MIMF

I have an Ibanez Concord 751 on my work bench which is in need of a bridge removal, sound board flattening and bridge re-glue.

On inspection I found the bridge has a bolt through it and through the soundboard and bridge plate through the centre perloid dot inlay.

Does anyone know if the dots on the wings of the bridge are hiding any bolts or screws? I cant feel or see anything inside the guitar but the dots are directly above the legs of the cross braces making me suspect there might be wood screws through the bridge into the brace.

I don't really want to remove the perloid dots in the wings if I can avoid it.

Who knows? Put a rare earth magnet over the dot and you will feel a pull if there is a screw.

I realize this is a bit late, but have you given any thought to a JLD Bridge Doctor? It was designed to flatten tops of deformed guitars, and it does what it is designed to do. I have used them in guitars that would otherwise have been discarded, and made them playable. This is for the area around the bridge, not so much for the area around the end of the fingerboard. A screw through the rear portion of the bridge and down into a block inside helps hold the bridge on, and a dowel from the block to the tail block is adjustable through the soundhole with a set screw. Works great on laminated tops.

I did look at using the Bridge Doctor a few months ago on a Yamaha 12 string but the previous attempt at repairing and getting the action lowered involved lowering the saddle and cutting the ramps lower to the bridge pins in order to give enough break over the saddle.

Needless to say this interfered with the integrity of the bridge and allowed the top to bulge even more as the bridge bracing effect was compromised. So I had no choice but to remove the bridge and make a new one. While the bridge was off I made up some aluminium cauls like Stew-Mac are selling and clamped up the sound board and left it for 3 weeks under clamping pressure then re-glued the bridge. Worked a treat. The owner is very happy with the result.

So when it came to the Ibanez I reckon the same process will be just as effective.