Removing Fluke Bridge

Have any of you removed the bridge from a Fluke? It would be easier for me to put a graphic on it if I remove the bridge, but I don't want to permanently damage the top.

Is this a wooden bridge or one of the plastic bridges? If it's plastic, I'm not sure how you'd even heat it up without damaging it. Either way there would be some risk involved. I mean you'd have to get it cleaned and reattached firmly too. Perhaps ask the company. I don't own any of their products now (have in the past) but I've always found them very responsive.

jer said:

Is this a wooden bridge or one of the plastic bridges? If it's plastic, I'm not sure how you'd even heat it up without damaging it. Either way there would be some risk involved. I mean you'd have to get it cleaned and reattached firmly too. Perhaps ask the company. I don't own any of their products now (have in the past) but I've always found them very responsive.

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Composite material with molded-in saddle. I tapped it loose by sliding a very thin putty knife under it. I knew it had two pegs to position it, but I didn't know it came in two pieces. There is a thin clear plastic (nylon?) piece attached to the top, and the brown bridge snaps onto that - probably glued, too. Now that it's off, I might replace it with a standard bridge. I also noticed that the plastic fretboard is about to come off. I removed and reattached another Fluke fretboard using PC7 epoxy. If I'm using a different bridge, I might try a ready-made wooden fretboard. The fret spacing is different, but if I have the 12th fret equidistant from the nut and the saddle, it should be okay.

I like experimenting.

If you got any pics with the bridge off, I'd be curious to see that. I like experimenting too.
The distance from 12th fret to saddle should be very slightly more than the distance from the nut to the 12th fret. Compensation is necessary for good intonation. I'm not sure of the exact formula to find how much compensation is needed. Thankfully when I've had to do that myself it was with movable bridges so easily adjusted.

jer said:

If you got any pics with the bridge off, I'd be curious to see that. I like experimenting too.
The distance from 12th fret to saddle should be very slightly more than the distance from the nut to the 12th fret. Compensation is necessary for good intonation. I'm not sure of the exact formula to find how much compensation is needed. Thankfully when I've had to do that myself it was with movable bridges so easily adjusted.

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I'll take pictures tomorrow (Wednesday).

Here are pictures of the bridge after I removed it. I wasn't very careful about removing it because I didn't plan to re-use it. From what I can tell, two small screws go through the top from the back and attach that white nylon plate. Then the brown bridge snaps onto it. After prying the nylon base off the top, I used a Dremel to cut off the screws.

I have several bridges, but I think I'll use this large one that I removed from an Enya. It's the only one that has the same hole spacing as the original. If I use this bridge, I'll have to drill holes through the top of the uke because that's how the Enya bridge is designed to hold the strings - through the top.

My only hesitation is about the size and thickness of that bridge. Will it dampen the vibrations of the top?

Thanks for those pictures! It is really neat to see what it looks like under the hood, so to speak. I'm always interested in how things work and are put together.
As for the new bridge changing the sound, it's possible...but hard to say.
Another thing to consider: To get the best bond you'd need to remove the finish from the top in the shape of the new bridge before installing.

jer said:

Thanks for those pictures! It is really neat to see what it looks like under the hood, so to speak. I'm always interested in how things work and are put together.
As for the new bridge changing the sound, it's possible...but hard to say.
Another thing to consider: To get the best bond you'd need to remove the finish from the top in the shape of the new bridge before installing.

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Magic Fluke also uses a bridge with a regular separate saddle sometimes. I don't know if that has the piece that screws to the top. The glue that held the fretboard in place came off as one solid piece. I'll post a picture later. I'll use Titebond III to attach the new board.

Jerryc41 said:

...My only hesitation is about the size and thickness of that bridge. Will it dampen the vibrations of the top?

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The entirety of each instrument made by The Magic Fluke Company are highly and specifically engineered to be what they are.

Dale Webb was an engineer by trade before starting the Magic Fluke Company, and therefore I think if you make any changes, you are going to get a different sound and different volume from the modified instrument.

I am not an engineer, but my own experience tells me that a larger bridge fixed to the top is likely to reduce the amount that it vibrates, even if "perfectly" coupled to it with the proper adhesive, and also a bridge that has more mass than the original is going to be heavier once fixed to the top.

I have no way to know if it will sound better or worse, but would suggest that you are in uncharted waters here Jerry, and are sort of a maverick with this modification to your Fluke in changing the bridge.

I am not a luthier, and have no skills nor experience in such modifications, but this is based on my own hands on as a player of guitars and ukes for a long time now.

Also, Jerry, since you have other Magic Fluke instruments, and possibly some of them have the original stock bridge and saddle, you should be able to tell if the sound is better or worse if you compare one of these Magic Fluke ukes to your current project uke once completed.

