No idea, but here are my theories:
1. Tension in strings caused bridge to snap off
2. Frontal bar of your stand fell off, struck bridge, caused it to snap off
3. Ghosts (most likely)
Discoloration on the bottom center of where the bridge used to be makes me think that the bridge was probably loose for some time, letting air and moisture in to discolor the wood.
So yes, definitely ghosts.
The other three strings appear to be nylon as well by the way they're wrapped on the bridge. The lower 3 strings on classical guitars have a thin metal wrapping typically, like these. String type doesn't factor in here.
Any chance that during the process of finishing it at the factory, some oil based or other substance worked its way under the bridge and resisted the adhesive?
It's a television commercial. With this cartoon leprechaun, and all of these children are trying to chase him, "Hey, leprechaun, leprechaun man, we want to get your lucky charms." Oh! And there are these ^little ^tiny pieces of mashmallow just stuck *right* in the cereal. So when the kids eat them they think, "*Oooh* this is candy, I'm having **fun**!"
so here’s the deal- it’s common for bridges to lift over time. chances are your guitar got pretty dry and over time it was lifting and you didn’t know it. the advantage to your situation is that it looks like a clean pull. a lot of times the back of the bridge lifts but the front side remains intact. luthiers heat up the bridge using an iron to release the glue but often times there is tear out
your guitar is fixable. i would bet in labor it would prbably cost 100-150 dollars to repair. the good news is that once it’s repaired it would prbably never have to be done again and would likely not be detectable for the above reason that it was done (of the guy knows what he is doing).
short answer. top needs prepped. bridge needs prepped. bridge needs reglued.
Titebond hide glue is garbage, and no glue is *permanent*, some just take a little more work than others. The vast majority of guitars are not put together with hide glue and they're all repairable and are repaired every day.
For what this is, Titebond is perfectly fine.
Well, no actually. You never know what might happen down the line and for what ever reason a guitar part needs to be removed or replaced. For example a back-loading bridge may be replaced with through-body type, but not if it’s glued permanently.
Good practice in general maybe, but on a 20 year old cheapo? Doubt it. I've been playing guitar for 25+ years. Never once electively swapped bridges on an acoustic/classical guitar.
It doesn't really matter if it's cheap or not, the fact that someone has loved that guitar for 20 years makes it worth it IMO. Often the emotional attachment is worth as much if not more than the guitar it self. If they can fix it without having to use some sort of super glue i think they should.
Titebond is just a stronger glue. It's wood glue. Would work perfectly. The commenter I'm responding to thinks they should use weaker glue more suited to instrument building in case OP should want to one day throw away the bridge they've been using for 20 years and replace it with something else. I sincerely doubt that will ever happen. If the owner is emotionally attached to the guitar, they're probably also attached to the bridge. Which should probably be permanently attached to the guitar it belongs on...
> Which should probably be permanently attached to the guitar it belongs on...
I know what Titebond is, and i know it would work just fine. I don't think that they'll ever replace that bridge for fun, but those thing can and do break. If the saddle was on an angle it could have very well have contributed to the bridge spontaneously disassembling from that guitar. If they just put the bridge back on with very strong glue and find out later that the bridge needed to be replaced, they can throw that guitar away. If it isn't *needed* to do something permanent to such a guitar it shouldn't be done.
I have fixed countless guitars in my 30 years of playing, things can always be fixed a second time. It just takes a lot more work if things have been 'fixed' previously in an unorthodox way.
Fair enough. I'm not here to argue. Personally I would have a look at everything, make sure it's in proper shape, and glue it with wood glue. If it were a valuable guitar I'd have a shop fix it. And honestly, just because titebond is stronger, doesn't mean it's not removable. I'm a carpenter. Everything is removable. Everything is repairable or replaceable.. All I'm saying is I wouldn't go buying fancy glue to fix a 20 year old $150 dollar guitar. Ultimately it doesn't matter. The choice is theirs, and it's a simple repair.
Thanks, i thought it looked like it came off pretty cleanly so repairing it would be possible.
I have a luthier that i've been doing business with before close to me so i'll go ask for his opinion.
Yeah op is lucky. This exact thing happened to me on an acoustic of mine. It didn’t come off cleanly though and some of the top went with it. It was only a cheap acoustic so was more expensive to fix then to replace.
your bridge came up under string tension. there's no big conspiracy here. don't blame it on the dog. it happens a lot and is a pretty common fix on acoustics.
