Fitting your bridge

Craig Bumgarner

How are you making the adjustments? Are you using a piece of sandpaper stuck to the top at the bridge location and moving the bridge back and forth across it? Tedious, but this will do it.

I use fine sandpaper, 320 grit or even finer for the final fit. I use the kind of sand paper that has low a tack adhesive (for automotive body work) so it really hugs the surface of the guitar. I use the edge of a pencil to lightly cover the bottom of the feet so that I can see how I'm doing as I sand. If the mustaches are in place, this will slow things down as they get in the way, but it can still be done.

Well worth the trouble. Nothing kills the tone like a poorly fitted bridge.

BTW, adhesive backed sand paper has all kind of uses. One of my favorites is to make abrasive tools custom for a particular job. Say I need to reach in to a corner and sand a curve. No problem, shape a piece of wood that will do the job and stick so sandpaper on it. I made a little abrasive "plane" I use ALL the time. The abrasive surface is about 3" long with a tapered flat bottom. Gets into all kinds of spots and is very good at keeping things square.

CB

Jazzaferri

320 grit will mostly polish the wood. To remove material 120 to 180 and then finish off with 220 and up to 320 if one is so inclined

SteveGypsyJazz

Hi,

I just received an ebony bridge to replace the rosewood bridge on my Chinese made Del'Arte Pigalle model (DG-P1).

The bridge is flush against the guitar, and I moved the lower moustache handlebar down half a centimeter (so now the bridge isn't perfectly centered).

I like the way it sounds without grooves cut for the strings, and was just curious if anybody plays without cutting grooves into the bridge? How does the tone change with the grooves? Are the grooves the main source of buzzing?

Just in case I want to bring it in for a check up, does anybody know if there is a luthier in the L.A. area that specializes in setting up Gypsy Jazz guitars?

All the Best,

Steve