Beveling Classical Bridge Ends - Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag
In this episode, luthier and instructor Robbie O’Brien answers a viewer’s question about how to bevel the ends of a classical guitar bridge.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag]
Mailbag question: I am having trouble beveling the ends of my classical guitar bridges. Can you offer some advice?
Robert O'Brien: Today's Tips du Jour Mailbag question comes to us from Iowa. "Robert, I am having trouble beveling the ends of my classical guitar bridges. Can you offer some advice?" John in Iowa City, Iowa.
John, I struggled with this for a long time. There's a very easy fix for this, and when I show it to you, you're going to think, "Why didn't I think of that?" That's how simple it is. So one day I'm sharpening my chisels and my tools, and I'm using a honing guide. Now, when you sharpen your chisels and your tools, you need a very specific primary and secondary bevel on the edge, and the honing guide gets that for you. So I said, "Well, huh. Why don't I just use my honing guide to put the bevel on the end of the bridge?" Problem solved. Let's go over to the bench, I'll show you how I do it.
The solution: Bevel the ends with a honing guide
So here, John, is the solution. Honing guide, classical guitar bridge. It's important that you sand it up to your final grit before you do this step. I've sanded it all the way to 320. If you want to go higher, knock yourself out. You do that because once you put it in the honing guide and do the bevel, you don't want to go back and sand it, because you'll round over that nice crisp edge that I like to see on the ends.
So I place it in the honing guide. I like to place the tie block about flush with the end of the honing guide. If you put it out more or bring it back less, it's going to alter your angle, so figure out what works for you. Tighten it up [Robert tightens the adjusting screw with a screwdriver]. I've got a piece of MDF with 80, 120, 220, and 320. And I just come in, run it a few times along there [Robert works the bridge back and forth against the sandpaper 9 times]. And you'll see that the lines are starting to run out towards the end of the classical guitar bridge.
By the time I get to the 320 grit, I want to have those lines flush on each end. So here we go up to the 120 [Robert works the bridge back and forth against the 120 grit sandpaper 10 times]. And if you find that you are a little off, you're a little closer to one corner than the other, just lean on it a little bit when you get to your next grit. So here we go with the 220 [Robert works the bridge back and forth against the 220 grit sandpaper 12 times]. And now up to the 320 [Robert works the bridge back and forth against the 320 grit sandpaper 12 times].
And I'm right out here to the corners, and I just got to 320. Depending on how well you did your rounding here, you should have a nice half-moon shape right there. And this one turned out pretty decent. I'm going to go just a little bit more in this corner though [Robert works the bridge back and forth against the 320 grit sandpaper 3 more times]. There we go, problem solved. Now, if you don't like symmetry on your bridges, you don't even need to do this side. However, I highly recommend it.
John in Iowa City, Iowa, thank you for your question and happy beveling.
[on-screen text reads: More Luthier Tips and online courses available at www.obrienguitars.com. Private and small group guitar building and finishing instruction available.]
