Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mitchell Boren on January 28, 2011 at 9:09am

I'm not very experienced at this, but the first Uke I built has the strings attached to a fork on the tailpiece. They lay across a floating bridge. I get really good sound from this. The main reason I did it this way was to avoid having to find a way to attach the bridge tight enough to hold against the tension of the strings. The one I am working on now will have the strings attached at the bridge. Trying to decide if I want to use really strong glue alone, or combine glue with screws coming from the inside. Not sure how this will affect the sound. Maybe someone else with more experience will chime in here and enlighten us.

 

Here is the first one.

And here is the new one.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on January 28, 2011 at 11:23am

I too prefer a floating bridge and I haven't heard that much of a difference in tone between a fixed and floating bridge. Bridge placement on the soundboard is in my mind more important.

Don

Permalink Reply by herb Berwald WWW.CigarGuitar.com on January 29, 2011 at 2:02am

All my ukes have been glue on.

Thought I was doing great, once I did not sand completly through the label paper and into good wood.  Everything was fine for a couple of days, then when doing a final tune, the bridge popped off.  re-sand, re-glue and everything is ok.

I have used floating bridge for CBG's and have screwed them down.  They all work.  I do like the screwed with some adjustment to allow for intonation.  This gives you some wiggle room....good luck.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Mitchell Boren on January 29, 2011 at 9:00am

What kind of glue do you use? I have some of this. Will this work, or do I need something stronger?

 

herb Berwald WWW.CigarGuitar.com said:

All my ukes have been glue on.

Thought I was doing great, once I did not sand completly through the label paper and into good wood.  Everything was fine for a couple of days, then when doing a final tune, the bridge popped off.  re-sand, re-glue and everything is ok.

I have used floating bridge for CBG's and have screwed them down.  They all work.  I do like the screwed with some adjustment to allow for intonation.  This gives you some wiggle room....good luck.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Mark Mercer on January 31, 2011 at 9:24am

The "archtop" style bridge (with tailpiece) uses angle of deflection to "power" the actuated panel, the "flat top" (saddle and bridge pin) rock the panel in a twisting motion. the potential pressure to strength ratio is where the volume can be changed. "the loudest instrument is about to fly apart at any time" (Dan Ferrington book). For a Uke? Ladder brace-classical guitar bridge,....resonator-tailpiece,....banjo style, All can be found on "store-bought".....(what do you want it to look-sound like?) Oh, the tone can be controlled by interior volume to sound hole (like in a "bass reflex" speaker cabinet)

Permalink Reply by Johnny Debit on February 4, 2011 at 10:15am

TB is plenty stong, but very slippery until it sets up. The trick is to keep the bridge from slipping during the gluing process:

 

(1) Dry clamp the bridge exactly where you want it.

(2) Drill a couple of pin holes through the bridge and soundboard. You can do this in the saddle slot if you have cut one already, or you can drill holes toward the ends and fill them later.

(3) Glue the bridge with pins in the wholes to keep the bridge from slipping during the clamping.

(4) Let it sit overnight and then remove the pins. You can heat the pins with a soldering iron to soften the glue if they don't want to come out.

 

This works well for fretboards too. Just make sure you're drill bit and pins are smaller than the width of your fret crown.

Mitchell Boren said:

What kind of glue do you use? I have some of this. Will this work, or do I need something stronger?

 

herb Berwald WWW.CigarGuitar.com said:

All my ukes have been glue on.

Thought I was doing great, once I did not sand completly through the label paper and into good wood.  Everything was fine for a couple of days, then when doing a final tune, the bridge popped off.  re-sand, re-glue and everything is ok.

I have used floating bridge for CBG's and have screwed them down.  They all work.  I do like the screwed with some adjustment to allow for intonation.  This gives you some wiggle room....good luck.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Mark Mercer on February 4, 2011 at 1:48pm

Tite bond is Great. I use it or Elmer's on anything that's supposed to stay. Hide glue if I need to take it apart. But that is oftenh not worth the expense or time. Just don't use Gorilla glue unless you try it out on something else first.

Mitchell Boren said:

What kind of glue do you use? I have some of this. Will this work, or do I need something stronger?

 

herb Berwald WWW.CigarGuitar.com said:

All my ukes have been glue on.

Thought I was doing great, once I did not sand completly through the label paper and into good wood.  Everything was fine for a couple of days, then when doing a final tune, the bridge popped off.  re-sand, re-glue and everything is ok.

I have used floating bridge for CBG's and have screwed them down.  They all work.  I do like the screwed with some adjustment to allow for intonation.  This gives you some wiggle room....good luck.