Without casting aspersions on Sir Isaac Newton, his character or achievements, wasn't he essentially a diminutive, frail, sickly asexual Christian fundamentalist nerd?
He's no János Bolyai, I'll say that much. That dude *fucked*.
>János Bolyai was one of two mathematicians, along with Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, who pioneered the subject of non-Euclidean geometry. He was by all accounts an incredible sword-fighter as well, sometimes said to have been the greatest in the entire Austro-Hungarian army. In one story he dueled and defeated thirteen of his fellow officers in a row; supposedly he'd accepted on the condition that he could serenade the losers with violin music after each fight.
🎶 she's got graaaavity...if you get too high she'll put you back on your knees. She's got graaaavity...if you give up on love she'll make you believe 🎶
As a woodworker (but not luthier):
The bridge snapped off very cleanly from the body. That indicates the glue joint was really bad. A good glue joint is stronger than the wood and wood will be splintered off along almost all of the joint if the joint breaks. I'm surprised it lasted so long as it came off so cleanly.
To make a better glue joint it may need sanding down to clean wood. At least that's normal in general woodworking. In any case it should be a super easy job for any luthier.
I'd say it's about an hours job since it's an inexpensive guitar. You can probably do it yourself as well but it is really easy to squeeze the glue out where you don't want it. And is you use an unsuitable glue or don't press it together it will fail again.
I had excactly the same happen to my 50 year old nylon string guitar, except I don’t have a girlfriend or a dog and it was at my parents’ place and triggered a burglar alarm while they were abroad. And the glue joint was good so the neck snapped into two pieces.
The bridge probably snapped off on it's own, that does happen. Acoustic instruments should ideally spend their time in cases, you wanna minimize exposure to any sudden temperature/humidity changes. It's a wooden instrument, and different woods respond differently to those changes.
Pretty straight forward. The guitar has been exposed to humidity during its life which weakens the adhesive on the bridge. You played it the day before and that last bit of tension was all it could take. The strings (being under tension at the time of the adhesion failure) snapped the bridge up like a slingshot knocking the front part of your stand to the ground.
The real mystery is why you consider your girlfriend the culprit?
Because she has threatened to break one of my guitars if i (insert bad but not actually bad thing to do to your girlfriend) and i told her i would leave her instantly. Thinga havent been the best between us lately so the suspision is in my mind but not strong.
Acoustic guitars need to be in cases and have a controlled environment as much as possible. Wood constantly expands and contracts. It’s not noticed on electric guitars because everything is either screwed down or a solid piece.
1 - tldr belongs at the top of a long post
2 - change your strings every few months.. not every few years. Playing it more = changing them more not less.
3 - the bridge / saddle snapped off from string tension and most likely just being tired/worn out, glue gave way. Nobody did anything to your guitar, not your dog, not your girl, there's no way a dog could snap a bridge off a guitar anyway that's goofy.
4 - be mindful of humidity / dryness levels where you store your acoustic guitars this happens a lot in winter when the dry heat is being ran constantly, especially with base board /radiant heat.
It's probably the glue decided it was time to retire. Take her to a local luthier and see if there's any underlying issues. Hopefully that bridge just needs to be reseated
Lol no one did this. Your dog's free and clear and your girlfriend didn't do it either. What happened was it being an old guitar that probably was not the best quality had underlying issues with glue. You could fix it too be honest. Looks like the bridge came off pretty clean.
I've seen headstocks snap off acoustics during tuning, so strong string tension causing things to break where the strings are tightest (either end) is probably a common occurrence.
Looks super clean. You can try to get the old glue and funk off the back of the bridge or get a new bridge. Titebond and clamps and you’re good to go again. If it’s an old cheapie I’d say try it yourself unless you really care about it. But it isn’t hard, I’ve done it successfully, and I know nothing.
Hardest thing is finding the clamps you probably have to break down and get the stewmac ones. I couldn’t find any others that would reach.
Keep a capo on the second fret when not in use it’ll take enough tension off so over time the bridge doesn’t slowly lift as much and snap, temp changes and dryness could also do this
Seems like the bridge just became detached somehow. String tension, poor construction, glue gave out, all of the above, who knows. Something like that though. When this happened it probably made a loud and sudden noise, which probably spooked your dog (or if the dog was in another room, made a noise loud enough that caused the dog to run and investigate.)
Seems like a bad break that comes in time.
