Advice on bridge

[Matthew Tucker]

Well, again, that bridge looks kinda familiar. They often come in like that but my instinct tells that unless there's a compelling structural reason to rectify it, just changing out the bridge so the back face is vertical instead of the front face is not necessarily money well spent.

Stabilising that crack before it gets worse, on the other hand ...

I think you need to think of finding a luthier as signing up the last team member in your bass adventure. Its you, your teacher and your luthier. He/she will be able to give you advice that no-one here really can, cos we're not there playing the bass. If you're willing to pay someone for their expertise you may as well listen to what they have to say, even if you think you know better!

Lastly, when you can buy a serviceable bridge blank for between $50 and $90, why bother making your own? The cost is in the time and effort the luthier puts into fitting it to your bass, and you can't do that on a CNC machine ..

[edit: Despiau, Aubert etc also manufacture their blanks in different leg heights, tall/squat, so you can probably get what you're after if your luthier knows what to order. Also you might like to put adjusters in the legs, then you can do pretty much what you like, cut down the legs on a taller blank, if you really want to! And again, IMO changing the bridge wood/shape/height etc may change the sound, but not as much as other adjustments might do. Get the basses set up to play well; fingerboard work, soundpost adjustment, nut slots, cracks glued, general clean-up etc will do wonders!]

[Yeong Cham]

Happy New Year!!

Thank you for your advice. A trip to the luthier has been penciled in and I will try to control myself and spend wisely.

[Martin Sheridan]

A cheap fix is to lossen the top from the neck block and along the ribs all the way down to just past the top corner blocks. Pull the bass neck forward and try to get about 150mm height projected to the bridge, or inside f hold nicks. Reglue it. Put a piece of spruce in the gap betweent the top and the neck.

Bridges are also sold with different width feet to better fit in relation to soundpost and bass bar.

Finally, you might consider a smaller bridge e.g. a one half size.

None of this is what you'd do to a really good bass, but it can make the bass playable for a lot less money.