Ask the Experts: how to correct a violin bridge position

The dilemma I always change my strings one at a time, usually playing one in for ten minutes or so before changing another. But sometimes I notice, after a lot of retuning during the settling period, that the angle of my bridge has changed. Is there any way I can prevent this from happening? And when it does happen, what's the safest way to push it back into the correct position? (Also, how can I tell that it is in exactly the right position?)

JERRY PASEWICZ

This is a common issue. When changing your strings, take a sharp pencil and put a little graphite into the string groove for lubrication, both at the bridge and at the nut. After each string-change, check the bridge for straightness by looking at it from the bass side – it is the treble (soundpost) side that is more likely to be distorted. Your bridge is straight if its back is almost at a right angle with the violin’s top on the tailpiece side, and the very top of the bridge is fading slightly towards the fingerboard. If this is not the case, your bridge can be corrected with the following steps:

Hold the violin in your lap with a polishing cloth under the tailpiece, the neck towards the left, and the bass side towards you. Place your right-hand fingers under the tailpiece, with your thumb touching the bridge between the A and D strings. Next, place your left-hand fingers under the fingerboard with your left thumb touching the bridge, opposite your right thumb, also between the A and D strings (figure 1, above).

With slight pressure from thumb to thumb, gently move the top of the bridge towards the tailpiece, keeping your right thumb in place as a brace. Using this technique should allow you to keep your bridge straight.

It can also be useful to measure the distance from the end of the fingerboard to the top of the bridge, so you can refer to it when adjusting the bridge in future. For greater accuracy you can ask your luthier to make a small reference stick for this measurement. It is possible to make a bridge that would never need to be straightened, but it would not be something you would want to have on your instrument.

Jerry Pasewicz is a luthier based in Raleigh, NC, and the current chair of the Violin Society of America’s International Violin and Bow Makers Competition