Books › Violin making, 1902 › scan 168
Scan 168
Violin making, 1902
7 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 98. See the scan on archive.org.
1as it is most important that such should be the case
2Then measure the height of this bridge, from belly to its top at centre, as one and five-sixteenths of an inch, nicely curving it so that ease of bowing is obtained, as spoken of before. This curvature should be unequal in height—or, rather, to express it better, the height on the G side should be so that, at the broad end of the fingerboard, the space between the ebony and the string will be a quarter of an inch, reducing as we get to the E, which registers about one-sixteenth of an inch less, or three-sixteenths of an inch. This is a guide, and a good mean to work on, but not a rule, as some people cannot play except the strings are near to the board, others just the reverse.
4As to the distance between the strings, where they pass over the bridge, this is also a point somewhat of controversy, and applies, as do my remarks in reference to the fingerboard nut—there is no rule; but a very useful mean distance is seven-sixteenths of an inch. When you have got the angle correct, mark with the compasses where the incisions are to be made with tool 27 round, rat tail file, and work the cuts accordingly, about as deep as the file where it tapers one-third from its point.
6Then reduce the bridge in thickness from its feet upwards—very sparingly at these feet, but tapering to pretty thin at the top, say a bare sixteenth of an inch. The reduction must be made by rubbing on sandpaper, and a clean, straight tapering effected, as a bridge, where you can discern a round-backed slope, is bad—
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