StewMac Magnetic Mirror Set
V-1143
Dan Erlewine demonstrates the StewMac Magnetic Mirror Set on an old Martin bridge pad / brace repair.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Stewart-MacDonald - StewMac Magnetic Mirror Set]
Using the mirror in the soundhole
Dan Erlewine: Here's a great new tool for acoustic guitar work. It's an inspection mirror on a magnetic base with an articulating arm. It goes in the sound hole of an acoustic instrument, and you hold it from the outside with a second magnet. Keeps your hands free to work. These magnets are pretty darn strong, so the brass handle on it makes it easy to separate them. And they're easy to position like that.
Hands free vision when working on the tail block
I've got the mirror in a position where I can see down at the bottom of the tail block area. Dead center, you'll see a little spot of light down by the bottom of the tail block. That's where I'm working. It's a hard place to see. What I'm doing is probing in the joint with a Feeler Gauge [on-screen text reads: StewMac Feeler Gauges - Use for more than slot depth] and a saw. I couldn't do this if I had to get down here and try to look at it, and my arms wouldn't be long enough. And this is controlled. I can see exactly what I'm doing and have my hands free.
Removing old bridge pad
This old Martin has seen better days. It's really been smashed through the whole waist area down here and the end block. It had a big hole on the side, which I will patch, but right now I'm using that hole to look in there and do some work.
What I'm doing here is I took out the bridge pad, which was pretty smashed, and I'm taking the remnants of it out from underneath the X braces. They tucked the pad under a Martin X. And the mirror's helping me a lot there because I can see what I'm doing on this brace, which I have no access to otherwise. I got a little chisel that I'm into the brace and cutting out the old bridge pad, and then I'll fill those slots with spruce and strengthen the braces up. Without that mirror, I don't think I could do this job.
