Bridge slot

[Kim de Rijke]

After mucking up the string hole drilling on a previous ebony classical bridge I got a new rosewood blank. This time I made a mistake chiselling out the saddle slot, which turned out hollow. I thought I would put thin glue in the hollow to flatten it out again but am thoroughly concerned about what this will do to the acoustics. What's the advice on this? If I try routing it now it will be too low and I'm equally concerned about then putting in a piece of RW to bring it back up to a depth of 5/32 inch. Am I looking at another blank?

Kim

[kiwigeo]

After mucking up the string hole drilling on a previous ebony classical bridge I got a new rosewood blank. This time I made a mistake chiselling out the saddle slot, which turned out hollow. I thought I would put thin glue in the hollow to flatten it out again but am thoroughly concerned about what this will do to the acoustics. What's the advice on this? If I try routing it now it will be too low and I'm equally concerned about then putting in a piece of RW to bring it back up to a depth of 5/32 inch. Am I looking at another blank?

Kim

This is the classical bridge to replace the one with the dodgey string holes? So the problem is the bottom of the slot is not flat and you cant go any lower with the slot?

What to do? Two options. 1. infill the slot with a thin piece of RW and use a gap filling glue. It'll be hard to disguise the fix as the slots on a classical bridge are normally visible from the side of same. 2. start again.

For cutting a saddle slot I always use a router or laminate trimmer...it does a much cleaner job of cutting a slot and if you use the depth stop on the machine it reduces chances of going too deep with the slot. I use a cutter narrower than the final width of the slot and do a number of passes each time adjusting the fence/guide on the router until the saddle is a close fit in the slot. On my classical bridges the only chisel work is when Im shaping the ramp on the back of the saddle...everything else is done with a router and a bridge making jig.

[Dominic]

A bit of hard epoxy in the bottom of the slot should have no affect on tone.
Dom

[Kim de Rijke]

Thanks guys. I'll go for option 2 in Martin's reply: start again. I think the chisel work on the bridge will stay difficult for me so will try and rout the slot now. 3rd time lucky, I hope. What sort of jig do you use Martin, is there a pic? Also, how do you fill the pores on it? CA, epoxy, pumice?

Thanks again,
Kim.

[kiwigeo]

Thanks guys. I'll go for option 2 in Martin's reply: start again. I think the chisel work on the bridge will stay difficult for me so will try and rout the slot now. 3rd time lucky, I hope. What sort of jig do you use Martin, is there a pic? Also, how do you fill the pores on it? CA, epoxy, pumice?

Thanks again,
Kim.

Kim, I'll put up a pic of my jig tomorrow.

I generally don't pore fill on my bridges.....I just leave them raw. On the backs and sides of my classicals I generally pore fill using the pumice and shellac method before french polishing. Im a bit old fashioned.

[kiwigeo]

Kim,

See my PM.