routine fingerboard, bridge thickness, saddle depth

[peter havriluk]

I'm in the midst of scratchbuilding some fingerboards and bridges. I am curious about the typical finished thickness of bridges and fingerboards and the depth of the saddle slot in the bridge.

I think the saddle-slot dimension could be something like 'leave .100" of the bridge beneath the saddle slot' or something similar that puts the saddle at the same height off the fingerboard regardless of the bridge's thickness. And I'm aware of not building bridges heavier than they need to be lest the bridge contribute to damping the top's vibrations.

I think I need to be aware of the results of fingerboard thickness and complementary bridge thickness, and if the fingerboard is excessively high (how much is that?) the bridge will either have too much wood in it or the saddle will be sticking way up off the soundboard, or both.

At any rate I'd appreciate some advice.

Thanks, folks.

[ken cierp]

Finger boards are generally .25" thick and used on guitars that can have bridges .25"- .40 +/- -- so your concern seems to be unfounded. Far more important is the need for a straight line finger board plane passing just over the bridge mainly controlled by neck set angle. To this end the major makers have an assortment of bridges of different thicknesses so this requirement can be met. They do this because they know wood is going to act like wood regardless of all the humidity control precautions in the work place.

So its best to determine final bridge thickness along with saddle height "after the neck is set"

As for the saddle slot depth -- make it as deep and tight as possible without going through the bridge. I leave about a 1/16 "

[peter havriluk]

Ken, thanks for your advice.

[johnnyg]

I was taught to set the neck after the bridge is in place. How do you determine the proper neck angle without the bridge? If there is a thread already explaining this just point me to it!

Thanks,

[ken cierp]

You may find that your actual construction was not accurate enough to meet initial "required" measurements and some tweaking may be necessary. But the idea is to make parts that match in the first place --- the neck heel and the rim slope angles on a KMG kit are already set "just like the factories do it" that way even new builders are able to end up with a guitar that is easy to play without needing to make tedious trial and error adjustments to the neck heel angle. Mathematics rules! But admittedly Mother nature can affect even the best equation, humidity can throw things off a little too.

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/neckangle.html