Bass Bridge Downbearing/Sidebearing

[Ron Nossaman]

>A while back I posted about a bass bridge that had cracked along the
>speaking side bridge pin line - the kind where a continuous line of wood is
>destroyed and the bridge pins have all migrated so that there is no bend in
>the string at the pin. It was suggested that a likely cause was no
>downbearing on the bass bridge. I questions that.

Mechanically, negative bearing will put more side force on bridge pins, but
that's not why it split. It split because the grain line was straight along
the line of pins, and the continuity of the long grain was broken every 6mm
or so by a hole for the bridge pin. Ever see this happen on one of those
severely reverse curved banana like bass bridges?


>My information on target downbearing for the bass bridge is "just a tad".
>Some respected convention lecturers suggest to have the string "just kiss"
>the bass bridge top. I do not think such downbearing targets will cause
>undue or increased stress on bass bridge pins.
>
>Any thoughts on this?
>
>Terry Farrell

I don't see any reason it would, or evidence that it has.

Ron N