aerohead Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I have a 1995 guild JF-30 which the top has bellied up around the bridge area and was wondering how costly of a job this would be to have this repair done? I have shaved my saddle down making the action more bearable but the saddle is at the minimum I would want to lower it. Should I just leave it alone and live with it and maybe use it for bottleneck playing since I do have a new SJ-200 on order. Any ideas and opinions greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfox14 Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Have you checked inside the guitar to see if there are any lose or broken braces? That could cause excessive bellying. If the saddle is as low as it will go, can you shave the bridge down? If not, then it may need a neck reset to correct the problem, which will run you a good $350-400. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff-7 Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Sounds like bracing issues to me. Think it cost me $150-$200 to have the braces fixed in my LG1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmoney Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Aerohead, has your guitar been kept properly humidified? If not, or if you're not certain, I'd recommend you take some steps to re-hydrate it before undertaking expensive and invasive repairs. If it's significantly dried out, it's going to take more than just a humidifier in the case. Do some research on the web into some ways to rehydrate the guitar. Give it at least a week or so. You may find that some, most or even all of your troubles have been corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aerohead Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 Aerohead, has your guitar been kept properly humidified? If not, or if you're not certain, I'd recommend you take some steps to re-hydrate it before undertaking expensive and invasive repairs. If it's significantly dried out, it's going to take more than just a humidifier in the case. Do some research on the web into some ways to rehydrate the guitar. Give it at least a week or so. You may find that some, most or even all of your troubles have been corrected. Early in my guitar's life it was not kept properly humidified. This resulted in a finish crack running from the bottom of the bridge plate to the bottom of the guitar. Since that time I have tried to keep the guitar humidified with an oasis humidifier but as I live in Northern Ontario the winters are dry and although I keep my humidifier topped up and guitar in my case the R.H. still only reads in the 35% range in the middle of winter. I am thinking of buying one of the oasis humidifiers that allow the moisture to pass thru the fabric quicker for the winter months. Thanks for the responses and I will try to rehydrate my guitar and hopefully eliminate any invasive and costly repairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old mark Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 I have a very old Yamaha 12 string that has the same problem. I am hydrating it using a plastic ziplock bag with slits cut in it containing a damp paper towel. I have also put 30 pounds of weights on the top after hydrating for several days, and it seems to be coming along nicely. I will give it more time but I think it is working. I hope so-it's a nice old guitar, but very lightly braced... mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duluthdan Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Ok, I'm a bit confused. I live in a semi-arid climate, RH rarely gets above 20 %. A few months ago my J-45 developed a 2 inch crack in the top, and I was advised to keep it well humidified until I could get it to the luthier 200 miles away for repair. So I kept 2 drop-in Planet Waves humidifiers in it, along with a sponge soap dish up by the neck, theoretically to keep anything from drying out and letting that crack migrate. A few weeks ago found a guy driving that way, so gave him my J-45 along with a note to drop off at the Luthier. The Luthier caled me up and told me that I was over-humidifying the guitar, and it had caused the top to rise / belly, raising the action to incredible new heights, and it would take a couple of weeks for the belly to shrink back down to where he could reliably work on the guitar, repair the crack, and give it a new setup. So, if too much humidity causes a belly, wouldn't too much dryness cause the top to start caving in a bit? Do I have all this backwards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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