Making a bridge for an Archtop Instrument.
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- Опубліковано 21 тра 2016
- In this video I'm making a Ebony bridge for the Mandola. The steps used to make this bridge can be applied to any archtop instrument bridge.
Mandocello & Octave Mandolin blueprints: www.hovingtoninstruments.com/...
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Great video! I'm an aspiring luthier and seeing you do a lot with hand tools was very helpful and informative. Great music too
Beige Panda thanks panda 🐼, happy the video was helpful... I made a F5 a long time ago with only hand tools ( except for routing for the MoP inlay) and it was a long, But great learning experience.. Once you know with hand tools it's easy to know which power tools to add to help with your build.. personally I don't want to cut kerf strips by hand ever again!!
Pretty cool Tomy. The precision at which you make this is truly amazing. Remarkable craftsmanship!
Hey Guy, glad you enjoyed!! Those are very kind words!
Bravo sir!!!!! Simple, effective, clean and classy
Very cool! I didn't know how much work and care goes into one of these bridges. Very interesting! the sanding trick is top!
Thanks, they are a labor of love but so rewarding ! I made this one in a day " and made 4 more blanks while at it" might as well while I'm all setup! Cheers
I'm making my first carved top electric, my intention is to take inspiration from a Gretsch Duo Jet and have a floating bridge... this gives me some confidence in making the bridge base from scratch. Thanks man. Great video.
Glad you found this video useful and thanks for the feedback, hope your build goes well!
Great work and amazing video. It was a pleasure to watch!
Thanks Stephan, glad you enjoyed.. And thank you for the feed back!
These videos alone are equal to a college course on documentary film~making. I wonder how many watching realize what you're able to give them for free. Even the music is extremely well done.
+William Nelson Thank William, I really appreciate the feedback and I’m glad you enjoyed the videos. Thanks for watching!!
I love my artist pencil collection when I want to mark up dark woods like ebony and mahogany. If they made .5 mm mechanical pencil leads in white I'd be all over those things. I love your videos because they carry the spiritual peace I seek from woodworking plus you're making something to create joyful noises. Peace.
It's like watching a video and have therapy at the same time. Something I just have to learn...patience, which I know is crucial for accuracy... Great video Tomy!
A trick I learn over the years is to shut the lights and walk away. There is some times that you just run out of patience....Glad you enjoyed the video Gerrit!
Tommy you do great work thanks for All the videos. Why does no body talk about intonation of the two middle sets of the string on the mandolin family of instruments
Very good question… It always been if low and high are in the right position then it’s good, regardless of string gauge. You might find this interesting, when I build my Mandocello I had to find the intonation for the gauge I was going to use on a longer scale than previously made M’cello … here’s how I made my intonation…hope you enjoy
ua-cam.com/video/7GzP08xgmRY/v-deo.html
Great video Tomy! When the song first started I thought it was A-ha- Crying in the rain!
The intro sounds very similar :) thanks for stoping by Matt!!
Very nice work
Thank you!
Great stuff. your video sound track has really improved
+montewoods Thanks for the feed back, glad you enjoyed.
Nice video, thanks!
You’re welcome! Glad you have enjoyed it...
Beautiful work! How do you deal with grounding?
Great video Tony. I really enjoyed it. I have a question for you. How do you know where to cut the offsets for the strings on the bridge?
Ed H the string spacing is usually in with the prints you would use to make the instrument, now someone could alternate that to their own liking.. you could possibly go for hrs on online forums reading through what everyone prefers and why.. hope it helps..
Great video Tomy.
I thought I bought a Japanese saw but I just got the replacement blade.
Where can I get just the handle like the one you have?
+Marcel Hebert not really sure Marcel. I bought mine from Stewart MacDonald "stewmac" and it came with the handle.. I would think handles are probably harder to get than the blade...
Fantastic video! I'm in the process of making a bridge for an Archtop guitar out of a block of wenge. Currently cut it to size and have sanded even on all sides. Marked out where the holes for the bridge posts go and where the bridge starts to slope down towards the ends. Any tips on getting the shape right? And did you use anything to finish the bridge afterwards?
Thanks,
Sam
Glad this video is useful to you. For the shape I would tell you to take your time and personally I only use files to shape it. On Ebony, using chisels makes a bunch of splinter , I would assume the same on wenge. I usually bring it to a nice finish afterwards with a variety of card scrapers and oil it with fretboard conditioner. Hope this helps! Happy building!
Hi Tomy, I've just bought a replacement floating bridge for an old Framus archtop guitar and the new one isn't quite high enough even with the screw adjustments stretched at the max (a setting which I presume doesn't make for the best sound anyhow)... my question is, is it okay to 'pack' the bottom of the bridge with and extra strip of glued wood to get the necessary height? Many thanks.
pantano207 i guess in your case it sounds like the only option.. Unfortunately. The wood you choose to raise the bridge will make a difference also, for example you would hear a tonality difference between Ebony and Maple. Also make sure you have no gap between the bridge and the added piece . The only other option would be to make a new bottom for your saddle part. Hope it helps...
Great video.
Do you glue the height adjusters in place?
Thanks Andy.. no you stop the treads when tapping the base part short of the bottom side. So when you screw the posts in they get tight in place.
