Bridge Slotting - Different schools of thought / approaches

constantine · July 2017

Hey guys,

Curious to see if anyone has any opinions on the two ways gypsy bridges are slotted. The common as Josh Hegg taught us a log time ago is to slot so 1/2 the string is in the slot ad half is out. I have seen a number of french guitars and Dell Artes where the slot is deep and the string is completely in there. Any thoughts? Example below.

Jazzaferri · July 2017

Roger Siminoff recommends a v-slot so the string does NOT rest in the bottom of the groove. Angle is halfway between the bridge/nut and the bridge/tailpiece. The string shoul sit slightly below halfway so that both sides of the string contact and are well supported.

westsideryan · July 2017

Josh Hegg is correct. you should cut the slot so that 1/2 of the string is in the slot and 1/2 of the string is out. Deep slots can cause problems. You can get away with cutting slightly shallower slots (as long as the strings don't pop out), but I would advise not going any deeper than 1/2 of the size of the string.

Bones · July 2017

I think it's mostly about getting the right height/action. Be sure to use the correct diameter slotting files for your string gages. But then yes, the notches should be no deeper than like 1/3 of the string diameter. Just enough so they won't pop out. It doesn't take that much they are really more like indentations than 'slots'. If the slots need to be too deep to get the action you want then the bridge is too tall. Shorten the bridge height or get a shorter bridge rather than have too deep of string slots in the bridge. If u are in doubt just take it to a luthier it won't cost much.

The slots in that picture look awfully deep but it's a little hard to tell (look pretty wide too???). At that point not much you can do easily. If the action is correct and the slots aren't too wide you can reshape the top (of the bridge) but that takes some skills. Or you could fill them with epoxy/ebony wood dust and start over??? Or get a new bridge of the correct height and start over that way.

Buco · July 2017

I think his point is how come luthier built guitars come with deep bridge notches.
I don't think either will break or make the guitar/sound/tone. Sure you wanna get every variable to it's best but if the slot isn't creating some obvious issue like buzzing or a sitar like sound or string sounds dead...then it's like 5 grams of salt more or less in a large pot of stew.

Jazzaferri · July 2017

My DuPont and both Dunn's all have slots of about 1/2 string depth

The reason Siminoff recommends v slots that are a little less than half string depth is to eliminate the possibility of buzz from strings that are slightly undersize to the rounded slot. As the contact points are smaller there may also be a slightly better transmission of sound as the pressure/sq. mm would be higher too.

Craig Bumgarner · July 2017

In my experience, the depth of the slot does not matter much on the wound strings. On the unwound E and B strings, if the notch is deeper than just a nick, the string is likely to make a "sitar" like sound that is objectionable. I use a knife blade to score the notch for the E and B. For the rest, I use gauged V files. The V file makes a slot that pinches the string a bit to prevent the sitar sound.