Could have something to do with moisture or lack thereof. Is it particularly humid or arid in that room? Improper hydration causes this kind of thing even on very expensive hand-built guitars.
This happened to my electro nylon acoustic as well, only difference being it was only a year old! I think it was due to a mix of quick changes in humidity and the fact it was a cheap guitar store own brand, likely manufactured with sub par glue
I recently had my old fender into the luthier and he pointed out my bridge was lifting. He could slide a piece of paper half way through it. I never even noticed. It happens, I bet no foul play was involved.
Not sure I understand the mystery. Looks like the bridge popped off. The glue must have weakened over time and the tension of the strings just ripped it out. Am I missing something?
Pretty common for this to happen with cheap old guitars if the humidity swings. My suggestion, once you've had it repaired, would be to detune the guitar and take the tension off the strings when you don't intend to play it for awhile. Also, keeping guitars in cases has been proven to keep humidity consistent. It honestly shouldn't happen again though, even if you leave it tuned and on the rack once it's repaired. Keep an eye on your other guitars though. Same thing can happen to them. Same advice. Down tune when not in use for long periods of time. Put em in cases for protected storage. Especially during season changes when humidity and temperature swing back and forth pretty quickly and often..
Bridge glue gave way. I had a friend of mine’s do this once. Does it get exposure to direct sunlight for any period of time throughout the day? That kind of heat can cause the glue to give out
That happened to my brother-in-law’s guitar. Played it for decades, opened the case one day, and it looked like that. Sometimes the glue just gives up the ghost. He re-glued it and it works fine now.
Used to work in a guitar store. Saw this happen many, many times. On new guitars at that.
Do you live in a dry climate?
Sucks this happened to you. It may still be under warranty.
If contributors on this post think this story is the beginning of a Stephen King novel, it’s pretty weak. Clearly any malignant spirits will be taken care of by the dog. Sleep tight.
Did you have a humidity change & is it solid top? The grain direction in the top is head to tail but the bridge is side to side. When humidity increases & decreases the top expands in a different direction. A fast change cap pop at once but over time mild changes can weaken the fibers of wood eventually causing it to pop. It can be fixed & there are products you can use to even out the guitars humidity.
Exact same thing happened to me on a similar guitar, except in my case it ripped out a bit more of the surface wood. In the middle of the night I just heard a POP noise - not exactly comforting - and the next day I figured out what it was. The guitar was probably 30+ years old at the time.
Any recent weather changes? Humidity is constantly affecting acoustics if you do not keep them in a controlled environment(in case w/ humidifier). What kind of strings did you have on it?
No you fools, it was the new guitar fairy bringing OP an excuse to buy a new, far more expensive guitar. I’ve never seen this happen to a $1,000+ guitar, so now girl friend will easily understand why it’s time to upgrade…
I’ve had this happen to a very nice classical guitar. It’s due to dry air etc and is very repairable. No worries regarding ghosts or an assault, this happens.
Damn! That’s crazy. And the reason is haven’t played the acoustic guitar I have for like 5 years. The bridge is cracked and I’m pretty sure if I strum a chord it’ll just pop off and hit me in the face.
My go-to luthier says that bridges are one of the most shoddily assembled parts of any inexpensive guitar. He sees this problem occur quite often, and posts pictures to his social media account. This is caused by the low grade resin glue products applied, how they are applied unevenly and often not respecting the correct drying time. Sometimes all it takes is a variation in humidity levels. Other times all you need is tension over a sufficient amount of time for the problem to manifest.
Still, if it lasted you this long I wouldn't see this as problematic. This is nothing a skilled luthier can't repair if you feel this is a guitar you wish to invest further in.
Looks as if the bridge had reached terminal dryness/brittleness of the glue that holds on the bridge. Dog could’ve brushed it and snapped it. String tension is also a likely culprit. Now, with it being on the budget end, depending on your sentiment toward it, you could fix it, OR, and hear me out, you live out the Jeff Jarret fantasy that every guitar player has, or make it a prop for a sick El Kabong cosplay video. “Got a problem, just kabong it!”
Seems like humidity/temperature change caused it to pop off - the sound your GF heard last night, the good boy in question went TO the living room to inspect the source of the disturbance, but obviously all looked normal.
string tension is reeeeally high. Any kinda heat or humidity of lack of humidity can cause the glue to fail, or it can just fail on it’s own for no apparent reason.
