V.com weekend vote: Do you adjust your own bridge?
When your bridge starts leaning this way or that, do you adjust it yourself, or do you take it to the shop?
The bridge of a violin - that decorative-looking piece of wood that supports the strings - is a very delicate and essential component to the instrument.
Students are often surprised to learn that the bridge is not glued onto the fiddle - it is simply held there by the pressure of the strings, thus its stability is completely dependent on its positioning. And how much pressure does the bridge take from the strings? Here's a staggering fact: it's the equivalent of about 25 pounds on a violin - 85 pounds on a cello! It's so much pressure that if a bridge gets knocked down suddenly it can sound like a gunshot - even on a child's instrument.
The bridge also essential in sound production, transmitting the vibrations from the strings into the body of instrument. If the bridge is not standing straight, it can affect the instrument's sound. It can also lead to the permanent warping of the bridge, as it carries its weight unevenly. And once your bridge is warped, there is no going back; you really need to replace it.
The bridge does need to be set aright on a pretty regular basis - something as simple as changing a string will cause changes in the way the pressure is distributed and the way the bridge is standing. Other subtle changes like air temperature and humidity also can affect how the bridge is standing.
However, because of this immense pressure on the bridge - and the specter of a spectacular collapse - there can be hesitancy to adjust the bridge. I used to be pretty unaware of the need to adjust the bridge, and it would only happen when I took my violin to the shop. This is not a bad strategy, especially if you are having your strings changed by someone at a shop. They will probably adjust the bridge slightly when they change the strings.
But if you change your own strings, you probably do some careful adjusting to the bridge, as well as lifting the strings to relieving the string pressure on the bridge (see this blog about changing strings).
If something extreme happens - like you drop your violin or knock it into something - and the bridge either collapses or gets knocked far from its normal place, then you probably need the help of a pro, because you'll also need to make sure the sound post (inside the violin) is also in the right place.
Over the years I've learned to do the basics of keeping the bridge standing upright, and also doing this for my students' violins. But when it comes to moving the position of the bridge - getting it centered between the f-hole notches, I would rarely do that. If it needed a big adjustment I'd go to a shop.
How about you - do you adjust your bridge? If so, do you just adjust whether it is standing upright or do you also adjust if it is centered on the violin? Or do you just leave that alone? Or leave it for the pros?
Thank you to Susanna Klein for this idea for this week's vote! If you have an idea for the Weekend Vote, please e-mail Laurie!
You might also like:
- How to Change a String on the Violin (with VIDEO)
- Discussion: Correct Bridge Position
- Discussion: help needed: bridge collapsed
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Replies
Bridge yes. Sound post no.
I just use my credit card, simplest thing you can do really, just make sure you hold the bridge firmly on each side and the fiddle between your thighs. Every timm I put new strings on I adjust it more or less every time I tune up, didnt know anyone went to a luthier to put strings on, seriously.
If you don't adjust your bridge occasionally it will lean toward the scroll so much that it can warp the bridge so as to point away from the scroll. At least that's what my luthier told me when he told me how to adjust it. I was very judicious about this, and moved it slightly every time it looked out of true. AFter a year of this, when I was really just a 50-year-old beginner, I managed to warp the bridge so that the top pointed *toward* the scroll. The luthier was astonished, had never seen such a thing and didn't know it was even possible. He put on a new bridge, and I only adjust it occasionally now.
I rest the fiddle ON my thighs, not BETWEEN my thighs. Perhaps that's what Ron meant? Don't grip the violin corpus between your thighs because you might cause the sound post to fall.
Thats exactly what I meant Mark, I should have been a bit more specific, maybe because I am so used to doing it,;)
If I see the bridge start leaning toward the scroll, I'll carefully straighten it up with tiny nudges, usually first loosening the E and A strings. Don't just nudge the top, be sure also to hold the base secure so it doesn't slide or kick out. Although I don't use a card to square it, certainly I eyeball that square on the nut side of the bridge, and certainly I look closely to be sure the feet of the bridge are perfectly flush to the top of the violin.
On my modern violin, every few years I have my luthier cut me a new bridge and set it up with a new set of strings and soundpost checkup. That's because I run synthetic strings at a 440 tuning, so the pressure (and maybe also the humidity from running 2 vaporizers 24-7 in my room during the cold-dry half of the year) inevitably curls the bridge after a few years. Of course I also change my own strings between those setup visits to the luthier.
Regarding my baroque violin, the bare gut strings at 415 tuning have a lot less pressure, so standing that bridge back up straight is easier, and I haven't yet needed a new bridge because it doesn't warp. I did have my luthier slightly widen the G string groove when I abandoned metal-wound G strings because the bare gut G is a fat little rope of small braided strings, requiring a wider groove in the bridge and nut, and a bigger hole in the peg.
Yes! Not only mine, but as an assailant to the conductor of the youngest musicians of the Lakeland Youth Orchestras' "Lakeland Strings" I'm tuning and checking around 30 violins, viola's and Cellos every rehearsal and performance.
I was taught how to do this by Richard Menzel over 40 years ago.
In the years I have done this there was one rehearsal evening where I noticed that bridge was at a slight angle to the notches on the "F-Holes" - I put my fingers on it and it would not move. Standing before me was the young musician who saw my frustration. She said "My Daddy fixed it, he said that somebody forgot to glue it down so he fixed it." FWIW: Daddy plays guitar so he set the bridge at the same slight angle that guitars are often set. AARUGH!
I'll adjust my students' bridges only by eyeballing. Cellists in particular have a higher incidence of bridge going off-center (getting bumped too easily in those bag cases, I guess).
My "you did what" story: it may have been a low end Shar or worse violin and I must have sent the student to have the sound post looked at. They did not go to the usual places but searched up someone random(?) and came back with it GLUED (crooked and in a really weird looking location). Uh, that is not a "luthier" and even if they are, never go there again.
Same student, two sizes later, didn't drop the violin, I didn't see what happened, but suddenly the bridge was on the floor. As I was standing it back in my best estimate position, I noticed it was cracked but not broken clean through. Not wanting to be the one to SNAP it, I only tightened the strings "halfway" and asked them to make some inquiries about repair costs, including if an expert thought tuning it up to full tension might hold for a couple of days before they could bring it in. They came back having tuned it at home. The following week I had forgotten the episode, immediately and automatically started to correct the leaning, and felt it buckle. I did manage to get it straight enough and feet flat enough but of course it's going to break at the most inopportune time and you can't say I didn't warn them.
I made mistake before I made the bridge too low. The result is that : strings were too close to fingerboard. I found it is very difficult to play artificial harmonics!
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February 16, 2025 at 08:38 PM · My luthier suggested using a business card to check for 90-degree-vertical