Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by jawbone on July 9, 2013 at 7:09am

Yes, I like that idea of the arched bridge!! I may let him try it the way it is just to see if he uses it as a guitar or a hockey stick, first.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard Holmes on July 9, 2013 at 4:46pm

... on the other hand, Shane Speal, in his video about using a dado blade to put a gap between the neck and the box lid, specifically leaves enough wood at the bridge so the neck will be in contact with the lid there. He makes a gap above and below the bridge but not at the bridge. His thinking presumably is that the box lid is under high stress at that point from the strings pulling down on the bridge, and he wants it to be reinforced by the neck at that point. (He doesn't say that specifically but that's what I assume is the reasoning.) Obviously, though, if leaving the lid unsupported under the bridge works for you, go for it.

As for the string gauge, ideally if you reduce the scale length by a certain factor, and want to keep the same string tension using the same type of string, then you should increase the string diameter by that same factor. For instance going from 25.5" to 20", the new scale length is 0.78 times the old, so the string diameters would be 1/0.78 = 1.28 times larger to result in the same string tension. 36, 26, and 17 would become 46, 33, and 22 ideally. But in reality (especially for a child's instrument) you might want lower tension, so not as big an increase in diameter. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jawbone on July 10, 2013 at 1:21am

Hey thanx Rich - I'm starting to think stretching the kids arms would have resulted in WAAAAY less math!!!!!
I had the same thoughts about the pressure from the bridge on unsupported areas - I'll have to try some experiments one day.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page