Bridge leg placement over bass bar

[Mark Stefaniw]

What is the conventional thinking on how the bridge leg should be positioned over the bass bar? Centered? Half the bar thickness narrower?

I'm contemplating a new bridge for my big Romanian flatback (42" scale). Currently the bridge leg is well inside the CL of the bass bar. See attached images for measurements.

If I center the leg over the bass bar, than the toes will likely over hang the f-hole eyes.

[Ken Smith]

The center leg over the bar places the outer foot edge closer to the f-hole eye. For healther basses I think this is ok but some like the bridge foot edge just over the inner edge of the bar or half way in to vibrate the bar from the inner edge/half. Is the foot edge is inside the inner edge of the bar, you can crack the bass right there. All the pressure without out support.

usually the width between the inner f-hole eyes determines the width of the bridge's outer feet. So, is it is 155mm, the you get a 155mm bridge +/- 5mm.. Or something like that.

The sound changes as well by this width as well as the soundpost placement. Also, not all bassbars are placed exactly in their optimum placement for a particular bass.

[Arnold Schnitzer]

The general rule of thumb is that the bridge foot should overhang the outer edge of the bass bar 5 to 10mm. Some makers and repairers don't fully understand the bass bar/ bridge/ f-hole relationship, and so there are situations where this does not really work because of a mis-located bass bar or overly narrow f-hole placement.

[FrankDeets]

also, great pictures!