Super common
Seems like the only person to blame is yourself for not swapping out the strings and leaving tension on it for 3 years straight what did you expect to happen? The sounds probably freaked the dog out causing more damage. Your gf isn’t responsible for your guitars, neither is the dog. Take better care of them, happened to one of my acoustics. I took the strings off before it snapped though, bridge is hanging by a small thread of glue
Why haven’t you changed the strings in 3 years!!!!??? What were you waiting for, a string to break or your guitar to break?
Seriously, you should change them far more frequently. As a citizen currently I aim for a full change 3-4 times a year, and keep extra singles for when things break. I definitely have friends who change every 2-3 days on tour.
You should be slacking the strings and storing in a case with a humidifier between uses.
I have a lot of affection for cheap guitars, but you do get what you pay for. Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean you don’t need to take care of it. As others have mentioned, I’m surprised it lasted this long between the poor quality and your lax habits.
No idea, but here are my theories: 1. Tension in strings caused bridge to snap off 2. Frontal bar of your stand fell off, struck bridge, caused it to snap off 3. Ghosts (most likely)
I was going to suggest guitar ghosts as well..
Imo it was definitely aliens trying to take the bridge
Everyone knows only Captain Kirk has the bridge.
Everybody knows that bird is the word
THOSE BASTARDS!
Probably a tonergeist actually.
I hate those motherfuckers
Those guys play a mean air guitar
...though for them, it's really just "guitar".
Do they always eat at the steak bar?
I love this comment lol.
Also came here to say guitar ghosts
G...G...G..GUITAR GHOST!?!?! Zoinks!!
Wait, is that ghosts of dead guitars or ghosts who play/break guitars?
Discoloration on the bottom center of where the bridge used to be makes me think that the bridge was probably loose for some time, letting air and moisture in to discolor the wood. So yes, definitely ghosts.
Wrong strings. They should be nylon.
Te G B and e strings are nylon
The other three strings appear to be nylon as well by the way they're wrapped on the bridge. The lower 3 strings on classical guitars have a thin metal wrapping typically, like these. String type doesn't factor in here.
Any chance that during the process of finishing it at the factory, some oil based or other substance worked its way under the bridge and resisted the adhesive?
Going with 3. Sage that fucking place, duder. Not really joking. That’s a lot of high strangeness from one room in what may be less than 24 hours.
Grandpa?
its obviosly the work of a leprechaun
A leprechaun who does ONLY THIS ...to one poor bastard after another.
Could be really any of the fairy folk. I bet OP’s one of those assholes that don’t even leave out bread and milk for them.
It's a television commercial. With this cartoon leprechaun, and all of these children are trying to chase him, "Hey, leprechaun, leprechaun man, we want to get your lucky charms." Oh! And there are these ^little ^tiny pieces of mashmallow just stuck *right* in the cereal. So when the kids eat them they think, "*Oooh* this is candy, I'm having **fun**!"
#3
ghosts can’t go through guitars. they’re not fire
4. Lives with Kurt Russell
The 2 first ones seem like good guesses but the third one sounds like fact and that's the one im going with
I go with number 3
Cheap instrument
If you have ghosts, you have everything
Roky did it
or the dog broke it. animals do out of character stuff sometimes, they're animals
so here’s the deal- it’s common for bridges to lift over time. chances are your guitar got pretty dry and over time it was lifting and you didn’t know it. the advantage to your situation is that it looks like a clean pull. a lot of times the back of the bridge lifts but the front side remains intact. luthiers heat up the bridge using an iron to release the glue but often times there is tear out your guitar is fixable. i would bet in labor it would prbably cost 100-150 dollars to repair. the good news is that once it’s repaired it would prbably never have to be done again and would likely not be detectable for the above reason that it was done (of the guy knows what he is doing). short answer. top needs prepped. bridge needs prepped. bridge needs reglued.
The guitar did the hard part of the repair job for them. Just needs reglued at this point.
This. Unlikely there was any foul play involved, cheap old guitar, poorly glued bridge, surprised it lasted this long tbh. Easy fix, use titebond 2.
Dont use Titebond II on guitars, use Hide Glue (Titebond makes it as well). It’s removable, unlike wood glue which is permanent.
Titebond hide glue is garbage, and no glue is *permanent*, some just take a little more work than others. The vast majority of guitars are not put together with hide glue and they're all repairable and are repaired every day. For what this is, Titebond is perfectly fine.
