Bridge width?

spongeuke

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Is there reason for increasing the width of the bridge across the face as the scale lengthens or voice gets lower on Ukuleles
The saddle length doesn't get that much bigger but the wings seam to increase from Soprano to Concert to Tenor (big jump) Baritone and I'm not familiar enough with Bass as it is a new comer.
Tried a search but had too much to wade through.
Thanks Dave in Petaluma
 
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One will be for the look. Small bridge on a larger lower bout looks a bit odd.

As you increase the string length, you increase tension, so a larger gluing footprint helps out here.

The bridge is probably the most important brace on a soundboard. Careful thought into what you are doing with it as per your other bracing underside of the soundboard, and how you want the assembly as a whole to react should also play a part in how you approach it's size.
 
This issue of bridge size on an ukulele I think is another design black box. From what I can tell, the ratio of lower bout size to bridge footprint has been copied directly from classical guitar sizes and has been imported and downsized to the smaller ukulele. Does it work? Hell yes it works pretty darn good good. But is it the final solution? Maybe not. I'm feeling the bridge is too small proportionally to the top, but I'm not an acoustical instrument designer. I've always missed a real designer on this forum who could show with mathematics what the best area to footprint the bridge should occupy. It should be a simple X is to Y solution ratio.
 
As Allen mentions, we have to consider the bridge as a brace, but its really just an unyielding lump that I'd like to get rid of. Jay Hargreaves has made some beautiful sculpted bridges for his acoustic bass guitars, but cleaning the finish off of the bridge foot print must be a nightmare. I've thought of slotting the bottom of the bridge front to back between the strings and out onto the wings to let the bridge flex with the top. This would maintain a foot print that is easy to clean the finish off of, as well as something of a conventional look. My tenor for the 2x4 project utilizes a bridge/tail piece concept that eliminates at least half of the bulk of a conventional bridge since the tail piece is very low, and this instrument has a wonderful voice. The uke bridge has always been stuck with a classical guitar-type bridge, yet as has been oft repeated on the forum, the uke is not a guitar.
 

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I like the different approaches presented here. I'm designing a bridge to accommodate D-Walker Acoustic Bass Strings (short Scale) on a Baritone sized Body. Bridge pin or through the body won't work as there is those steel bushings. A tail piece and floating bridge present problems with the overall length to the tuner. I seems I must have a fairly large bridge something like what is used on the Box Bass pictured in that post, when my sensibilities would prefer Mainger's offering.
Has any seen larger bridge pins used? Underneath is a bridge plate and Kasha style bracing.
 
Checked out the Antica Ukuleleria site. Hey the side port on the lower bout will allow me to use a through the body bridge system.
Thank you so much. The build will progress along conventional lines now.
The ukulele on the Antica Ukuleleria link certainly pushes design in directions I wasn't considering. Food for thought (Dreams to).
 
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