how do i fit the bridge in a violin?

I have been a professional violin maker/restorer (Luthier)for over 20 years, and Jeremy gave the best combination of concise yet useful and accurate information.

Carving a bridge is actually very technically demanding. Full time repair people get fast at fitting them through repetition, but it is a surprisingly difficult and demanding part of violin making.

A violin making student will typically spend several days trying to fit the first usable (student quality) bridge he/she carves.

I'm sorry to rain on the parade of the violin enthusiast, but carving a usable bridge without specific tools, skill sets and templates is more like playing the lottery than violin repair. With real luck, you might get it "kind of right", but real playability and tonal focus is something rarely accomplished "at home".

Fitting the feet with sandpaper, while a clever trick, is nonetheless inaccurate. The bridge must rest at a specific angle, and that is obtainable with sandpaper, a moving brace, and skill.

Professional makers fit bridges with (extremely sharp) knives and chisels. We typically use machinist rulers, calipers and dividers for checking angles, spacing and measurements.

Qualified repair people have complete sets of templates to make sure the curves (primarily at the crown of the bridge) are correct. Guesswork is not (even remotely) acceptable on this point in any reasonably good shop.

This is all my opinion, but it has come through over 20 years of helping players correct violin related problems.

Michael
February 2009

Jeremy's pretty much covered it, but the easiest way to match the feet of the bridge to the front of the fiddle is to lay a small piece of medium sandpaper on the front of the fiddle where the bridge goes (sandy side up, obviously!) and rub the feet back and forth until they match the curvature of the front so whole area of each foot makes contact.

Arthur
April 2007

I picked up this question because it was my photo that John linked in his answer. He's right that the bridge feet should be midway between the f-holes, on a line joining the inner notches (the ones that make the s into an f). But there's more. A bridge is not symmetrical but lower on one side than the other, and it should face the direction that allows the wire E string to fit the notch on the lower side, with the thick G string on the higher side. Normally, the bridge-maker's stamp will then face away from the player. Also, the feet of the bridge must be shaped to fit the curve of the belly, or they won't transmit the tone properly, and this curve varies between instruments. (It is possible to buy self-adjusting bridges with pivoting feet, which are OK for school-type instruments). The mass of the bridge (which depends on both height and thickness) must also be right for the instrument, in order to get the best tone (muted=too heavy; strident=too light) although the exact position of the soundpost has an important interaction here, too. Very importantly, the height and curvature of the top edge of the bridge must be shaped to give the correct clearance between the fingerboard and each of the strings (least for the E and most for the G). If the bridge is too high, giving too much clearance under the string, the pitch of the note will sharpen too much as you press the string down and playing in tune becomes difficult (it's hard enough for beginners anyway!!). If it is too low, the strings (especially the G string, which moves most) will buzz on the fingerboard when you play loudly, especially pizzicato (plucking). Again, the exact shape needed varies between instruments because of small variations in the angle and curvature of the fingerboard, so each bridge has to be cut for that instrument. Fitting a new one really is a job for an expert, because it is much tricker than putting back one that was originally properly fitted but has simply fallen down.

Jeremy
September 2006

Loosen all the strings substantially. using the pegs up by the neck of the instrument. Place the bridge about an inch from their end down by the body of the instrument. It should line up exactly in the middle of those funny looking S-shaped holes in the body. I think this photograph is particularly helpful.
http://www.brothofcooks.plus.com/FCOsite/violin%20bridge.jpg
Good luck!

John
December 2005

Simply put the bridge feet Beside on the F hole

Jeffrey
May 2005