JLD Bridge Doctor: The Complete and Permanent Cure For Belly Bulge

I bet your are thinking that this blog is about DAWs, and recording gear. Well it is unless something really really great comes along.

As a musician you know that there is now and has always been a lot of junk out there. One of the biggest pieces of junk and shitty engineering is the acoustic guitar. It seems that everybody and their brother is now making an acoustic guitar and most of them are JUNK even and especially the high prices ones like Martin and Gibson aka over priced crap. This may sound harsh to some of my readers so let it suffice to say with a bit of forward thinking in design, acoustic guitars could be much better. The acoustic guitar is a flawed design. It has changed little in 100's of years and the worst change IMO is the pinned bridge. Others may disagree.

As a guitar ages chances are it will develop a condition called belly bulge due to the constant pull of the strings. Belly bulge is when the top of the guitar develops a hump behind the bridge. You can't put send your guitar to Weight Watchers to get rid of the bulge and if you do nothing the bulge will only get worse. When that hump gets really bad the guitar will become unplayable and the top will probably develop a crack.

Repairman clamping heated caul to squeeze out belly bulge

Some remedies for belly bulge, include removal of the bridge and clamping on heated cauls and it inside and the other on where the bridge was. This will bend the wood back into shape but often it is only a temporary fix.

Removing the bridge is time consuming and it can damage the instrument. Squeezing out the top and the sound board will not change the fact that as some as the guitar is restrung and brought up to tuning the same 160+ lbs of force will be pulling up on the top.

Another method is to clamp the guitar as shown in the above picture. I have seen people humidify the guitar of several days and as it is being clamped they put in a 60 watt light bulb to soften the glue. They leave it clamped for several days. This is also time consuming and it never addresses the real problem which again is the force of the strings constantly pulling on the top. Eventually the bulge will come back.

The other common method for belly bulge is the dreaded neck reset. Neck resets are very difficult do, expensive and painful to watch. I won't go in to detail. If you are interested in seeing a neck reset watch the video. WARNING: This is major surgery and not for the faint of heart. Parental discretion is advised.


There has to be a better way!

Well there is. The JLD Bridge Doctor is the not like most doctors. This device actually fixes the problem quickly, easily and permanently. The JLD Bridge Doctor actually makes your guitar sound better because it will first transfer more sound into the tone wood and in addition to that it decompresses the top by countering the force of the strings. With the top decompressed the top with move more freely and transmit more sound and a bigger sound. Maybe by installing one you can make your 100 dollar Takamine Jasmine sound better than a $4000,00 dollar Martin.

Meet the JLD Bridge Doctor

Here are some videos of people installing and having great success with the JLD Bridge Doctor. The guy in this video called it hit and miss but the fact is the JLD Bridge Doctor performed the way is is supposed to perform. It took the belly out of the guitar so now the guitar can now be made playable.

In this video most of the bulge was removed by the JLD Bridge Doctor. I suspect that if he humidified the guitar and heated it a bit that he could have removed all the bulge. That said, with the Bridge doctor installed the bulge will not get any worse and with a little shaving of the saddle and shaving of the front of the bridge this guitar will be very playable.

This video demonstrates and improvement in sound with the Bridge Doctor.

Breedlove guitars now have the JLD Bridge Doctor as standard equipment.

JLD Bridge Doctor installed after a belly repair to prevent a recurrence.

JLD Guitar Research and Development is located in Roswell New Mexico home of Area 51. Could this device be captured alien technology? Are these guys ETs? Who knows? It sure took long enough for humans to figure out how to make a guitar that sounds great and doesn't warp. It would appear that JLD has done what no human could do. This simple and elegant design is one small step for man and one giant leap for the beloved flat top guitar.


Click here to read more about their products and how to buy one.

Click HERE for pricing.

Click HERE for a dealer near you.



The Verdict: 

I have not found any negative reviews on this device. It does what it says it will do. 

1. It removes belly bulge.

2. It prevents belly bulge.

3. It improves the tone of the guitar.

JLD Bridge Doctor or Bridge System CLICK HERE


If you want a JLD Guitar Doctor or Bridge System here is their contact information or CLICK HERE

JLD Guitar Research & Development PO Box 5764 Roswell, NM 1-888-696-1998 1-505-622-3694 - Don Kendall email: spot@spotgrafix.com