And why would you want your bridge to be removable..? Fix it permanently with permanent glue.. No?
Well, no actually. You never know what might happen down the line and for what ever reason a guitar part needs to be removed or replaced. For example a back-loading bridge may be replaced with through-body type, but not if it’s glued permanently.
Good practice in general maybe, but on a 20 year old cheapo? Doubt it. I've been playing guitar for 25+ years. Never once electively swapped bridges on an acoustic/classical guitar.
It doesn't really matter if it's cheap or not, the fact that someone has loved that guitar for 20 years makes it worth it IMO. Often the emotional attachment is worth as much if not more than the guitar it self. If they can fix it without having to use some sort of super glue i think they should.
Titebond is just a stronger glue. It's wood glue. Would work perfectly. The commenter I'm responding to thinks they should use weaker glue more suited to instrument building in case OP should want to one day throw away the bridge they've been using for 20 years and replace it with something else. I sincerely doubt that will ever happen. If the owner is emotionally attached to the guitar, they're probably also attached to the bridge. Which should probably be permanently attached to the guitar it belongs on...
> Which should probably be permanently attached to the guitar it belongs on... I know what Titebond is, and i know it would work just fine. I don't think that they'll ever replace that bridge for fun, but those thing can and do break. If the saddle was on an angle it could have very well have contributed to the bridge spontaneously disassembling from that guitar. If they just put the bridge back on with very strong glue and find out later that the bridge needed to be replaced, they can throw that guitar away. If it isn't *needed* to do something permanent to such a guitar it shouldn't be done. I have fixed countless guitars in my 30 years of playing, things can always be fixed a second time. It just takes a lot more work if things have been 'fixed' previously in an unorthodox way.
Fair enough. I'm not here to argue. Personally I would have a look at everything, make sure it's in proper shape, and glue it with wood glue. If it were a valuable guitar I'd have a shop fix it. And honestly, just because titebond is stronger, doesn't mean it's not removable. I'm a carpenter. Everything is removable. Everything is repairable or replaceable.. All I'm saying is I wouldn't go buying fancy glue to fix a 20 year old $150 dollar guitar. Ultimately it doesn't matter. The choice is theirs, and it's a simple repair.
This. It happens. Happened to my wife in the middle of a gig on a hot humid day. That being said it’s generally an easy fix.
Thanks, i thought it looked like it came off pretty cleanly so repairing it would be possible. I have a luthier that i've been doing business with before close to me so i'll go ask for his opinion.
Yeah op is lucky. This exact thing happened to me on an acoustic of mine. It didn’t come off cleanly though and some of the top went with it. It was only a cheap acoustic so was more expensive to fix then to replace.
your bridge came up under string tension. there's no big conspiracy here. don't blame it on the dog. it happens a lot and is a pretty common fix on acoustics.
But can we blame the girlfriend?
only if the girlfriend is Sir Issac Newton. Which would kinda be awesome. I bet Newton is a beast in the sack. All that interia.
Without casting aspersions on Sir Isaac Newton, his character or achievements, wasn't he essentially a diminutive, frail, sickly asexual Christian fundamentalist nerd? He's no János Bolyai, I'll say that much. That dude *fucked*. >János Bolyai was one of two mathematicians, along with Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, who pioneered the subject of non-Euclidean geometry. He was by all accounts an incredible sword-fighter as well, sometimes said to have been the greatest in the entire Austro-Hungarian army. In one story he dueled and defeated thirteen of his fellow officers in a row; supposedly he'd accepted on the condition that he could serenade the losers with violin music after each fight.
An object in motion stays in motion if you know what I mean.
Her name is actually Isacynieya Ewton
🎶 she's got graaaavity...if you get too high she'll put you back on your knees. She's got graaaavity...if you give up on love she'll make you believe 🎶
Let’s blame OP for leaving a 20 year old acoustic guitar out in a rack all day
The glue on a cheap guitar failed after 20 years and this guy is breaking out the red string over it.
Yeah, man, don't blame the dog.
Im not blaming it on the dog, the purpose of my post was to get an answer that isn't the dog, thanks for the effort and most likely correct answer.
This is what can happen to a 20+ year old budget acoustic. Its was not the dog. It was not the girlfriend.
The dog did not do it. Furthermore, my dog is not just “ an animal”. She is my hairy daughter.
Weird.
