I found this and I don't know what it is... (?)

[J D Sauser]

I found this "device" in my boxes I schlepped around from continent to continent for the past Decades.

Anybody have an idea what it is? I think it may be related to guitars, maybe acoustic guitars... but beyond, I am into "duh?":




Thanks!... J-D.

[Gary Meixner]

JD,

It looks to me like it could be a heating iron. The aluminum block would be heated and then passed through the sound hole of an acoustic guitar and held against the bridge plate or a brace to gently soften the glue. The brass item looks like it could be an electric heating element but I only see one wire running to it. All just a guess.

G. Meixner

[Bill Sinclair]

Wow Gary, if you haven't correctly identified that handled tool you've at least come up with a great use for it! The brass cylinder with the wire coming out looks like some kind of thermocouple.

[J D Sauser]

JD,

It looks to me like it could be a heating iron. The aluminum block would be heated and then passed through the sound hole of an acoustic guitar and held against the bridge plate or a brace to gently soften the glue. The brass item looks like it could be an electric heating element but I only see one wire running to it. All just a guess.

G. Meixner

I don't know how I got to have that thing.

Thanks!... let me play this by my guitar builder in NYC who works on my Gypsy Jazz guitars State Side... maybe it is his!

THANKS!... J-D.

[Jack Hanson]

I would concur with Gary that it resembles a heating iron to soften the glue to facilitate bridge plate removal on a flattop. I made one decades ago as directed in an old Don Teeter acoustic guitar repair book. The idea was to heat the metal block with a propane torch, carefully insert it through the sound hole, and carefully work it around the bridge plate to heat up the glue. With another modified tool -- an old wood chisel bent around at about 90 degrees -- you lift and remove the old plate. Mine was made from a chunk of brass with a curved drill rod handle with threads that screwed into a tapped hole in the brass block. Only used it once to pull the plate out of a '60s Gibson LG-0 or LG-1 with the infamous plastic bridge. Worked like a charm.

As for the cylindrical brass rod with the wire? Nary a clue. But as Bill suggests, it looks a lot like a thermocouple.

[J D Sauser]

I would concur with Gary that it resembles a heating iron to soften the glue to facilitate bridge plate removal on a flattop. I made one decades ago as directed in an old Don Teeter acoustic guitar repair book. The idea was to heat the metal block with a propane torch, carefully insert it through the sound hole, and carefully work it around the bridge plate to heat up the glue. With another modified tool -- an old wood chisel bent around at about 90 degrees -- you lift and remove the old plate. Mine was made from a chunk of brass with a curved drill rod handle with threads that screwed into a tapped hole in the brass block. Only used it once to pull the plate out of a '60s Gibson LG-0 or LG-1 with the infamous plastic bridge. Worked like a charm.

As for the cylindrical brass rod with the wire? Nary a clue. But as Bill suggests, it looks a lot like a thermocouple.

Thing is, I don't own any FlatTops. All I have are Selmer Maccaferri (famed by Django Reinhardt) French (made by Italian Violin luthiers) guitars... with a "floating" (loose) bridge.

Anyways, I wrote to Rodrigo Shopis in NYC who "does" most many of these guitars in the US... see what he says.

I shall report back.

Thanks!... J-D.