Violin Bridge Holder

by Alan Carruth

Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000



Thanks to George Manno for some feedback on his experience with bridge tuning. Bridges on good violins do tend to be quite similar, but I still like to work them up individually. And he is certainly right about fitting the feet!

One dimension he seems to have left out is the thickness of the feet at the bottom of the bridge, generally given as 4.5MM (3/16"). If this is too heavy it can make the instrument sound “closed.” If you don’t want to thin it anymore a bit of wood can be removed from the end of the leg without affecting the stiffness too much.