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I put slots at end top of the pegs on my baroque. It was easy to string: put the end in the slot, a couple loops around, pull the end, tune, trim off excess.
Well I didn't have the top of the belly parallel with the bridge and nut, so I took the strings off the pegs and fixed it; I hope.
I decided to string it back up yesterday, and the strings are really short! OOPS. I wasn't thinking ahead.

Who knew that strings stretch?

It took all afternoon to get all ten strings on, battling off the demons of frustration and anger. So it was a victory.
Now if the frets will work this time, I'll be playing it soon.

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Why be normal?

I bet that really was annoying Ken.

You don't normally watch the string that carefully when stringing up (a classical) but I happened to the other day and was amazed at just how far they stretched.

Dave

Now you know why some people roll the ends up in little circles- They are not making halos for little guitar fairies!

Ahh. The battle continues! My wife says this morning. "Why are your strings wrapped around my plant?"

What? Sure enough, the strings were off all the pegs, and still tied to the brigde.

Yes. The bridge pulled off again. Again about half of the bridge has spruce fibers on it, so maybe not a perfect joimt, but not terrible.

I'm pretty sure that the tension is only about 70 pounds.

Any suggestions on how to glue it? I used fresh 251? HHG last time. No way to clamp.

Yes, I did say that it was a battle.

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Why be normal?

My wife told me this morning that some of the ladies on the cross stitch sites give their projects time out when they are behaving badly.

"Huh?"

"Look in the spare bedroom."




I strung it up to finish it because I have three to finish, and that was supposed to be the quickest one. Yesterday I polished up the varnish (third try is a charm?) on a violin I haven't been satisfied with the color on for a LONG TIME. Then I roughed out a saddle and nut. I might be able to finish them, fit a bridge, and string that up today.

Probably not get the string heights dialed in, and the bridge cut though.

Then "the offender" will have to be dealt with.

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Why be normal?

Oh man that is a sight I really never want to see! Every time I wind up the tension on a new build I cringe a little. Dave

I've had two bridges pop off, one on a new build and one on a repair. I empathize. Leave that thing in time out for a while

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

The applicable pun (baroque—broke) is so painfully obvious that nobody is mentioning it. It’s just hanging out there. I can’t resist: it IS baroque, so I guess you WILL have to fix it.

I had one bridge pop off so hard while tuning up that it put a blood blister about the size of a quarter on the meat of my thumb.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Well, I glued it with some fish glue today, and held it for an hour listening to my iPod. I've never had a fish glue joint go. We will see.

While holding it there I found all kinds of things out about baroque guitars just looking at it:

They are low fret instruments. The frets go up from the 10th at .55mm at .05 increments to 1.0 mm at the first fret. So .022-.039. fret height. With the fingerboard AT THE BELLY, a CONCAVE belly as suggested by a guy I got the Voboam guitar plans from, is a GREAT IDEA; when you consider that the bridge is only 8 or 9 mm tall, and the top is at an angle, and they end up lower than that. I drew it out, and as far as clearance on the neck, it all seemed fine. but fret at 7-10, and the strings are just above the belly. I didn't have the Voboam plan when I made this little one. In fact, maybe the neck/top block set up on a slight angle to the belly so the long arch curve can start right at the neck.

In the shot time I played it, the double strings with low tension were ridiculously easy to fret! The fingers naturally go in-between them.

A radius on the edge of the fingerboard is essential for the frets to lay down flat. I knew that, but I see that the radius has to get bigger as the frets get bigger. I can see a bigger edge of light at the edge of the top few frets the top one having the most. The rest are fine.

Another note from playing it a little before "the incident". The red, loaded string for the low C is really nice. The fat, stiff F above it not nearly as nice. I might see if they have a loaded one for that. I'll try some real guts on the Staufer when I get it done, and see what I think of them.

Is it me, or do flexible strings have more/better sound than stiff ones? At least on the bass notes?

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Why be normal?

Hi Ken,
Lutes, which also have a fingerboard flush with the soundboard, also often had a slightly "dished" soundboard to provide a little extra space between the strings and soundboard.
I used floating fly line for frets on a lute I used to have. It worked pretty well except for the fact that it was green.

Well, the fish glue did the trick. I still need to move the high G strings up some at the nut, and maybe the D strings a tad too. Fret buzz when at the bottom couple frets. I don't mind it if I'm really banging on it, but I like the nice ringing sound that it has. I didn't clean up the glue squeeze out. I'll wait until I put new strings on it now. New LONG strings.

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Why be normal?

[THUMBS UP SIGN]

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Well.

It just popped off again! I heard it from the dining room. I'll work on the Staufer, and maybe a Voboam, and forget about this one; at least for a while.

I'm sure the string pressure is not that great.

Oh well.

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Why be normal?

Hi Ken,
To keep the bridge on you may have to increase the footprint and/or go with a pinned bridge:
https://no.pinterest.com/pin/491455378066467962/