How it’s made: part 16 - Soundpost and Bridge
We’re almost there, the first “pluck” is in close sight now!
The Soundpost
The soundpost measures between 7.2 and 8.5 mm. We used these and everything in between, and we’re now settled on a 7.6.
The bridge
This is my latest bridge:
The outer distance between the 5th and the 1st string is between 55 and 56 mm.
For the curve and the heights of the strings, the 5th must not be lower than 6.5, or it will buzz, and we like a 1st as low as 4.5. In between, we have seen that soloists prefer a higher 4th than the cone peak on the 3rd. I’m not sure why, but it actually works better. I’m afraid it is because almost all string makers make a weaker 4th, so raising it helps a bit. However, the curve must be even, so I recommend constantly checking the curve more than the heights. When I measure the height of a string compared with the two at the side, I aim for a measure between 1.6 and 1.8. But it must be the same for all three intervals.
As all string brands present considerable differences in gauge string per string, this has to be checked and modified every time one changes the kind of string.
To measure the evenness of the curve, I bought this cheap tool for measuring wheels and modified it a bit.
This tool was suggested by Thomas Croen, who was a special guest at the weekly meetings in Sofia Vettori’s Luthiers Mastermind Lab. I will speak more about this fantastic group in my next issue. Being there is a constant enrichment, and it is also fun! I can ask whatever I need or simply share what I’m up to for the joy of receiving feedback. I love checking in on.cHerenity chat during my morning coffee to see what the others are up to.
I highly recommend it, and here is the link if you want to check it out.
This is an affilate link, it means that if you subscribe through this link, I will receive s. Here This money will actually compensate me for the fact that I share there all that I share here about making. So please, if you decide to subscribe to that wonderful group, do it through this link, thank you.
Last summer when I was in this phase of the work I wrote a newsletter on my favourite tools, and I recommend you to read it now:
