Banjo Bridges by Bart

how to size up a banjo bridge

updated August 2011

Sometimes you end up with a banjo that doesn't have a bridge and you need to find out how tall a one you need. Sometimes you want to find out if your fingers would like a taller or a lower bridge. How high/low is pretty easy to figure out and you don't need any fancy tools. All you need is a bit of patience and a piece of wood that'll become your test bridge. Any ruler, or calipers like in the bottom picture, will do.

Click the pictures to enlarge.

popsicle sticks This banjoey's secret weapon: popsicle sticks. They're available all over the place, often 24/7 at that, in a variety store near you. The great thing about them is that they appear to be universal in dimensions regardless of the make or whether they're attached to ice cream or actual popsicles. Length: plenty. Width: 3/8 inch. Thickness: 1/16 inch.
finding the right height for your banjo bridge If you have a bridge that's too low, or you're curious to find out what a taller bridge feels like to your fingers, this is the way to find out the proper height. The bridge on this pic is a sucky 1/2" one that happened to be on this banjo. Slacken off the tension on all strings else you wont be able to slide the P stick under the bridge without busting something. We already know that P stick thickness = 1/16" so 1/2" + 1/16" = 9/16" Keep going if it's still too low and I'll trust you to do the math. Things will get wobbly with two or more P sticks and that your banjo will sound terrible. Of course, sound/tone is not the object of this exercise, is it.
making a dummy banjo bridge

If you don't have a bridge, or if you find to see what a lower bridge feels like then hold up a bunch of P sticks like this so they're staggered and overlap each other-that's how you'll be gluing them together. Keep in mind that this most likely is a one-time-only deal so most yellow, white or crazy type glues will do.

gluing up popsicle sticks to make a dummy banjo bridge

I happened to have a tub of yellow glue but it could just as easily be school glue, gorilla, or whatever you happen to have kicking around. Crazy glue would be perfect but seeing as I'm a messy gluer and I hate having my fingers stuck to other things, or to each other... Oh, and of course, if you do the gluing in places you're not supposed to spill or drip: always put a newspaper under it eh and start gluing already. Note to self: don't use a paper she hasn't read yet...

Need something more accurate then a popsicle stick? How about playing cards, the regular plasticky poker jobbies: they're 0.25 mm thick

glued and clamped A bit of clamp time and why not, leave it overnight because it's too late in the evening already to do anything with it anyways.
dried, cured and ebony topped All done. Yeah, OK, so this one got slabbed with a strip of ebony. No you don't need to ebony it, I did because I happen to want the ebony for another reason. Did I mention I'm a sloppy gluer? Check out the ferocious gaps in between the sticks. Oh well, the glue filled them in nicely while it squished out.
No picture needed here because all there's left to do now is sand the bottom and top flat, course paper is fine, something like 80~120 grit or so. Use a utility knife, box cutter, or whatever you have that's sharp enough, and cut shallow V cuts for the string slots-careful, else you'll poke yer eyes out my mom always used to say. Your starting height is approx 3/4" so keep sanding it a bit at the time, measure the height and WRITE IT DOWN. When your bridge gets too low to your fingers' liking, or the strings start to buzz against the fret board then the previous number you wrote down is the ideal height.
popsicle stick bridge Remember the glue lines in the bunch I glued together? Yeah, they're quite visible, aren't they. This particular bridge was an experiment actually-I had quipped a few times that you could throw a popsicle stick on a Stelling and it would still sound like a Stelling. Well, turns out that's true enough all right, waddaya know. Despite the flaws and the way-too-thick ebony strip it sounded like a million bucks :)))
Double height bridge Taller bridges are louder, well, according to the myth anyway. In practice it's just to wobbly to my liking. OK, OK, enough already.
measuring string height at the bridge If you need to do any measuring then calipers like these come in real handy. There's some some bridge measuring tips on this page.

 

Things to keep in mind about tall bridges, 3/4 inch or taller:

  • they're rough on tail pieces, the additional string pressure could bend or snap your tail piece at the 90 degree bend
  • they're prone to intonation problems
  • unless properly designed the can be very massy and have a dull tone
  • when underdesigned they're prone to  breaking
  • an overly acute string break angle  makes the bridge prone to toppling down and loudly smacking forward
  • not much selection if you really do need one but some bridge makers, including myself, have no problem producing them
  • for players with long fingers they tend to get in the way of comfortable playing - you often need to bend your knuckles too far and fail to strike the string at the proper angle with the tip of your finger picks often resulting in slower speeds and reduced accuracy . Remember playability is just as important a factor, perhaps even more so, than sound/tone when it comes to selecting a bridge that's right for you
  • oh, and taller does not mean louder or did I mention that already...
  • tall bridges are rough on the hand, wrist and fingers when playing three finger style: when you anchor the ring and/or little finger on the banjo's head you end up curling your picking fingers else you don't clear the strings. This results in improper pick angles and makes it hard on yourself to pick the strings correctly so you don't get proper tone and speed. Because of these incorrect angles muscle soreness, joint/finger/hand/wrist pain, is not at all uncommon

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Copyright 2009 Bart Veerman
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