I will be following your progress here with interest. Please report back and keep us informed.

Good luck with this! I truly hope it works out for the best!

Disclaimer (in case this info is not remembered from my previous posts here on UU): My concert Flea is my one and only, and favorite uke, after many years of trying a wide variety of more traditional wood ukes, both laminated and solid-wood. After falling in love with my Flea, I sold off all my other ukes and guitars, so my comments here may reflect this bias.

Joe King said:

I have no way to know if it will sound better or worse, but would suggest that you are in uncharted waters here Jerry, and are sort of a maverick with this modification to your Fluke in changing the bridge

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Thanks for your comments. I'm leaning toward using a smaller bridge or making one. The holes in the standard bridges I have are a bit closer together than the holes in the Fluke bridge, but I'll probably use one of them.

As for the sound, I'm not using this to make and sell CDs.

EDIT: Here's the Fluke so far. I'm going to see how it sounds without cutting out the sound hole. That's an adhesive sheet of vinyl on top. I might cut a sound port into the top side. I think I'll add geared tuners, too.

Jerryc41 said:

Thanks for your comments. I'm leaning toward using a smaller bridge or making one. The holes in the standard bridges I have are a bit closer together than the holes in the Fluke bridge, but I'll probably use one of them.

As for the sound, I'm not using this to make and sell CDs.

EDIT: Here's the Fluke so far. I'm going to see how it sounds without cutting out the sound hole. That's an adhesive sheet of vinyl on top. I might cut a sound port into the top side. I think I'll add geared tuners, too.

View attachment 125001

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That looks pretty cool! Where did you get that vinyl graphic? Do they have others?

Also, maybe you can get a few spare bridges direct from The Magic Fluke Company, and that way you can re-use the original holes for mounting.

OTOH, If you use a non-Magic-Fluke bridge, even if you do not use the "holes" to screw down the bridge, and in fact only glue it on, if you make the holes in your bridge match those in the top of the soundboard, you can use them as "centering pins" which will enable you to install the bridge and saddle in the perfect place for intonation.

My only concern would be to make sure that you are gluing bridge to "actual" wood on the top, and not to vinyl or paint, otherwise the bridge is likely to fly off once the strings are tuned up to pitch.

From what others told me, the Titebond glue when used properly, with wood-directly-to-wood, makes a bond that is stronger than the wood itself. I do not know if this is true, but sounds legit to me.

Yes - about 10,600,000.

I picked out a picture from Hubble and then printed it on white-backed, sticky vinyl. I used the same process to print a graphic for a fretboard. The clear-backed vinyl turned out to be almost useless.

https://smile.amazon.com/Royal-Elem...2&sr=1-1-e1d37225-97ae-4506-b802-4ca5ff43ebe6

Joe King said:

That looks pretty cool! Where did you get that vinyl graphic? Do they have others?

My only concern would be to make sure that you are gluing bridge to "actual" wood on the top, and not to vinyl or paint, otherwise the bridge is likely to fly off once the strings are tuned up to pitch.

From what others told me, the Titebond glue when used properly, with wood-directly-to-wood, makes a bond that is stronger than the wood itself. I do not know if this is true, but sounds legit to me.

Click to expand...

Yes - about 10,600,000.

I picked out a picture from Hubble and then printed it on white-backed, sticky vinyl. I used the same process to print a graphic for a fretboard. The clear-backed vinyl turned out to be almost useless.

https://smile.amazon.com/Royal-Eleme...2-4ca5ff43ebe6

The bridge will have to go in a different location because of the different spacing of the frets on the wooden fretboard. It won't be much different, though, maybe 1/8" from the original position.

Jerryc41 said:

Thanks for your comments. I'm leaning toward using a smaller bridge or making one. The holes in the standard bridges I have are a bit closer together than the holes in the Fluke bridge, but I'll probably use one of them.

As for the sound, I'm not using this to make and sell CDs.

EDIT: Here's the Fluke so far. I'm going to see how it sounds without cutting out the sound hole. That's an adhesive sheet of vinyl on top. I might cut a sound port into the top side. I think I'll add geared tuners, too.

View attachment 125001

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Is that a replacement maple fingerboard too? Don't think I've seen a Fluuke with a maple board before.

Ukecaster said:

Is that a replacement maple fingerboard too? Don't think I've seen a Fluuke with a maple board before.

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Yes. I wanted to replace the plastic fretboard, but I didn't want to get into making one. The fret spacing is different, but I like the looks. Magic Fluke has some nice wooden fretboards available. I had them replace two boards for me - one light and one dark. Another complication with this fretboard is the lack of a zero fret, so I'll have to add a nut and do a setup.