Bridge 'Flair'

Bones

Does anyone have an opinion on why this was done?

Thanks

Bob Holo

I'm not sure what you mean by bridge flair. If you mean those little notches on the underside of a Selmac style bridge that makes it look like the ends flair out - they're to make the bridge less sensitive to small differences in the underside arch of the bridge and the topside arch of the soundboard... smaller area = smaller potential error & they're cut so that the bridge makes contact directly over the little cross braces connecting the #3 & #4 braces. Long story short - it improves bridge contact with the soundboard.

Bones

That makes sense.

Thanks Bob!

Bones

Bob,

I thought about this a bit more over the weekend.

Since we like to hog out the bottom of the bridge to lighten it up, what about also cutting off the bridge even with the outside of the little braces to eliminate that extra mass above the flairs as well?

On an existing instrument that would leave a large gap between the bridge and the mustache pieces but on a new instrument you could just move the mustaches in a bit.

I guess I'm just wondering why have that extra bit of bridge material floating up in the air.

Thanks