Upright Bass Bridge?

[Peter Swann]

Anyone know where I could find a CAD file?

[george wilson]

You can just buy a bridge from International Violin Co. in Baltimore.Md..

[Peter Swann]

True, but I'm interested in cutting one.

[george wilson]

Be careful to get the grain oriented correctly.

[Kevin L. Waldron]

Share this with you.

Blessings,

Kevin

Double Bass Bridge08142014.PDF
Double Bass Bridge08142014.JPG

[Phil Thien]

Be careful to get the grain oriented correctly.

Huh. Once again what looks like such a simple prospect turns out to be a bit more involved.

I did some googling to check the grain orientation and read that the grain should be parallel to the strings. So if I'm thinking right, a bridge would need to be sectioned from a very thick piece of wood, as thick as the bridge is high?

Or am I misunderstanding that? If I was right then both faces of the bridge would be end-grain. But that can't be right, they sure don't look like end grain.

Care to enlighten me? Now I'm just curious.

[george wilson]

No,the wood grain you see on the faces of the bridge are flecked with medullar rays: You are looking at the side grain of quarter sawn maple. Imagine the bass bridge is going to be sawn out of the quarter sawn spruce top of a guitar. The feet of the bridge would be against the centerline of the top. Once sawn out,if you look at the bridge from the edge,you would see the growth rings oriented the same as you see them on a bass,or violin bridge.

You need a wide board of quarter sawn maple thick enough to make the feet of the bass bridge full thickness. Sugar maple. The German maple commonly used is a type of sugar maple,but it is not as hard as Northern hard maple from America. It might be a problem getting a piece of quarter sawn German maple wide enough,unless you want to invest in a 2 piece plain (curly wood is too weak) maple quarter sawn blank cello back. It will cost money,though not as much as a figured maple blank cello back.

The bridge has a great deal to do with the tone quality of a string instrument. Especially the banjo. The best banjo bridge should be grain oriented the same way as the bass bridge,have ONLY TWO FEET(the 3rd foot is cute,but it really hurts the tone). It should be as light weight as possible,and that means NO EBONY TOP on the banjo bridge.

I have brought a few fine Gibson Mastertone banjos back to life by just putting a correct bridge back on them. One guy had a perfectly good Gibson Mastertone that did not sound good at all. It had a bridge on it that someone made from rosewood. The bridge had only 2 feet,and was of good,slender proportions. But,the wood was too heavy.Just a tiny,tiny amount heavier than an identical maple bridge. I could have charged the guy good money to magically restore his banjo's tone. Instead,I just put the original,proper bridge back onto the instrument in his living room. Made all the difference in the World. That taught him a valuable lesson about messing with his bridge.

While on that note(!) I got a guy with a Gurian guitar with a bowed neck. He wanted me to remove the neck,and re build it. I debated it with him for a while. He had had the truss rod PROPERLY tightened AS MUCH AS DARED at a music shop. My stance was the neck HAD to be built right. Gurian made decent instruments. Finally,despite him telling me the truss rod had been tightened in a music shop,I removed the truss rod cover,and checked the nut. The silly thing was QUITE LOOSE. I tightened it up till the neck was straight for free. I could have kept the guitar and magically fixed it for a hundred or 2. But,I never operated that way. This incident taught me to never accept the word that some music store guy knew what the heck he was doing!!!'

One more story about music store guys: I was buying a set of strings at a store in Norfolk. The guy behind me at the cash register had a Strat he wanted the intonation to be set on. The repair guy was leaving. I told him I'd intone the guitar for him. The repair guy told me the oscilloscope(whatever they call it) was in the back,and I could use it. I said I didn't need it. He INDIGNATELY told me that he'd only EVER seen one guy who could intone a guitar without one,and HE was an old man(I was in my 40's). So,I took the guitar back there and just used a few wrenches to intone the guitar in a few minutes. I gave it back to the guy for free. HOW DID instrument makers throughout the centuries EVER get their instruments set up properly? I never told those guys who I was.

Arrogant IDIOTS really bother me!! If someone has a lot of knowledge(like my sculpture teacher in college) He can be arrogant,and I'll put up with it to learn things from him. But,not some half baked,so called repair guy who cannot intone a guitar by ear.

[Peter Swann]

Many thanks, Kevin!

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

Grain orientation is important, but so is width of the bridge (so as to properly interact with the bass bar), mass of the bridge, installation of adjuster wheels (if so desired), thickness and length of the feet, etc. Not to mention fore-and-aft tilt, centering, arch of the bridge top, and compensating for top table sinkage or a slightly misaligned neck. Not to discourage you, just want to make you aware of the many factors you need to navigate.

[Roy Haney]

Do people use Beech for their bridges. For some reason I thought I had heard that that was a prefered wood. I own a Sawmill and get request for odd things and would have steered the customer to Beech.

[Kevin L. Waldron]

While Beech is a good stable wood it absorbs vibrations very well....... this is part of the reason that Beech is used in so many work bench's..... personally would not recommend this..... the whole idea of a bridge is to transfer the vibration of the strings to the top........ a bridge from Beech will act as a vibration sound block to some extent.

Blessings,

Kevin