Tenor Guitar Bridge Question

[MoreThanQuinn]

Hey guys,

I have a Martin TEN515, seen here, and I have a questions about de-tuning and the bridge.

Right now, it's tuned C G D A. However, I'm in the process of recording a track and I want to use the tenor as a slide guitar. It would work best to have it tuned B F# B F#.

If I loosen the strings this much, do I risk having the bridge move on me? Or any other negative effects? I'd love to be able to tune it down, record this track, and then bring it back up to C G D A as if nothing ever happened.

(I would tune it C G C G for the slide, but I need the extra half step to slide up into the C chord.)

[Charles E.]

I think you would be fine, the bridge wont move on you, it's glued on to the face of the guitar.

[MoreThanQuinn]

Haha ok I thought so too, but just making sure because I know some instruments secure the bridge purely with the tension of the strongs. Thanks Charles!

[EdHanrahan]

... some instruments secure the bridge purely with the tension of the strings.

That's typical of arch-top instruments w/ "floating" bridge, that need some sort of tailpiece to attach the string ends to. Flat-top instruments (mando or guitar) most often either have holes w/ bridge pins (typical of steel strings) or holes to tie into (classical w/ nylon strings), normally with the bridge glued in place.

There are permutatoins, a too-common one being the flat-top junker "repaired" by adding a tailpiece, generally resulting in a loose bridge w/ too little downforce to be effective. But at least most such instruments already sounded bad before the ineffective repair!