Ukelele bridge support

[Pat.Hawkins]

Hi Folks,
Just a hypothetical question ...............

If a person forgot to glue in the bridge plate on a tenor uke, then realised after the bodies (yes - Plural) were sealed what would be the consequences?

One is a Huon Pine soundboard and the other is a King Billy.

Hypothetically - that is.

Cheers

[kiwigeo]

Since you're dealing with a nylon string you'd probably get away without the bridge plate from a structural point of view.
What's the bracing layout under your top?

[Allen]

If your fan braces are up to the task, you might be safe. The bridge patch on a tenor can be very small as mine are and only used to help reinforce the soundboard for the strings. I use pins like in a guitar.

If on the other hand it was an integral part of the bracing structure, you best keep these ones around to observe what happens for a few months at least.

[kiwigeo]

If you find there are issues due to lack of the bridge plate then you might consider replacing the existing bridge with a stiffer bridge consisting of layers of wood and carbon fibre. The CF supplies stiffness but not at the expense of added mass.

[Pat.Hawkins]

The bracing would be .....(theoretically) three Tas blackwood fan braces from the cross brace to just short of the very back.

Does this improve the odds?

Thanks for the replies.

[Allen]

Simply no idea. If the top is thick enough you don't even need braces......but it will sound like a bench top. Same goes if the braces are too heavy. There would be lots of instruments out there without bridge patches that work just fine. Even lots of ukes like soprano's that didn't have bridge patches or braces.....though they didn't fair too well.

If taking the back off and working on the soundboard isn't an option, then toss a coin and decide if you want to go ahead with the work to complete, or put it through the band saw and start again.

[hooked]

Pat,

Because you have fan bracing in place my belief is the soundboard will remain mechanically stable. If they were my ukes I would not be concerned...theoretically!

Cheers

Daryl