Glue on bridge before or after finishing?

[Mike Taylor]

I am building my first guitar. The guitar is built, the only things left are to finish and glue the bridge on. My question is do I glue the bridge on before finishing or should I completely finish the guitar and then scrape the finish from the spot where the bridge goes. It seems that there are pros and cons to either way. I would appreciate any suggestions from your experience.

[Mark Swanson]

Unless this is a classical guitar and you will french polish the finish, the bridge is glued on after finishing.
Welcome to the MIMForum! Good luck with number one.

[Barry Daniels]

Finish and buff first. Scrape where the bridge goes then glue.

[Patrick DeGreve]

Hi Mike: Welcome to the Forum. I guess I am one of the only members that does it the other way. I have been building for only about two and a half years, and may be wrong on this , but I like to glue the bridge on first. It seems that you would get a better glue joint on raw wood. It is very easy to mask the bridge when finishing. The only down side is in buffing out the lacquer around the bridge area, but this still seems like a better plan of attack to me. I scrape the top, and bridge, position the bridge, mask off the soundboard around the bridge,then glue on the bridge. I then remove the masking from the soundboard, mask the brdge, and spray on the finish. I have to admit that none of the books I have read say to do it this way, and it dosen't seem that anyone else does it this way, but it seems to work for me. Best of luck with your first build. Please post pictures when you finish.

[Mark Swanson]

It seems that you would get a better glue joint on raw wood.

Of course you do. That's why we remove the finish before we glue the bridge, scrape or get it all off no matter how you do it.

[Michael Lewis]

Collings Guitars routes the finish off just before gluing the bridge. They take the finish plus another couple thousandths of an inch out of the top. Otherwise, mask the bridge footprint and finish the body before gluing the bridge. Always scrape or sand the surfaces just before gluing.

[Simon Magennis]

On you tube you can find a bunch of videos from Michael Thames in one of which you can see that he french polishes before he glues the bridge to his classicals.

[Clay Schaeffer]

Gluing the bridge on after finishing is generally done to make leveling and buffing the top easier. If you are doing an "as is " finish that is not leveled and buffed then gluing it on before finishing wouldn't make much difference.
I usually find the bridge location, place tape slightly inside the footprint, spray the finish, buff the finish, score the finish around the tape, remove the tape, and lightly scrape the top just prior to gluing the bridge.

[Jim Kirby]

I glue the bridge after finishing - french polished classicals. Finishing around the bridge is a pain.