Radiusing the Bridge

[CliftonBonney]

I'm very interested in doing my own setups, so I've been trying to learn as much as I can.

I recently became super confused by something Roger Sadowsky said in an interview discussing setups. He talked about the radius of the neck and then said that the bridge should be radiused like the neck. This made perfect sense to me. I then decided I would get the basic setup kit at stewmac.com which comes with understring radius gauges -http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measuring_tools/Basic_Setup_Kit.html.

I thought this would be great. However, it occurred to me that if I use the radius gauges my action would be at a setting that I may or may not like. Then I thought, if I adjust the action to my liking, I might not have the bridge radiused to the fretboard.

What am I missing? How do you handle this? Thanks.

[rwelcome]

If you take a good ruler and take a measurement from the top of the 17th fret to underside of each string and set the saddle height until all the distances are the same (say 3/32" for example) then you know the bridge saddles are "radiused", because the fret curves so if the gaps are even you know you're following the curve. Honestly my normal setup is a neck with very little relief (via truss rod), re-tune, the 17th fret measurement on the E&A string is 3/32" and the D&G is 5/64". Everyone likes it a little different, just play around till you find what you like. Hope this helps.

[CliftonBonney]

Originally Posted by rwelcome

If you take a good ruler and take a measurement from the top of the 17th fret to underside of each string and set the saddle height until all the distances are the same (say 3/32" for example) then you know the bridge saddles are "radiused", because the fret curves so if the gaps are even you know you're following the curve. Honestly my normal setup is a neck with very little relief (via truss rod), re-tune, the 17th fret measurement on the E&A string is 3/32" and the D&G is 5/64". Everyone likes it a little different, just play around till you find what you like. Hope this helps.

Thanks alot RWelcome. I just need to get the good ruler.

[stflbn]

In very simple terms ' you adjust the saddles on the bridge so that they're higher on the middle strings than they are on the outer strings. The bridge saddle heights mimic's the curve (radius) of the basses neck. You can get as technical as you want or you can eye-ball it by looking from the bridge down the neck toward the headstock and getting the strings generally the same height. At least for a start...

As I said... in very simple terms.