Any ideas? Bring a sick bucket...

[BillStickers]

OK. I have a project that I was fitting a 2-point Trem to. I'm a novice so I let my Step Dad fit it because he's a certified Craftsman. But, to be blunt because I'm angry and upset, he ballsed it up... big time...
Firstly, he drilled the holes too big and wonky. Then, instead of correcting it like I asked he glued the studs in he glued them in withe Epoxy Resin. I said that it'd be a bad idea as I had learnt about the absolute no Pros all Cons of using Epoxy on musical instruments. He went ahead with it, reassuring me it'd be fine and not to worry. After t had dried, I fitted the bridge and... hah hah ha... it wasn't straight and the studs weren't level in any way... extraordinary. I had taken 10 minutes to measure all the positioning several times but it's all gone wrong... and ugly... I don't know who to blame but I feel there's no point.
Mike, the luthier at Hobgoblin's music, told me about a guy who came in needing his bridge corrected. The guy had stuck on his bridge with Epoxy but accidentally glued it on backwards. Mike, being the 40 years experienced Luthier, pointed out there was nothing he could do that wouldn't involve ruining much of the instrument. So he did the only thing he could do, which was sand to entire bridge into a pile of dust and remove the Epoxy on the Body (it was an acoustic).
He reminded me of this story when I told him. He didn't know what to do, all he could say was to string it up and see if it functioned at all... but as I pointed out it wasn't functioning correctly anyway because the Studs were epoxied in wonky holes at wonky angles. It might as well be a hardtail.

So.

Any ideas how I might solve this?
My mum says I should just get him to take responsibility and fix the problem preferably by paying for it, not by touching it again.
I thought about starting again by removing the Epoxy and filing the holes to redrill and reinstall the studs... BUT from what I've been researching, a Guitar doesn't really fit the criteria for being suitable to "soak" in a potent solvent... unless this stuff actually means it when it says it's safe for wood as a generalization and that it isn't solely in the context of your average building grade wood http://www.esslinger.com/attack.aspx

Other than that, I can only think of making him pay for a new body and getting Mike to fit it.


I have since fitted the bridge and discovered it's not working properly in the slightest. For one, the spacing is now off because he drilled the wholes wrong which means the screws just can't fit without a lot of friction. This bridge grinds more than a Vintage Vibrato 6 Screw ever could... talk about retarded. As well as that or as a consequence of that, I cannot get the two sides level when in operation. So it skews and scrapes and can't keep pitch, what more could be wrong!? Furthermore, it wasn't my amateur hand doing it so there's not terribly much room for excuses... unless we poke fingers at my measurements which if they were wrong then *** am I doing with an internship as an apprentice luthier/repairman.
PS I'd refer to everyone by name but everyone is named Michael...
Step Dad: Michael
Brother: Michael
Luthier: Michael
Then some more Michaels
Step Dad's friend: Michael
Friend of Luthier Mike: Michael
My friend's younger Brother: Michael
I know this is incredibly rude but it's as difficult as many Muslims being named Mohammed, Muhammed, Mohammad, Muhammad etc. being spelt differently but pronounced the same...

[ghostwolf]

wow, sounds like your guitar really stepped in it....
you can remove the studs without much trouble. heat will soften any glue, even epoxy. you can try using a high wattage soldering gun, no idea how long that would take to do. a better choice would be a propane torch, but you'd need to be very careful to only heat the metal. i'd recommend leaving the screws shown in your photo in place, and applying the heat to those, not the inserts. use needle nose pliers to test for wobble in the metal parts after a minute or so of being heated. once they're out, the next step is up to you. filling the holes and going with a vintage type trem, or having your luthier friend do it the right way. either way, best of luck. as for your step-dad, don't be too harsh on him. he tried, and how likely is it that he deliberately botched the job? how many times have we read about "pro luthiers" who garbled a simple job, and ended up trashing somebody's guitar?

[Squirr]

Here's my amateur take on it: maybe You could just cut out the whole piece and replace it with some fresh wood and then drill new holes

[shrekfingers]

I like Ghostwolf's idea light heat and wiggle.... but if that's a no go I saw this on strat-talk once.. a bit of work but can be done

http://fingerlakesguitarrepair.com/p...-trem-stud.php

ps my first name is Michael (lol)... really

[BillStickers]

...Well.... it's solved!

I'm sorry to say I did so on Thursday so I did not get the help from here I have neh checked until just now...

I dunno where the pics went... I had pics...

I haven't heard of any Luthier botches from an experienced player that lead to a trashed guitar... I might actually ask Mike (the luthier Mike... the list just went up one... thanks a lot shrekfingers:angry:!LOL) if he's ever buggered something beyond repair...

I know my Step Dad didn't mean it intentionally. I was just venting, I'm just as human as he or anyone else capable of mistakes.... "you are forgiven... you are forgiven..."*

So. I took it to Hobgoblins' and Mike had a giggle at it. Harmlessly though, it's just his way to be subversive and satirical... as do many luthiers it may seem... Anywho, after that he got some pliers and a piece of scrap wood to lay against the body. Laid the scrap, grabbed the stud with it's little bolt and levered it out using the scrap to protect the body. They came out very easily LOL! As it turns out, the holes were too big in such a way that the Epoxy more filled the gap halfway and seep out the bottom as opposed to gluing the entire stud. They were held in by just a tad more than two dots of Epoxy about 1mm in diameter.
The studs came out!!!
Hurrah! Hooray! Caloo! Calais! The Jabberwocky died today!
I then filled the holes myself with a wooden dowel I fashioned. On Monday, I'm going to do the job properly

* "You are forgiven..."

YouTube- THE WHO ; A Quick One In A CircusTent '69

[crumbum]

Any pictures of the fix you made?

Also, what kind of guitar is this? Could you not have bought a replacement body off ebay?

[edandis]

I'm happy that it worked out for you and I hope the job goes better this time around.

[BillStickers]

OK. I was going to Upload these last night but I noticed that it was in fact morning... 5AM past...

Studs pulled out and the holes drilled to remove the epoxy as well as straighten them to be filled:

It did crack a little but we fixed it...
The dowel I fashioned and glued in. Flat saw to cut the excess... which was difficult with this wood, previous dowels were far easier to cut, I suppose that's good thoughnice and strong.