HTS Assess Bridge Rotation

Guitar tops are made to with stand the tension of the strings but also transfer the vibrations into a ported chamber ( the body) to create a depth of sound.

Many ways exist to make a guitar more resonant, from thinner tops, to wider X bracing to less stiff sides, even brace designs can create a new depth of sound, plus now the addition of live backs. Bridge rotation is a good way to measure and quickly assess a top for its ability to vibrate

Bridges get torn off all the time, sometimes due to neglect - heat or sometimes to abuse, other times it can be put down to too much bridge rotation.

Time to assess 30 minutes

We back the string tension off until they are completley loose.

It has some square feet so it sits up to the back of the bridge

Hitting the calibration button, we set it to read zero.

The gauge indicates, we have .7 of a degree rotation, this is good

I find the following when assessing guitars

0.1 - 0.4 a very stiff top and resilient
0.5 - 0.9 Vibrant well rounded sound
1.0 - 1.4 Very bassy sound action tends to keep going high
1.5 - 2.0 Excess bridge rotation deformed tops

Tune guitar to pitch

Same again with a Taylor

Calibrate

0.8 Nice