basic bridge making

[mike-p]

Anyone have a link to a guide to making a bridge from a blank, preferably using mostly hand tools. Also, what might be a good practice material before starting on the ebony and rosewood. Thanks all. I also have the kinkead book on order, I'm hoping there's something in there.

[mike-p]

Thinking a bit of maple may be a way to try, even just a basic outline of how you do the process would be great. Thanks all,
Mike

[ken cierp]

I believe the reason there has been no response to your post is that the bridge making porcesses vary widely -- it depends on skills, how much hand work you want to do and of course what tools you own. Generally speaking the bridge shape is arbitrary. Most saddle slots are angled about 3 degrees. Phosphor/bronze strings will stain light woods (black) in short order so I'd think twice about Maple as a bridge. Light weight is a good goal. Here's where you can get a little info

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier ... ridge.html
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=34
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=27
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=217
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=33
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=28
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=189

[TonyinNYC]

Making a Martin belly bridge isnt that hard. Just mark the outline, and start sanding. I have made bridges before, but not a traditional Martin style belly bridge.
Here is a thread I made a while ago on making a pinless bridge.
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=523&p=3703#p3703

Hope that helps. I did use a Saf-T-Planer, so if you don't have one, this is less than helpful, but it is a start.

[mike-p]

Thanks guys, just wanted some starting pointers. Just thought of maple as is a relatively cheap hard wood as only have BRW and ebony blanks and they didn't seem to be the place to start!

[ken cierp]

Black Walnut (Ovation and others), is a good choice for a bridge as is the standard EI Rosewood -- blanks are a couple of bucks on Ebay.

[John Link]

Tony,

Thanks for the pointer to your thread on pinless bridges. I've never made one, but am intrigued by their possibilities. The extra work in making one - if there is really extra work - appears to have several payoffs. No need to fit pins, slot them, the bridge, or carve ramps, no need to put holes in the top, no need to put in a bridge plate that stiffens response at exactly the point when we want the top to initiate responsiveness. For the player they greatly simplify changing strings and eliminate slippage caused by not getting the ball ends set correctly, plus there is no plate to wear out and eventually replace. Ken's point about not forgetting the weight the pins and bridge plate adds is well taken too. It all counts, and the bridge is where the rubber meets the road, literally one of the most important places in the instrument.

Mike P,

If you want to go for the gold, think about setting the saddle angle at 5 degrees instead of the usual 3, then use a 3/16 inch wide saddle. This will give you plenty of room to individually compensate each string for perfect intonation at the 12th fret. It will make a difference for players who use the whole the fingerboard. Don Teeter showed how to do this with a Strobotuner in his original repair book. It can easily be done these days with even a good quality clip on, like the Peterson. Teeter's method was to use a squared off block of ebony, with little pieces of unwound B (or G, if you have it) string on top, which he moved around until he got perfect notes both open and fretted at the 12th fret. They he measured the distance from the front of the block to the center of the piece of string. Thus he took into consideration all aspects of the real instrument - string height, fret geometry, string tension, even the brand of string. He used those measurements to carve the final saddle. Of all the things we fuss with in making a guitar, it is funny how easily we accept a simple slanted saddle as "good enough" to resolve the rather thorny problem of playing in tune in the upper registers. I am as guilty of this casualness as anyone, though I built a 12-string with every string fully compensated in this manner and I can tell you, recording engineers loved it.