Video Question: Bridge

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Date: August 5th, 2008 | Length: 3.38 | Instructor: Brad Henecke

Mclend1 asks, "My question is about the bridge, which on my guitar has the tune-o-matic part for adjusting the intonation and then there's further back, the metal bar piece that the ball ends secure into. What I'm curious about is the metal bar where the strings ends lie. It has two large screws for adjusting its height, and I wondered why or when would you ever adjust that or if you even need to? Does raising or lowering that bridge part effect the tone characteristics in any way? Is it generally tightened down to the body of the guitar or not, does it even matter that much? On classical/ acoustic type guitars the bridge is glued flat to the body for better resonance, so I wondered why electric guitars have a slightly different set up. As that's where the sound connects to the guitar, I guess it must do the same thing. I'm interested to know what the adjustments might do. Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance, Matt." Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

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