Bridge width relationship to top braces?

[Kevin Stephen]

I am planning a new bridge for a Peerless archtop & wonder about the width or more specifically, where the feet should sit relative to the top braces. This guitar has parallel braces. Should the bridge extend to the braces or sit inside them? Also, I understand that the weight should be kept at a minimum, but is there a particular character of the wood that is desirable? Rosewood seems to be a popular choice. I have some ebony, coco & padauk. I am considering a padauk tailpiece & pickguard, so would padauk work well as a bridge? It would be a one piece Selmer style bridge.

Thanks,
kev

[Barry Daniels]

The bridge feet should sit over the braces. The padauk might work well. I am building a flattop with a Padauk bridge because it is lighter than rosewood. This is supposed to allow it to react quicker to string vibrations. Just be careful with Padauk though because it tends to crack easily.

[Kevin Stephen]

The bridge feet should sit over the braces. The padauk might work well. I am building a flattop with a Padauk bridge because it is lighter than rosewood. This is supposed to allow it to react quicker to string vibrations. Just be careful with Padauk though because it tends to crack easily.

Thanks Barry. Do you have an opinion about any advantage of having feet or having the bridge make full contact with the top? Other than weight of course.

kev

[Michael Lewis]

Here is an opportune time to do an easy experiment and learn what really works best. Make a very light bridge and a heavier one, then listen to the difference and you will then know what works best for that specific guitar. I find that heavy bridges are not always such a bad thing on archtop guitars, and that excessively light bridges are not always so great. Make sure you fit the bridges well to the soundboard or you won't get the best results in your test.

A general idea keeps floating around that lighter bridges are better than heavy ones, and that may be true is some cases, but I think it stems from flattop guitars and how well they respond with lighter bridges. Keep in mind the proportion of weight of the bridge compared to the soundboard. On a flattop the top is rather light and can suffer from a heavy bridge, but an archtop often benefits from a bit more weight in the bridge because the top is heavier. If you are fitting a bridge to a gypsy guitar it should be light weight because the top is light weight.

[Alan Carruth]

One of my jazz playing friends is of the opinion that it's impossible to make an archtop bridge too heavy. The easy way to do the experiment, of course, is to make a fairly light bridge, and then add mass. Poster putty is the usual way to do that: don't use modeling clay, which can leach oil into the wood. I find that putty is less effective than it 'should' be: the results I get by adding, say, ten grams of putty seem to be about the same as I'd get from making the part eight or nine grams heavier. Maybe it's because the stuff is not rigid. You could incorporate some rare-earth magnets into the bridge, and then just stick on some more.

[David Gerard]

If I may I have a question too with regard to bridges on arch tops. I just rebuilt a 1957 silvertone arch top. I reused the original rosewood bridge. It sounds great! I now would like to put a pick up on this instrument. I dont want the jazz sound but rather would like to keep the old timey sound. Any suggestions on saddle type pick ups for this critter? Ever split a saddle put a slot in it and installed a thin line in just under the strings and glued it back together?
I just wanted to add, when I re fit the bridge after the re build I stuck some sticky sandpaper on the bridge location and re contoured the feet of the bridge to get a nice fit and complete contact on the body(a simple forward and back motion). The feet of the bridge do extend out side of the parallel tone bars too.
thanks for letting me tag along on your post.

[Michael Lewis]

In regard to the placement of the bridge feet and braces, if the top is thin and the braces stout the bridge should sit on the braces, but if the top is stout then placement of the bridge should be only to set the intonation. A good archtop is strong and will withstand bridges not sitting directly over the braces.

I definitely prefer a full contact foot for the instruments I make. A full contact foot helps the cross arch of the top to hold it's shape, especially on thinner tops.

[Alan Carruth]

Several years ago, at an ASIA meeting forum on 'Your First Archtop', I asked about 'full contact vs two feet'. Everybody on the panel was for full contact.

If you can adjust the bridge height, you could do an experiment on this pretty easily. Make a full contact bridge, and try it out. Then put a piece of thin veneer under each end of the foot, leaving the center open, and try it again. I suspect that even a piece of paper would do; all you need to do is get the center up off the top enough not to buzz. With thin, uniform 'foot' material I would not think that poor contact would be an issue in changing the sound.

Alternatively, you could make a two-footed bridge, and put a wedge in the middle.