Official Luthiers Forum!

I understand that the saddle is radiused to match the fingerboard. Do you guys also radius the top of the bridge? Also, I will have a bridge thickness of approximately 3/8", do you folks taper the bridge down on the treble side to keep a uniform stringe distance above the fingerboard? Now that I think of it, that really won't work if the saddle slot is flat. Does this make sense or am I too old to think.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Hi old man!      John Mayes has an excellent DVD which answers your question...he tapers the bridge thickness on the treble side for better action come setup time...I haven't done it yet, as I had all 7 of my bridges made and polished by the time I got his DVD, but #8 will absolutely be tapered.

Larry

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

the radiusing of the bridge doesn't affect your action, but does improve break angle of the strings over the saddle and the appearance of the radiused saddle's projection above the bridge look more graceful.

Thanks for responding, I see how the radius will keep a nice break angle, that makes a lot of sense. I'm still not convinced that tapering toward the treble does anything, though, if the saddle sits in a flat slot that's parallel to the guitar top.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I taper mine as Larry Mentioned, and I have done the raduis on the
bottom of the saddle to match the top as well as flat and they both work.
The raduis bottom you don't have to clamp as much, but they both will
work great once glued on.

Here is the trailer for the video Larry mentioned.

http://www.mayesmusic.com/bridgetrailer.mov

And the link to where you can buy it.

http://www.mayesmusic.com/index.php?
main_page=product_info&products_id=448

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Thanks, John, I'll check it out. I plan to radius the bottom of the bridge to fit the soundboard and the top of the bridge to match the fingerboard radius, and the top of the saddle to match the fingerboard radius. My question, though, is: Why taper the bridge toward the treble side if the saddle sits level?

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Because you action is not level. You want the action to be lower on the
treble side. And you can do this which a flat topped bridge, but the break
angle will be much much lower on the treble strings. Remember you have
to take off twice as much material at the saddle to make a adjustment at
the 12th fret. So if your action is 1/32nd lower on the treble side that
means your saddle is 1/16th lower than the bass side at the saddle,
which translates into a weaker break angle and not uniform tension
across the saddle. Make sense?

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

John, I'm still fuzzy. I understand the need to have a lower action on the treble, but I don't see how tapering the bridge does that. If I cut a flat groove for the saddle, then its height is set by the distance of the bottom of the groove from the soundboard. Seems to me that the only tapering that would work would have to be on the treble side of the saddle itself, not the bridge. Wouldn't cutting the treble string grooves deeper accomplish that?

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

By the way, John, I waited painfully for the trailer to download (dial-up, no DSL here yet) and It wouldn't play.
I use Netscape most of the time, I'll try again with Internet Explorer.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I'm not talking about using the bridge to lower the action. I'm saying that
the taper of the bridge facilitates even string break which is hard, or near
impossible with a flat topped bridge.

And for the video you have to have the latest version of quicktime which
is found at apple.com

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Gotcha. Thanks, John.

Radiusing the top of the bridge to match the fingerboard doesn't give enough compenssation?   How much is your bridge tapered?

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

[QUOTE=John Mayes]And for the video you have to have the latest version of quicktime which is found at apple.com[/QUOTE]

AAAAARRRRRRRRGH ! ! !

Downloading that foolish software is what crashed my hard drive on July 4th....

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

ron

consider that the saddle is radiused to match the fb. but the need for differing string heights above the fb means that the saddles radius is not synmetrical about the centerline. the saddle's radius is, using a clock analogy, say a 9-1 arc while the fb is a 10-2 arc. same radius and segment length, but different segment orientation. the cocking of the arc down toward the treble side is what results in the need to cock the radiusing of the bridges top down toward the treble side, and in relation to the top, taper it. as john and i have pointed out, this is done to help maintain the break angle, and does also give a more pleasing appearance as a side benefit. it does not affect the action.

be careful how you use the word compensation; it is a 'term of art' with a generally acknowledged definition which has nothing to do with our subject here.crazymanmichael38544.7240625

Thanks a lot for everyone's response. I'm overwhelmed at the knowledge and the willingness to share it on this forum.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......