Patch a hole in a guitar: the BridgeSaver is also a HolePlugger

Neat round patches, quick!

That’s my customer, Carl, with those round patches in his picture. Carl had a hole in the side of his old Gibson J-50 where someone put an output jack. Restoring the guitar to its original glory, Carl asked me to get rid of that hole. This sounded tricky, until I thought of using the BridgeSaver.

Here’s the hole I started with

The guitar had once housed a pickup that has long since been removed, leaving this eyesore in the side from the jack.

I started by cleaning up the hole with a peghole reamer.

Then I used the BridgeSaver’s hole shaper to create a concave dish-shaped recess around the hole.

This will perfectly fit the plug made by the BridgeSaver’s plug cutter.

There!

The hole is shaped and ready for the plug to be glued in.

Now to make the plugs...

Always try to find pieces of wood that have a similar color and grain pattern. This makes the repaired area easier to touch up to match the surrounding area before finishing.

Since this plug is going into the curved side of the guitar, I first bent my scrap of wood to match that curve before cutting the plugs.

While I was at it, I made myself a pile of extra plugs, thinking they might come in handy on a future job.

Ready to install the plug

After applying your glue, carefully position the plug.

Check it out:

The BridgeSaver

The BridgeSaver Years of wear from string ends used to mean costly major surgery: a bridge plate replacement inside the guitar. This clever new tool puts new wood under every string while leaving the original bridge plate intact! Check it out!

A piece of tape holds the plug in place, then a couple of repair magnets clamp it while it dries.

Waxed paper keeps things from sticking.

Here’s the plug after leveling with a file and sanding (I like to use a scraper for smoothness). It can now be filled and touched up to match the surrounding wood. I used ColorTone stains to get a good match.

When Carl came to pick up his J-50, I learned that years ago he played music right in the very building my repair shop is in! It's an old Masonic hall, and the town used to hold dances here back in the mining days. Maybe we should invite Carl and the other old players back and have a dance in the shop?!