Preparing Acoustic Guitar Top For Attaching New Bridge

Looks like the bridge pad installation went well.

It fits exactly as it should, I don't see any glue squeeze-out (not that I could do much about it if there was some), and it seems to be solidly glued in to place.

The bridge pin holes for the new ebony bridge don't line up exactly with the old ones.  No great surprise there.

So I need to fill those old holes, as well as the four holes from the "adjustable" height screws from the old bridge.  One of those holes is more like an oval - it got torn up a bit when the old bridge came off.

So I cut some dowels for the holes and enlarged the oval hole a bit more and made a spruce patch for it.

If this was a real guitar with a solid top, I'd try to find hardwood dowels, but I just got these generic dowels at the local hardware store - I think they are pine or another soft wood.  They chipped like crazy when I cut them.

With the dowels and patch in place, I declare thee:

Dowelhenge!

I kept thinking of the scene in "This is Spinal Tap" with the tiny stone and the druid dancers.

After the glue is dry, it's an easy job to slice the dowels off with a flush-cut saw.

Then I take a scraper and micro-plane any stubs of dowel that are left and also clean off any old glue.

Ready to glue the bridge on.