Traveling down a flight on stairs with the owner right behind it, the edge of the body was crushed.

The label inside read Taylor model 512 but this guitar was anything but a standard model. The owner had ordered it as a custom build with a Western Cedar top and highly figured Koa. The sides and binding were salvageable but the owner wanted no visible trace of the recent damage so a new top would have to be fabricated because of the extensive splits in the cedar.

"While you're at it how about making it a Redwood top?". Seemed like a reasonable request.

A routed channel is visible around the edge.

This is the " Taylor Relief Cut".

Another request from the owner was for the changeover from the standard bracing to the Taylor CV bracing. This is a bracing profile that was not available when the guitar was originally built.

Jumping ahead a few steps the body is in the finishing room receiving final coats of the UV cured finish.

Top replacements involve a lot of critical steps throughout the process. The location of the ebony bridge is certainly one of them and it comes at the very end of the reconstruction so a mistake here is tough to recover from. A precision jig is placed over the neck and body allowing two 1/8" holes to be drilled in exact location on the top. Nylon pins are fit into the holes to help locate the tracing jig.

The tracing jig is an old bridge that has been ground down along its edges.

With a fresh blade loaded in the knife, the finish is cut though to the redwood top.

The finish is carefully chiseled away leaving the redwood undisturbed.

Taylor was the first company I was aware of to rout a secondary channel under the bridge. This allows for the bottom of the bridge to contact the wood while the outer edges of the ebony sit on top of the finish.

A modified pony clamp rises out of the soundhole providing the pressure to secure the bridge while the adhesive cures.

A few completion photos.