Bridge Foot Thickness - Does it matter?

[jazzbill]

My Bridge has Thick feet compared to some I have seen. Does the foot thickness have an effect on tone, sustain, stability?

[JtheJazzMan]

Every time I have had a luthier cut a bridge they thinned the outer sides of the bridge feet to about 3-4 mm. I dont have any objective info on how that affects tone.

[Matthew Tucker]

My functional take on this is that there needs to be good contact with the top to ensure stability and protect the top from damage, but only enough leg diameter/weight to maximise string vibration transmission through to the top. So with a maple bridge you end up with thin leg and a splayed foot. But if the splayed foot is too thick, particularly on the G side, this MIGHT impede the ability of the bridge to rock around that fulcrum. So that's one of the reasons why it is thinned down to 2-4mm. You can go too thin, and then you end up with a flimsy bridge foot.

There's also the way it looks; a trad bridge is a kind of baroque shape, and the feet look elegant a certain way, as do the edge chamfers and detailing on the wings and cutouts, just as the serifs on lettering can look elegant. Leave the feet chunky and the bridge looks ... chunky. Some people might like this but i don't.

Change the material of the bridge, or the shape, and it might not be necessary. I'm thinking of James Condino's bridge here!

[james condino]

Every builder has their own ideas on bridges; every bass has its own ideas of what bridge works best, regardless of what the individual luthier thinks......

If you really get out and search around, there truly amazing works of art that people have successfully used as effective bridge designs. As well, there are some that encompass a ton of specialized ideas and intricate theory that are duds. The traditional bridge design is there for a reason- hundreds of years of luthiers working hard to maximize the sound have come up with that as a fine example.

I usually try a number of different models and ideas, but when I sit back and let the process go on autopilot when I'm building strictly for myself and not for someone else, they tend to come out looking a bit different than other folks take on it.

Since he brought it up, here is a link to one I think Matthew is referring to, just one of many that I've tried, along with some nerdy discussion of it if you read the whole thread:

james' bass build

j.