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Double Bass Messed up bridge
- Thread starter djc03006
- Start date
It's bent and yeah, you'd probably like to have a new one. That said, the string tension is still directed straight down to the top, so it's stable and unlikely to fail on its own for the time being.
Could be the camera angle, but the fit of the Full Circle adjuster also looks off, as though either the bass foot isn’t cut straight, or the adjuster isn’t sitting flat on the foot. Either way, a new bridge would fix that.
Yup, I'm certainly no expert but it looks like it wasn't a great bridge blank to start with and the the FC was not installed in the centre of the feet. Probably best just to start over, rather than trying to fix what's there.
Good call, I agree there’s a number of things going on that could all be fixed with new bridge.
I like the string tension as is. If the bridge gets fixed it will bring it closer to the fingerboard. Wouldn’t this increase the tension? I may not like this
At the same tuning with the same strings, the tension should remain the same. The string break angle over the bridge may have an effect on volume and tone but at the same tuning the tension is the same.
If the vibrating string length gets shorter, the tension decreases at the same pitch.
If it gets longer it increases.
You can use my formulas.html file in my Dropbox to find out how much. Load it in your Webbrowser with JavaScript enabled, find the right formula and enter your values. Don‘t forget to press enter after each entered value, specially the last one. The shown formulas are only for reference. I don’t think you would recognize the change.
The link for my Dropbox is in my signature and a string sticky.
If it gets longer it increases.
You can use my formulas.html file in my Dropbox to find out how much. Load it in your Webbrowser with JavaScript enabled, find the right formula and enter your values. Don‘t forget to press enter after each entered value, specially the last one. The shown formulas are only for reference. I don’t think you would recognize the change.
The link for my Dropbox is in my signature and a string sticky.
Am I the only person who has noticed that the bridge is warping the wrong way, bending back toward the tailpiece instead of the nut as would be expected with string pull? And the hole for the adjuster we can see in the bridge foot certainly appears to be off center. The warp can be straightened with steam and clamp, but that adjuster all but mandates a new bridge.
Greg Clinkingbeard
Commercial User
Looks like a lot of the school basses I see. Cheap bridge cut wrong. I new bridge is in your future.
Now this perplexes me. I can see cheap bridges and cheap strings on school basses for budgetary reasons, but how can the people who service school instruments cut the bridge wrong? it's like all the school basses I've seen with the fingerboard dressed from the nut to the fifth position but nothing beyond that. Makes the bass all but unplayable due to string height in the lower positions. But aside from mismatching the curvature of the bridge to the curvature of the fingerboard, how is it possible to screw up cutting a bridge?
Greg Clinkingbeard
Commercial User
Crooked or off center adjusters can cause a bridge to warp by causing unequal force. That’s a theory anyway. Also, overly thinning it around the heart can cause warping. Knowing that the bridges on school basses seldom get any attention to keep them straight, I tend to leave them thicker than I may otherwise.