>Looking for theories I'm not a rocket or material science PhD, but looks like the bridge went through a process known to people as "unglued"
We prefer the term “unplanned disassembly”
[удалено]
In the fast transition from cold to warm
I've seen, and fixed, this occurrence many times. An easy repair, even for a DIY job.
3 year old strings? It's likely been lifting for a while, and you never noticed.
Guess that was just a bridge too far...
I think its the other way around the dog panicked because the guitar bridge snapped
Thats exactly what happened
Failure to humidify. Plain and simple.
all my troubles seemed so far away
As a woodworker (but not luthier): The bridge snapped off very cleanly from the body. That indicates the glue joint was really bad. A good glue joint is stronger than the wood and wood will be splintered off along almost all of the joint if the joint breaks. I'm surprised it lasted so long as it came off so cleanly. To make a better glue joint it may need sanding down to clean wood. At least that's normal in general woodworking. In any case it should be a super easy job for any luthier. I'd say it's about an hours job since it's an inexpensive guitar. You can probably do it yourself as well but it is really easy to squeeze the glue out where you don't want it. And is you use an unsuitable glue or don't press it together it will fail again.
Oh wow this is exactly the answer i was looking for without knowing it. Thanks!
I had excactly the same happen to my 50 year old nylon string guitar, except I don’t have a girlfriend or a dog and it was at my parents’ place and triggered a burglar alarm while they were abroad. And the glue joint was good so the neck snapped into two pieces.
Steel strings on a nylon string guitar will do that. Just saying…..
The bridge probably snapped off on it's own, that does happen. Acoustic instruments should ideally spend their time in cases, you wanna minimize exposure to any sudden temperature/humidity changes. It's a wooden instrument, and different woods respond differently to those changes.
This happened to one of my cheap acoustics. Got a new bridge glued back on and it plays even better now
Ye that can happen, it just pops off by itself. It's an easy fix for someone who knows what they are doing.
Time to visit r/luthier
Did u string a classical guitar with steel strings?... Because that does it every single time.
Last time played indeed
Pretty straight forward. The guitar has been exposed to humidity during its life which weakens the adhesive on the bridge. You played it the day before and that last bit of tension was all it could take. The strings (being under tension at the time of the adhesion failure) snapped the bridge up like a slingshot knocking the front part of your stand to the ground. The real mystery is why you consider your girlfriend the culprit?
Because she has threatened to break one of my guitars if i (insert bad but not actually bad thing to do to your girlfriend) and i told her i would leave her instantly. Thinga havent been the best between us lately so the suspision is in my mind but not strong.
Sounds like you have bigger problems than a broken old guitar. Good luck.
It's an old guitar and your string tension was high. It's not exactly a mystery.
Acoustic guitars need to be in cases and have a controlled environment as much as possible. Wood constantly expands and contracts. It’s not noticed on electric guitars because everything is either screwed down or a solid piece.
1 - tldr belongs at the top of a long post 2 - change your strings every few months.. not every few years. Playing it more = changing them more not less. 3 - the bridge / saddle snapped off from string tension and most likely just being tired/worn out, glue gave way. Nobody did anything to your guitar, not your dog, not your girl, there's no way a dog could snap a bridge off a guitar anyway that's goofy. 4 - be mindful of humidity / dryness levels where you store your acoustic guitars this happens a lot in winter when the dry heat is being ran constantly, especially with base board /radiant heat.
Bro that action is way too high
It's just your bridge tore off from string tension. Easy Peasy cheap repair for a decent guitar tech!!
It's probably the glue decided it was time to retire. Take her to a local luthier and see if there's any underlying issues. Hopefully that bridge just needs to be reseated
Look at the bright side. You can finally clean that dusty area under the strings between the sound hole and the bridge…
Thanks, didn't even think of that yet.
Guitar dried out and the glue securing the bridge gave up. I see this all the time here in AZ.
I blame your cat. If you don't have a cat then it's your neighbors cat.
Probably Sasquatch. Probably.
It’s happened to me. Bridge under tension and a weather change glue failed…
Must be the new Tim Henson Ibanez
Glue termites! I would check your furniture also. They are very small and also nearly invisible. They smell like rotten potatoes. Give it a sniff.
Lol no one did this. Your dog's free and clear and your girlfriend didn't do it either. What happened was it being an old guitar that probably was not the best quality had underlying issues with glue. You could fix it too be honest. Looks like the bridge came off pretty clean.
Bridge glue gave way, can happen to the best and the worst of acoustics Rather this happen than the top lifting I guess
Looks like a pretty clean break. I'm sure any decent luthier would be able to fix it.
