long bridge

[The Phrygian Kid]

This is how i been making my last three or four bridges..

its a bit different from Tinys and Teds and Randys kinda ones, maybe useful for u if u got a bit of a neck angle and some height in there.. Ur all very welcome to use, improve etc on my ideas

my recent experiments indicate that a taller bridge gives me more volume, and spreading the feet further apart seems to as well..

1.. ok so here we have a typical neck for me, and with the four main bits of scrap that i bandsaw off.. we are looking at the angled one on the left of the pic. Incidentally, i always save the other big one, from underside of the neck, cos i reckon if i wanted to make a case, thatd just about be a perfect supporter for the neck... but i never did one yet..

2.. I take a straight edge to my neck and work out roughly how tall my bridge is gonna be, then i trim down that bit of scrap..

i mark it out into two halves, and find the centre of the thicker half to set my saddle into..

this saddle is buffalo horn (i cut 3 from a nut from ebay), but i've previously done bone ones and may do brass or steel or whatever just as easily.

** addition/edit.. i am working on the top of the neck scrap, the side which is known to be square.. the other side has ugly bandsaw marks... (this is important)

3.. So i chisel out a slot for the saddle so it can be recessed to its full depth inside the wood

4. ok, so around the saddle i measure and mark out my rough bridge outline, then i cut out a slot under for the piezo, and a way out for the cable thru one of the bridges legs. I prefer to go down the leg on the treble (floor) side, bcos i think its a little easier to work out where to drill the hole in the box lid

5. i cut a piezo disc into a couple of thin strips and solder the cable to them. Unlinke tiny, but like Ted and Randy, I do em in parallel, so I piggyback on onto the back of the other, black to black and red to red..

6.. i cut the other half of the plank off, pop it on top, and copy my rough outline onto there

(I flip it over, like closing a book, so the two square sides are the join, and the outsides are the rough, bandsawn edges..)

7.. i cut a small 2" length of gardening irragation hose, its probly about 8mm hose.. I put this to cover the cables for two reasons; it makes it much easier if u need to shave a few mm off the feet, protecting the cables, and it also provides some protection for the cables from ur box or tin lid later when u poke it thru..

I open it out again, spread and and fill all the cavities right up with 5 minute epoxy, then i push it all together again and clamp it tight.

now this is (what i think) is the really clever part... the angle we started with on this bit of scrap compounds on itself, making a scarf joint !! yep, we have a new square edge, and now the saddle is set in on a bit of an angle.. its not exactly the angle we want of course, so the bridge wont go in exactly square, but its close..

8.. out of the clamps, first thing i'll do is hit the linisher and find my saddle on the top

9. then i'll start rounding over the top, note because of the diagonal position of the saddle this is kind of an elliptical motion im rounding it to (so two of the corners get rounded off more than the other two and the end result is a regular rectangular bridge, but with its feet twisted to something of an angle..)

which may be easier to understand from this next pic..

10. the linisher wont handle the inside edges of course, so eventually we gotta pull out the pretend spindle sander and go to work on the inside

11. after another 5 or 6 minutes i need the smaller one again..

here u can see i use the little drum sander to 'walk' the saddle out a little.. i imagine this is exactly how Randy does bone ones ?? (i dont actually do it one handed of course, the other is holding the camera here.. but come to think of it Randy does it with about a hand and a quarter huh :D )

12. then theres maybe half hour of sanding by hand, i spend most of my time on 60 grit, then just a few minutes each on 100, 240, 600, and 1200

13.. I sure like that Tung oil stuff eh ??

Well, thanks for having a look & I hope its of some use to you, please put a pic up or give me feedback if u try it..

Another idea i want to try on it soon is a metal saddle (or a laminated saddle of more than one component, one of which is a metal) with a wire to its underside for earthing a mag pup to easily..

[Randy S. Bretz]

Cool lookin piezo bridge - jef.

[Henry Lowman]

BRILLIANT!!! :-)

[Nancy Barnes]

Very interesting... and a beautiful bridge!

[The Phrygian Kid]

[Ted Crocker]

Very cool Jef, nice work. Great build too, have a vid so we can hear it?

Thanks for taking the time to document and share.

[steve smith-- Dewy Dewtron]

cool jef , looks great

[Wichita Sam]

hmmm, hmmm, hmmm,  that is sweet.  Thanks for the inspiration.....

[Michael R Cossey]

Thats really neat ..... may come in handy on my future CBG builds