Official Luthiers Forum!

I marked the 4 transverse bars on the belly of the little Stauffer today. The plan doesn't call for a plate under the rosette, but I'm adding one. Just seems to be the best thing to do. It doesn't call for a bridge backer plate either, and I thought that would be a good idea as well.

Do the ball ends dig in without it?

Does it help the belly stay united with the bridge? I'd like that.

I have no diagonal braces. Would you make them wider, up/ down than the bridge? Longer?

Speaking of ball ends; the strings don't have them. Can you buy them, or drill holes in little hollow balls to make ball end strings? I'm sure that you could just tie big knots, but it seems that they would really dig in; one good knot at the end of a ball might look/work better.

Thanks, I have no idea.

_________________
Why be normal?

How about beads from the craft store. Run the string thru and tie a knot.

Hard maple makes a good bridge plate, and this does help to strengthen the bridge area a lot. Use snug fitting bridge pins; I like the unslotted ones.

Nice suggestion Carl. Thanks.

The bridge will be maple, and the backer plate. The bridge is on the smaller size, though it does have the remnants of a mustache. It is very thin. The saddle itself is only about 10mm or less above the top. The area where the pins go is about half of that, I think. Maybe more like a strong, flexible bridge? The backer and bridge making the whole thing more like 3 ply plywood? Strong, but not so unidirectional?

_________________
Why be normal?