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Probably a dumb question.
I have a semi hollow body bass kit. It has a wooden bridge...I assume it glues on. I havent started anything yet...I was gonna stain the body before i get going on it. If I stain and finish the body. will glueing the wood bridge to it be difficult???
is there any tips or secrets to doing this. Im ahead of myself here and I think its gonna be a relatively easy build but Im not sure about this bridge?? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Not 100%, but suspect that it is a floating bridge - i.e. it is held in place by string tension only - same as double bass / cello bridges. Need to be careful with them, but don't need to glue it in.
Hi and welcome.
No dumb questions here; if you don;t know, you don't know, so always ask.
It doesn't glue on, it's just held in place by string pressure, same as any violin, cello or double bass bridge, and most archtop guitars with 'floating' bridges. Because there's no easy intonation adjustment, if you ever change string gauge or type or manufacturer, you'll probably have to move the bridge slightly to get the intonation back, so glueing this type of bridge on isn't a great idea.
If you find it moves it much, then you can either a) use a bit of double sided tape to help keep it in place or b) 'pin' it in place.
To pin it, you mark out the bridge position on the top (best to use masking tape to give the outline rather than draw on the finish), then tap a couple of panel pins in the top near each end of the bridge, then cut the tops off the panel pins with a couple of mm still poking out. Put the bridge back in position over the pins and press down lightly, to mark the pin positions, then drill out the bridge with a drill the same diameter as the panel pins (probably a 1mm drill) to a depth just greater than the remaining pin depth, then put the bridge over the pins and restring.
That's enough to stop it moving over the top (it won't stop it falling off if you take all the strings off), but you can redrill the underside of the bridge if necessary if you do change the string gauge/type. But its really not worth pinning unless you've settled on your string choice. And you'll probably not find the bridge moves that much in the first place unless you are a very physical player.
I am guessing that Brendan is right. If it has a wooden base like the ones in the vids, and there are no pre-drilled holes in the top, then it's a floating bridge.
If the bass is a 34" scale, you just measure and put the saddle for the G string at 34" and tighten down the strings.
Most of the time there is no problem with this, but you can knock or pull the bridge out of place sometimes. If that happens to you, you could use one of the two approaches here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku-GEdxtwz4
(It wouldn't let me add two vids, so watch the next post ;-) )
I suppose you could glue, but you would not want to put any finish down before gluing. I have no idea why they never seem to glue the bridge on a hollow archtop, but I've not seen it. Mostly when there is bridge slippage I have seen folks use pins or double-sticky tape, but that may be because the guitar is already finished.
In any case, if it were me, I'd probably start with the traditional floating, and if it gave me trouble, I'd pin or tape it.