CANTILEVERED SADDLEBy Jerry Hoffmann

With traditional saddles, the strings are tied to the bridge, but on this one the strings are tied to a cantilevered saddle. Normally you have to add a shim, remove material or make a new saddle if you wanted to change string height. With this one, all you have to do is loosen the strings, pull out the saddle and turn two adjustment screws. When I first tried this I was a little worried that the string load would just snap off the top of the saddle, but that turned out not to be the case (I kept the instrument and played it for about two months before selling it). You can also lower the treble side by making that screw lower. The saddle stays firmly in place and is nearly impossible to pull out when under load.

Here’s the saddle removed from the bridge. The strings are double-knotted on the backside of the saddle and the two slots fit over the bracing on top of the screws.

Adjustments are made by turning small screws it the

bracing below.

Here’s the finished ukulele with the adjustable bridge. I wanted to mix the traditional look of an all-mahogany ukulele with a non-traditional design.

stop under bridge

bridge

bracing

top

SECTION ‘A’

SECTION ‘B’

A B

These two sections show a stop glued to the bottom of the soundboard under the bridge and the adjustment screw location.