Recommendation for Adjustable Floating Bridge for Irish Bouzouki?

[CarlB]

I have a Trinity College Irish Bouzouki, TM-375, which has worked fine for several years but in recent months the neck has developed a bit of an S-curve, even with the truss rod completely released, so that the strings begin buzzing at the 10th fret. The easiest solution I can imagine is to raise the floating bridge a bit, and replacing the original floating bridge with an adjustable one seems the simplest way to achieve that. But, I know nothing about the available bridges I seen on line. The white part of the bridge where the strings sit is 2 1/8 inches wide.

I assume the long length of the bridge is intended to increase vibration transmission from the strings to the instrument so I don't know if a narrower bridge would work as well.

Any recommendations/suggestions are welcome!

[Bob Schmidt]

I had a TC bouzouki That I got tired of having to change the height every season so I had one made for me by Verne Brekke "bridgerproducts@hotmail.com". It is a different design from the traditinal wheel and post design, but I liked the fact that I could adjust it under full tension. I am not sure if he is still making them but you can check with him. Cumberland Acoustics also makes adjustable bridges and I am sure they could make you one. For either builder you will have to give them the current bridge height and the string spacing. If the intonation on your current bridge works well, you can show them that as well. You will have to fit it to the instrument and there is a lot of expertese on this forum to tell you how to do that.

If the warp is not too bad you may be able to level the frets, or have someone do that for you if you don't want to tackle it.

Good luck

[meow-n-dolin]

My Eastman mandocello uses a standard floating bridge as found on archtop guitar. I see no reason that it couldn't work on your zook, since, I have a TC zook hanging on the wall next to for comparison, though you will probably need to shave some height off of it. I know the dimensions are the same, since I picked up a second bridge on Amazon for those once-a-year or so occasions when I convert my "cello to a six-string guitar.

As far as your neck -- I had a tenor guitar with the same problem -- with some very low heat applied and clamping it between a couple of 4x4's for a few days took care of it (though it wasn't a permanent fix). Talk to a luthier!

[Monte Barnett]

Have you considered just gluing (or clear double-stick taping) a thin wood shim to the bottom of the existing bridge? That might relieve the buzzing problem, but not the source of the trouble.....