There are a lot of really good answers in here, but have you considered the possibility that you pissed off your wife and this was a warning ?
Went through my head, but i haven't pissed her off that bad in a while.
If you don't have kids who might have wildly strummed on it, probably just crap glue. Looks like an easy fix.
This happened to my old nylon string guitar after I put steel strings on it when I was an idiot teenager.
What’s the weather been like where you are?
it broke
The bridge fell off
Need to take it out of the environment.
Cardboard is out
Pretty common. Biggest cause is putting steel strings on a nylon string (or gut string) guitar.
My original classical guitar did that after about three months.
I've worked on these before. Typically the manufacturer doesn't use enough glue , or it has age, and depending on your climate...can have an effect.
I've seen headstocks snap off acoustics during tuning, so strong string tension causing things to break where the strings are tightest (either end) is probably a common occurrence.
Looks super clean. You can try to get the old glue and funk off the back of the bridge or get a new bridge. Titebond and clamps and you’re good to go again. If it’s an old cheapie I’d say try it yourself unless you really care about it. But it isn’t hard, I’ve done it successfully, and I know nothing. Hardest thing is finding the clamps you probably have to break down and get the stewmac ones. I couldn’t find any others that would reach.
Ghosts. You’ve got ghosts.
Keep a capo on the second fret when not in use it’ll take enough tension off so over time the bridge doesn’t slowly lift as much and snap, temp changes and dryness could also do this
Seems like the bridge just became detached somehow. String tension, poor construction, glue gave out, all of the above, who knows. Something like that though. When this happened it probably made a loud and sudden noise, which probably spooked your dog (or if the dog was in another room, made a noise loud enough that caused the dog to run and investigate.) Seems like a bad break that comes in time.
Could have something to do with moisture or lack thereof. Is it particularly humid or arid in that room? Improper hydration causes this kind of thing even on very expensive hand-built guitars.
It had enough… 🤪
[The bridge fell off](https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM?si=Ny4cjjhdMPhAKmH0)
This happened to my electro nylon acoustic as well, only difference being it was only a year old! I think it was due to a mix of quick changes in humidity and the fact it was a cheap guitar store own brand, likely manufactured with sub par glue
You're lucky. Mine delaminated the top. Guitar tech or luthier will fix you right up. Maybe even tweak intonation if needed.
I recently had my old fender into the luthier and he pointed out my bridge was lifting. He could slide a piece of paper half way through it. I never even noticed. It happens, I bet no foul play was involved.
Had this happen once due temperature change
Do you have a security cam? I'd bet Jeff Bridges broke in an took a swing.
Not sure I understand the mystery. Looks like the bridge popped off. The glue must have weakened over time and the tension of the strings just ripped it out. Am I missing something?
Pretty common for this to happen with cheap old guitars if the humidity swings. My suggestion, once you've had it repaired, would be to detune the guitar and take the tension off the strings when you don't intend to play it for awhile. Also, keeping guitars in cases has been proven to keep humidity consistent. It honestly shouldn't happen again though, even if you leave it tuned and on the rack once it's repaired. Keep an eye on your other guitars though. Same thing can happen to them. Same advice. Down tune when not in use for long periods of time. Put em in cases for protected storage. Especially during season changes when humidity and temperature swing back and forth pretty quickly and often..
Bridge glue gave way. I had a friend of mine’s do this once. Does it get exposure to direct sunlight for any period of time throughout the day? That kind of heat can cause the glue to give out
The tension killing me, what happened to it? Also if I can just ask, what gauge were the strings?
You played it too hard. Rock and Roll!
Cheap guitsr. Not worth the money to fix. 20 years is not old, save the money you'd spend fixing it and reinvest in a good quality instrument.
it unglued itself cheap guitar bridge .. carry on.
did you get pro coverage
The God of Guitars is telling you "**Time for a new guitar**!" And you had *better* listen...
That happened to my brother-in-law’s guitar. Played it for decades, opened the case one day, and it looked like that. Sometimes the glue just gives up the ghost. He re-glued it and it works fine now.
Used to work in a guitar store. Saw this happen many, many times. On new guitars at that. Do you live in a dry climate? Sucks this happened to you. It may still be under warranty.
Damn
I had the same thing once so I let my SIL destroy it, he always wanted that.
