Archtop 'Ukulele - Floating bridge?

Does anyone build an archtop with a tailpiece and floating bridge? In an idle moment I find myself wondering if it'd be a worthwhile experiment.

The Kala laminate archtops seem to be just a cosmetic exercise as they still use the flat-top style bridge. Would a genuine archtop work?

Strikes me that the extra afterlength of string would mean that you'd get higher tension. Would uke strings take that tension?

I'm sure that the structural strength thing wouldn't be a problem, but with those nylon strings, would the instrument be loud enough, even if the strings will comfortably take the extra weight from the higher tension necessitated by the increased string length?

The string tension wouldn't be any higher. The tension is the same on all three sections of the string.....tuner to nut....nut to saddle....saddle to tail piece or tie block.
Having a floating bridge and tail piece allows a sharper break angle over the saddle. Then you get more down force on the bridge and top for the same string tension and (theoretically) more volume.

You'll find lots of info in Brad's thread on Building an arch top ukulele.

Wow, how did I miss that thread?! Thanks, Erich!

ksquine: Looks like I have a lot to learn still. Years ago I was taught that a longer overall string length meant that slightly higher tension was required in order to bring the string to pitch. This was while I was helping out in a repair shop. The tech guy I was assisting was building a jazz guitar. I never questioned the tension thing from that day to this.

I'm gonna read that whole thread now!

Cheers guys.

Where have you been Rich. I started exploring the idea of a genuine archtop uke about a year ago. When I asked the experts about it, the general opinion was that nylon strings would not have enough tension to drive an archtop. I went ahead anyway and finished no. 1 last June, it was loud, sounded great and sold to the first person who saw it. I've built 4 more since, and have 3 more on order. Send me an email if you want the plans.

Brad

Bradford said:

Where have you been Rich. I started exploring the idea of a genuine archtop uke about a year ago. When I asked the experts about it, the general opinion was that nylon strings would not have enough tension to drive an archtop. I went ahead anyway and finished no. 1 last June, it was loud, sounded great and sold to the first person who saw it. I've built 4 more since, and have 3 more on order. Send me an email if you want the plans.

Brad

Click to expand...

That low tension thing is what had me curious. I have built a couple of mandolins, and so the floating bridge/tailpiece thing was an obvious avenue of curiosity to me!

I checked out the thread and the pics therein. Brilliant stuff. Exactly what I'd been wondering about. I guess you can really thin those tops down with the low uke tension.

Thanks so much for the offer of the plans, Brad. That is very generous indeed, and I'm very grateful. That's the kind of helpful, sharing spirit that makes this place what it is. I'll send you my email address.

If only everyone were as helpful...

My mandolin tops were spruce and were 4.5mm to 5.0mm thick in the center and 3.0mm thick in the recurve area. For the ukes I've taken that down to 3.5mm to 4.0mm in the center and 2.0mm in the recurve area. It has worked so well for me that I have not played with that much. My first thought was to go without any bracing at all, but changed my mind and went with some light parallel braces. From what I have seen so far, that combo seems to have plenty of strength. I've seen too many vintage Gibson oval hole mandos with caved in tops, so I am being a bit conservative.

Brad

Thanks for all the emails, Brad.

I know what you mean about collapsed Gibson tops. I've been intrigued by the new "The Loar" LM-700 mandos. No tone bars. The guys all say that the bars in f-hole mandos are there for sound shaping, like the bass bar on a fiddle, rather than as structural bracing, which sort of makes sense. That being the case, perhaps bracing could be safely omitted from an f-hole archtop uke. It does seem to be the oval hole instruments that sink or collapse. That oval hole is a big chunk of wood to lose from the middle of the line of maximum stress, but f-holes... Y' know - I may just try one without braces (or a safety net).

You are welcome, Rick. One thing for sure, there is a lot of room for experimentation with these. The old Gibson oval hole A's may suffer from collasping tops, but they sure sound good.

Brad