| Blog series by Dave Rutan | updated 04-02-2020 05:40 PM | 2 parts | 820 reads | 7 comments total |
Part 1: The Feet and the Arch
I had to make a new bridge for my teardrop fiddle to overcome a problem with the E string. I needed to raise it up a bit to facilitate bowing the E string by itself. Here is a fresh, new violin bridge. On a standard, archtop violin, the feet would be shaped to conform to the arch of the top. Since my fiddle is flat, I just used my disk sander to do the job. Having the previous bridge is handy for creating the replacement one. Violins vary due to age, brand, repairs, etc. H...
Part 2: Nicks and Tapering
With the curve sanded, I use a small triangular file to nick the top edge where the four strings will sit. I used the previous bridge to determine this. At work I have a fancy ‘bridge marker’ which is handy if you are making the bridge from scratch. Notice also that the bridge looks very thick. Since I am doing this at home, I needed to make a jig that I use to hold the bridge so that I can taper it and make the top edge of it thinner. I’ve seen violins that come i...
