Making the Bridge

1. He takes a bridge blank (approximately 3” x 1” x ¼”) that has already been routed with a 3/32nd” slot about 1/8” from the top side.

2. He then shapes a saddle piece, in this case bone, to the desired thickness (saddle slot is 3/32”) on a sanding board.

3. Mike lays a straight edge along the fretboard and marks the height of where the saddle will be. He does this by laying in a shim that’s 3/32nd” thick under the 12th fret. That is the height of the strings over the 12th fret.

4. He measures this with a caliper and transfers that measurement to the bridge and saddle.

5.Put saddle in slot and find saddle height measurement. Cut off thickness of bridge blank and/or saddle if needed to get correct height.

Now we have the height of the saddle now we need to figure out the width of the bridge blank.

6. Measure the distance of the width of the neck at the nut. In my case it is 40 mm. Now measure at the 12th fret and I have 48mm. So that is a difference of 8mm. Add that 8mm to the 48mm and you get 56 mm for the minimum bridge blank width needed for the strings. You could also just lay a straight edge along both sides of the neck and follow the taper of the neck down to get your minimum bridge blank width.

7. You need 3/16ths” distance from the edge of the neck for the strings to lie. So take 3/16th” (3/16ths= 5mm) off of each of the two sides of the blank to mark your outer string positions. Then divide this distance by 3 to get your other 2 string positions. Mike uses a cool little gadget to mark around the corner of the bridge. And another cool gadget to mark the distances of his other string positions.

8. Bridge blank is now shaped decoratively the way you would like it.