The first thing you want to do is measure over the saddles from the center of the highest string to the center of the lowest string. The bridge we are using in this example starts at 100mm and ends at 157mm. That means our string spacing is about 57mm.
But most often the measrement is given by bridge manufactures in string-to-string spacing. The easy way to get this is take your total string spacing and divide it by one less than the amount of strings you have.
So if you are measuring a 4-string bass, you would divide by 3.
our bridge is a 4-string, with a 57mm total spacing, so our string-to-string spacing is 57mm/3, or about 19mm.
It’s handy to know how to convert between MM and inches, since both units are used by bridge manufacturers. 1mm is .0393701 inches. So to convert from mm to inches, just multiply by .0393701.
In our example our spacing is 19 x .0393701, or about .750 inches.
Likewise if you have inches and are looking to convert to mm, divide by .0393701. So if we knew our spacing was .750, we could divide (.750/.0393701) and get about 19mm.
Of course if you’ve got a computer nearby you can always just get google to do the math for you.
the best bridge’s ever i have them on my p&j
How does the distance of the ropes on the bridge interfere? why is it standard? Why can’t I have a 4-string bass bridge 16 mm apart between the strings?
Thank you
thats very tight . . . just because you are comfortable with that, just means you’ve done the work on it to get comfortable. . not many basses at all have 16mm spacing. You are limiting yourself with your comfort zone . . . good musos dont do that, they make a habit of stepping outside that zone . . . so, it might be an idea to stretch that out . Find a bass with a more standard spacing , that you LOVE and cant be without , and play nothing else for a year . . . thats how I did 5 string spacing and it worked permanantly.
perhaps they did that and came up with 16mm. BTW you should go outside of your box and try 16mm spacing and be a “good muso”…ffs
If you’re trying to replace an ill-fitting bridge on a bass, and all you have are the neck-width-at-nut, and neck-width-at-heel, is there a way to calculate what the string spacing “should be?”