This was my first attempt to make a bridge, because lets face it, modern bridges on these gourd and minstrel banjos just look silly. This one looks definitely.....well, er, handmade. This just cements my need for a drill press!!
What I did was find a neat photo of a bridge taken straight on, and resize it in photoshop until it was just the right size. You can also to this for peg head designs. Bernunzio has great photos of their vintage instruments, and usually one of each headstock. Great place to start designing headstocks!
So back to the bridge captain.....I took the printout and cut it out and just used some spray adhesive to stick it to a scrap piece of maple. Then I just roughed it out on the bandsaw (I also used the bandsaw to carefully cut the slots for the strings, the photo was great for a visual reference!) and shaped it on the sander. If your super cheap like me, you can get a 10" sanding disc and throw it into you table saw. Works great!
To make the arches I should have used a drill press to get them precise, but I still don't own one, so I did a very rough job with my hand drill. That makes the top of the arches, and you make a couple of straight cuts back on the bandsaw to release the waste.
DONE!
Big lesson though......custom bridges are definitely worth the $20 they go for! ;-)
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