Nice work. I came here looking for ideas. I want to make one for a three string cigar box guitar but it doesnt need to be that fancy. Where do you get the thumbscrews? Thanks
Stewart Macdonald (StewMac.com)
Thanks for watching
Hey, Tomy! Nice vid. I have two questions, please. 1) Does the bridge need to be slotted for the strings to fit and play properly, or is it okay to just allow the strings to "rest" on he bridge, held down by the tension of the tuned guitar? And 2) The bridge you made looked like a pretty darn good fit, and you mentioned that you'll sand it down even more for a better fit. What would be the downside of NOT sanding it down even more? How would it affect the tone and the playability?
Hi Mo Cee, two great questions.. I do prefer to make some little notch with a proper sized nut file on the bridge to keep the strings from moving side to side... not needed but on a mandolin any wandering could end up with two strings being too close . Making the notch keeps them in their optimal position.
For the bridge fit is all about not having any space between the soundboard and the base of the bridge. The more surface contact the better it is. If the fit is not refined you may lose some energy from the bridge to soundboard in turn having less of a response than what you could have.. Once again great questions, thanks for asking..
Hey, Tomy! Thanks for your reply. I have installed a wood bridge on my Ibanez LGB30, but did not make slot for the strings. That was yesterday. So far I've played it with new flatwounds and all seems good. I can def hear the difference - warmer, smoother, less screech from the high E and B. I also installed a wood bridge on my ES-175, and same difference; warmer and clearer. But I have not sanded down the bottom of the saddle and I may do that on my next string change. It looks easier than I thought. Thanks again for your info. :)
One more question, do you sell these? I would like to have just the top portion of the bridge made.
Ed H hi Ed, just the top would be hard to make without the bottom piece. As you can see into the video, they are drilled simultaneously to make certain that the holes will line up together. You wouldn't want to have a sloppy fit on the thumb wheel posts.
Any advice for an archtop guitar(ebony adjustable bridge) that is a bit too trebly or percussive? Is there a certain wood for a bridge that might give it a fuller sound?
Rosewood might help, but if the guitar is made out of a bright sounding wood, like maple, it’s still going to be bright..
@@HovingtonInstruments I'm sorry, I should have told you more about the guitar construction. It's a parallel braced, spruce top, cherry back, walnut sides archtop built on the Benedetto plan. I also told you the wrong thing about the bridge. It IS rosewood that I dyed black and had forgotten wasn't ebony (it looks like ebony though). Do you think a one piece carved bridge, resembling a violin bridge, make a positive improvement?
let's talk about intonation, doen't the fixed saddles on this construction make the intonation ajustment impossible? If so how cuold I come up with the right placement for the saddles? I want to make a replacement bridge for my squier jaguar (best guitar ever, worst bridge ever) i know the radius, the spacing and I already have a way to adjust the action at the bridge but my problem is with intonation, it seems like it's crucial but I don't know how to manage it, pls help!
Thank you in advance!
(Owesome building btw)
BigFootEntertaiment there are many factors that can affect your intonation. Each builder will have his own preference in which way to make the saddle. Once the instrument is done and moves to a good home, if the player change the string gauge it can affect the intonation. For example, I own a Takamine with a saddle that's In 2 pieces. And my wife takamine saddle is in one piece. My string gauge was bigger from factory. In this particular case in this video, I followed the blueprint I have.. there's quite a few different prints out there you can get. What I usually do Is leave the width of the saddle (where the strings sits) just over 1/16 in contact area. Then at the final setup i can set the G and the E low and high strings on the bridge for perfect intonation and then I can adjust the central pair of strings by removing either from the front or from the back of the saddle to tweak the intonation.. it is a extremely long process but it worth every minute.. also I found by changing the string gauges ( if they are all changed to bigger or smaller) The intonation is still very good.. reason being that with a floating bridge you can move it ahead or back a bit to get it just right..hope it answers your question...
@@HovingtonInstruments I loved this video. I was looking online for help; I have a Fishman archtop bridge with built-in pickup assembly I bought for an old Hofner guitar, and the saddle is just a blank piece of wood with shallow slots (in the wrong place!) as a string guide. I want to carve the top of the saddle to fix the intonation, and your comment to BigFootEntertainment here answers a lot of my questions...and the video gives me some confidence in approaching this job. I guess I need to find a blueprint online with the right dimensions, then carve the saddle with enough wood to spare on each string to allow fine-tuning of the intonation. I'll do this little by little when I have my preferred strings on the guitar. I'm a bit scared, all the same!
Great video ! What is the name of the tool you use at 9:19 please ?
It’s a stainless steel contour gauge.
Cheers
So if I wanted to refinish my archtop acoustic, to remove and reattach the bridge, I'd just have to unscrew it? I assumed it was glued on and I was afraid to remove it because of that
Carlos if your bridge looks like this one it's a floating bridge. Meaning that the strings are holding it in place. All you have to do is to take a measure from the nut to the saddle to reinstall the bridge at at the same location. This will prevent any change in your intonation..
Tomy Hovington ah yeah it does. Thank you
Hi
.i bought a new ebony saddle..how do I notch it? Thanks
I use my nut file to make a small notch for the string to stay in the proper location.
A regular small triangular file will do the job even if the angle is greater... just don’t go to deep.
@@HovingtonInstruments thanks..after you lay the strings basically as even as possible what side of the string underneath do you make the notch if the headstock is facing you up north?
What is the name of the tool used at 9:10?
Andrew Devonport it's a Steel Profile Gauge Marking Out Tool, can easily find those on eBay. I think I bought this one at Home Depot...
an archtop instrument
Thanks for pointing it out.. I just fixed it!