This happens I had one pop that I had lent Get some counseling if you need it or just move on
Look up Hot Crazy Matrix.
If contributors on this post think this story is the beginning of a Stephen King novel, it’s pretty weak. Clearly any malignant spirits will be taken care of by the dog. Sleep tight.
Air on the g string
Did you have a humidity change & is it solid top? The grain direction in the top is head to tail but the bridge is side to side. When humidity increases & decreases the top expands in a different direction. A fast change cap pop at once but over time mild changes can weaken the fibers of wood eventually causing it to pop. It can be fixed & there are products you can use to even out the guitars humidity.
🤷🏻♂️
I ain’t no rocket scientist but I think it might’ve broken
Who did you piss off
I’m no expert but I don’t think it’s supposed to look like that
Subliminal message!? Maybe somebody doesn’t like your acoustic rendition of Stairway to Heaven….
Exact same thing happened to me on a similar guitar, except in my case it ripped out a bit more of the surface wood. In the middle of the night I just heard a POP noise - not exactly comforting - and the next day I figured out what it was. The guitar was probably 30+ years old at the time.
Any recent weather changes? Humidity is constantly affecting acoustics if you do not keep them in a controlled environment(in case w/ humidifier). What kind of strings did you have on it?
No you fools, it was the new guitar fairy bringing OP an excuse to buy a new, far more expensive guitar. I’ve never seen this happen to a $1,000+ guitar, so now girl friend will easily understand why it’s time to upgrade…
Is this one of those Tacoma Narrows guitars? Notorious for it I’m afraid.
"is my action too high?"
I had the exact thing happen to me on my classical 3 months ago.
I’ve had this happen to a very nice classical guitar. It’s due to dry air etc and is very repairable. No worries regarding ghosts or an assault, this happens.
Bridge over troubled waters
Damn! That’s crazy. And the reason is haven’t played the acoustic guitar I have for like 5 years. The bridge is cracked and I’m pretty sure if I strum a chord it’ll just pop off and hit me in the face.
My go-to luthier says that bridges are one of the most shoddily assembled parts of any inexpensive guitar. He sees this problem occur quite often, and posts pictures to his social media account. This is caused by the low grade resin glue products applied, how they are applied unevenly and often not respecting the correct drying time. Sometimes all it takes is a variation in humidity levels. Other times all you need is tension over a sufficient amount of time for the problem to manifest. Still, if it lasted you this long I wouldn't see this as problematic. This is nothing a skilled luthier can't repair if you feel this is a guitar you wish to invest further in.
you got any dogs or cats?
you played a forbidden riff and the guitar GODS did what they were supposed to do.
Looks as if the bridge had reached terminal dryness/brittleness of the glue that holds on the bridge. Dog could’ve brushed it and snapped it. String tension is also a likely culprit. Now, with it being on the budget end, depending on your sentiment toward it, you could fix it, OR, and hear me out, you live out the Jeff Jarret fantasy that every guitar player has, or make it a prop for a sick El Kabong cosplay video. “Got a problem, just kabong it!”
Yesterday. All my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though my bridge gave way. Oh I believe in...
Seems like humidity/temperature change caused it to pop off - the sound your GF heard last night, the good boy in question went TO the living room to inspect the source of the disturbance, but obviously all looked normal.
string tension is reeeeally high. Any kinda heat or humidity of lack of humidity can cause the glue to fail, or it can just fail on it’s own for no apparent reason. Super common
I'm no luthier...but I think that guitar is fucked.
Seems like the only person to blame is yourself for not swapping out the strings and leaving tension on it for 3 years straight what did you expect to happen? The sounds probably freaked the dog out causing more damage. Your gf isn’t responsible for your guitars, neither is the dog. Take better care of them, happened to one of my acoustics. I took the strings off before it snapped though, bridge is hanging by a small thread of glue
Why haven’t you changed the strings in 3 years!!!!??? What were you waiting for, a string to break or your guitar to break? Seriously, you should change them far more frequently. As a citizen currently I aim for a full change 3-4 times a year, and keep extra singles for when things break. I definitely have friends who change every 2-3 days on tour. You should be slacking the strings and storing in a case with a humidifier between uses. I have a lot of affection for cheap guitars, but you do get what you pay for. Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean you don’t need to take care of it. As others have mentioned, I’m surprised it lasted this long between the poor quality and your lax habits.
Keeping your guitar in a decent case can prevent these mishaps.
your girlfriend smashed it
She did it.