Comments

  • tomjaxtomjax Frets: 74
    Yup, definitely repairable and probably not as expensive as you'd think. Where are you based, people might be able to recommend a good local repair guy. 
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  • nonesuchnonesuch Frets: 308
    North East, Newcastle area.
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  • tomjaxtomjax Frets: 74
    I know great people in York and Leeds but not Newcastle. Hopefully somebody else can point you to a trusted repair tech in the area. They generally provide a repair quote before any work is done, so you can get an idea of what it might cost you. 
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  • nonesuchnonesuch Frets: 308
    Just an update on this - Neil at Guitar Guitar in Newcastle was able to glue and clamp the spilt and it seems to have worked. Didn't have to take the bridge off, so that made the repair affordable and worthwhile. He couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't start to pull apart again in the future, but I'm totally alright with that. I think he's done a great job considering I didn't want to be spending a fortune. 


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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12346
    Tune it down to D, you can always capo it to get back to standard tuning. It’ll put much less stress on the bridge.  ;)
    My trading feedback  http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/57616/
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 72227
    boogieman said:
    Tune it down to D, you can always capo it to get back to standard tuning. It’ll put much less stress on the bridge.  ;)
    You should always tune a 12-string down to D in my opinion - they sound better, play more easily and it puts a lot less stress on them - not just the bridge. To tune to E you need really light strings, and then they just don't sound quite as good anyway. Old 12-strings were always designed to be tuned down, before light strings were available.

    Looks like he's done a nice job given the relatively low value of the guitar. If it shows any sign of lifting again, have it bolted down - with some pearl dots over the bolt heads it will look fine, in fact many guitars (eg Gibsons) are built like that. With decent-sized washers on the inside it will never shift.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein

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