so, a few days ago i replied to an add for a "beginner japanese guitar" because i was looking for a deal on a hard case for another guitar of mine. $30 for a case is a good deal, right? free "beginner japanese guitar", too. score.
i didn't even look at it when i was at the guy's place. i haggled him for some free picks (he didn't have anything thicker than 1 mm.)
but, when i got the guitar home, i realized it's a solid body takeharu guitar built in 1971. yeah..
i know it's solid body due to the grains, and also due to the soundboard.
unfortunately, the bridge was falling off and it looks like there was some repair to the cross-section underneath. but, whomever tried to glue the bridge on seems to have done so very poorly - and repeatedly. it was clear from the start that he used some kind of crazy glue, but when i got the bridge off i actually found three different types of glue on it, none of them applied very well. i'm guessing that the crazy glue was try number three, and it doesn't look like it was ever clamped. yeah. so, i'm hoping that if i just glue it back on right with the right kind of glue and a good clamp it should sit tight. the operative word is hope - this is a 50 year old guitar, and i don't know exactly what's been done to it or what's wrong with it.
the guitar appears to be a martin copy with a solid spruce top with lines running parallel to the strings. but, when i took the bridge off, i took some wood with it (damned crazy glue.) and it seems to have uncovered some kind of secondary piece of wood underneath the bridge. now, i'm imagining that this was put there as reinforcement, but i don't exactly understand why.
if i look carefully underneath this wood, i can see some grains running in the right direction, so i'm tempted to just rip the layer off and glue directly, even without knowing why it's there. but, i'm concerned that it might be the plate rather than the wood.
if i pull my hand underneath and feel around, i'd guess that the width of the plate is too thin, and it must be the body. but, that's just intuition...
i've been playing guitar for a long time, but i only do repairs when i have to, and i'd appreciate running it by somebody. what do you think - did i hit the body underneath some kind of added plate, or the plate underneath the body, as i was scraping?
i was hoping to insert a picture, but it's not obvious how, so try these links:
1) wood peaking out: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17KKkfjqcd2tY8oXL91FO82ZykmT-XC1D/view?usp=sharing
2) soundboard: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mzLm5eLqCuJbCOB0fUw3_q9QXVhhAStU/view?usp=sharing
