Operation Bridge

This month, Alex Bishop considers the importance of guitar bridge design and its impact on tone

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More than once in the past month I have had customers bring me guitars for relatively small repair work, only to discover there was a more pressing issue with their beloved instrument. It's left me feeling like a doctor who has to deliver bad news to a patient after discovering they have months left to live when they only came in for a routine check-up.

The lutherie equivalent to this morbid scene can be found when ill-fitting acoustic guitar bridges subtly begin to peel away from their mooring on the soundboard. Most commonly the ends of the bridge show light between the top, but also the area around the bridge pins can show a gap, as the front of the bridge dips into the body and the back lifts up, putting immense pressure on the glue join holding everything together. This can be checked by sliding a piece of paper into the join - sometimes it runs much deeper than you think it will.