takamine eg541sc

[Mike Ryan]

a friend of mine has a takamine eg541sc with a lifting bridge end pin end and wings. The guitar has really only fair tone and volume and my friend says the guitar sounds worse than when bought a few years ago. Gets very poor output from the onboard amp/pickup.
I was going to try to remove the bridge and re-glue it.
Today I take off the strings and saddle and there are like 3 shims under the saddle and the bridge is actually bolted to the top with 2 bolts. The pickup is integrated with the saddle kind of wrapped around the bottom of it. It will have to be unsolder-ed.
Looks like the bridge is in no danger of popping off since it has the 2 bolts.
I don't know what all this is about but looks like a nightmare to remove and re-glue.
Anybody here tell me what steps to take to get this bridge off and re-glued.

I mainly build small numbers of acoustics and electrics. Have done 6 om's and a number of others. Never would have thought of putting a bridge on this way. I am sold on the k&k pickupsl

[Tom Owen]

The bolts are not holding the bridge, they are holding the "frame" that the round individual piezo elements fit into. Remove the bolts and pull the frame from the inside of the guitar and you can continue to do a normal bridge reglue.

[Mike Ryan]

This one does not have that type of pickup and the bolts are not in the saddle slot. Does not have the bolts thru. the saddle slot into a metal individual pickup holder. They are further toward the end pin end past the string pins. the pickup is a ribbon type but they wrapped the bottom of the saddle.
I saw that pickup with the individual string pickups on line but not here.

[Tom Owen]

OK, I would guess it is an aftermarket pick-up, as the individual pick-up style is the only type that I know of Takamine using. I would also guess that the bolts was some "repair persons" fix. For the pick-up, just de-solder from the preamp (if it has one) or the endpin and pull the wire thru the bridge. Remove the bolts (and toss them out), and proceed as normal.

[Tom Owen]

Actually, a picture would help a lot...

[Mike Ryan]

here are some photos.
you can see the little plastic covers on the top of the bridge for the bolts thru the top.
Has 3 shims under the saddle.
the shot of the mirror shows the 2 bolts up thru. the bridge plate and the bridge.

[Mike Ryan]

maybe see the bolts a little better on this one
also here is the outside of the amp on the guitar.

[Tom Owen]

OK, this changes things a bit. The shims under the saddle are very common in Asian made guitars for "seasonal" action adjustment. The saddle is a Baggs style in that the pick-up is embedded in the saddle itself. The bolts do seem to be factory. Most of what I said before still applies, removing the saddle might be a little easier as there is most likely a 2.5 mm plug on the end of the wire and a jack on the preamp. Just unplug and feed thru the hole in the saddle slot. The bolts scare me a bit, remove them and pull the bridge. The problem could be with a black painted surface, the factory may have glued and bolted the bridge directly to the finished top. If so then you will have to remove the finish under the bridge before re-gluing.

[Chuck Tweedy]

It is a "good looking" instrument. Perhaps sell it and buy a better sounding guitar?

That one looks lie a cyborg to me. Part of "The Borg" maybe?

[Mark Swanson]

The saddle is a Baggs style in that the pick-up is embedded in the saddle itself.

I don't think so. This is a Korean Takamine, not good quality and likely the pickup is a factory job. Those pickups look like Baggs but are not. This one has a saddle that will slip out of the metal holder. It'll still come out of the slot the way Tom describes. These saddles have an odd shape on the bottom, and taking the bottom of the saddle down to adjust the action is not really possible so you have to shave material off the top to do it, a pain in the ***.

[Mike Ryan]

Ok, the drama continues.
Bridge is off. No top damage. Didn't have much glue holding it. The bolts thru. the bridge and top were not tight anyway.
Yes, somebody glued the bridge to the finish. Don't know what the finish is. Going to try to strip the finish on the top then reglue. Finish is thick.
might actually have some tone if in contact with spruce top.

[Mark Swanson]

You will probably have to scrape the finish off, finish remover won't work. I have done many of these bridge re-glues.

[Mike Ryan]

I am afraid i did chip some finish off outside of the bridge border. Oops.
Does anyone know what finish takamine uses.
Scraping seems to take it off but rather slowly.
I will have to repair the finish.

[Tom Owen]

One way to do it is to route it off. Set the router bit flush to the finish then add the thickness of the finish. Use guides double stick taped to the top and proceed slowly.

[Tom Owen]

An example... this is a classical bridge, but a steel string is similar you just have to deal with the curves on the wings carefully.

[Mark Swanson]

That will be a heavy polyester finish, nothing will touch that stuff.
If you had scored around the bridge with a razor blade or sharp razor knife that would have prevented the chipping.

[Mike Ryan]

got most of the finish off the stuff. Smells like plastic. I am heating a chisel and it kind of melts it as it goes along bevel up in a sort of pushing motion. Scraping was too slow. I also use a heated knife to score the finish when I don't forget and it works better than just a knife. Has a small amt. of top coming off. Can't seem to be helped. Almost ready to final sand and fit bridge.
Very very thick finish. Probably damping tone significantly.

[Mike Ryan]

Bridge is back on using HHG. This poorly crafted guitar now has much better tone, sustain and plugged in is balance with nice volume it did not have before.
I am not putting the bolts back in the bridge.
The bridge string peg and saddle slot were also very rough.
I don't know why but the saddle didn't fit after gluing. I had to chisel out the sides of the slot a little. They were very crude also, lots of tool marks.
any questions about how well the bridge is attached to the top affecting sound are no longer questions for me.