Re: Improper bridge placement and muted tone.
Originally Posted by
MashMeister
I can slip a piece of just barely in on the back side of the bridge towards to tail piece ... can’t slip a piece through the front at all.
I've mentioned this previously (and never ever by anyone else) but once more can't hurt ...
That happened to me once and the sound went all to heck. I DID IT TO MYSELF, while experimenting w/ altered tunings over a several-week period.
I continually loosened two or three courses, played a bit, then tightened 'em back up, bringing them up to pitch more-or-less at once. I eventually realized that:
- loosening 2 or 3 courses greatly reduces the downward stabilizing pressure on the bridge, while,
- tightening 2 or 3 courses, together, tends to put a bit of neck-ward pressure on the bridge, just as the stabilizing force is reduced.
Repeated loosening & tightening (especially of other courses) just adds to the neck-ward pressure, slowly building to a neckward lean.
Since then, I make sure to tighten JUST ONE course at a time up to pitch, followed by re-tightening prior courses that may have come loose(er) under the added pressure on the arch. (Arch-tops, IMHO, tend to compress/expand under varied string pressure, even if just a tiny amount, more than we might expect).
By having -only one- course at a time exerting sideways pressure as the others exert only downward pressure, that "currently-in-tuning" course tends to not overpower the others, and the string more easily slides across the bridge, with reduced pulling on the bridge.
Yes, this is just one amateur's opinion. It may be theoretical, unproven, and just in my head, and the true experts may disagree, but it is my experience.
Last edited by EdHanrahan; Jan-24-2023 at 11:18am.
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
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