Standing Bridge on Violin, Viola, Cello or Bass and tuning your instrument:

You stand the bridge up across from the little notches in the f holes in the front of the violin or other stringed instrument. That is about halfway between the tailpiece and end of fingerboard. The shorter end of the bridge goes under the thinnest string.

Loosen the strings up just a little bit so you can just put the whole bridge there under the strings and stand the bridge up. The strings need to be tight enough to hold it upright once you have it up straight and let go of it.

If the bridge does not have notches in the bridge top for the strings you can handle that too without paying a pro $40 or more to handle.

Before you get the strings real tight you can push them side to side to get them spaced how you like it. You can even use a knife to put a very shallow notch in the bridge right where you want them to stay.

The strings need to be spaced apart over the bridge, about 1/4” away from each edge, and evenly apart from each other too. Normally they will stay in place just from being tightened to tune correctly but shallow notches or dents help the strings stay in place.

You can pull the Bridge sideways as necessary before the strings are too tight to get the bridge and strings centered over the Fingerboard too.

Strings should be spread evenly across the bridge, and the bridge should be moved side to side so the strings are centered over the fingerboard.

Fine tuners should be screwed in half way so you can tighten or loosen them when you’re ready for that step. Screw them in all the way and then back them out halfway.

Fine tuners are the screws that have little flat heads sticking up out of the tailpiece where the strings hook in. The fine tuners allow you to change the pitch of each string a little bit at a time once you have it very close to exact pitch. It's easy to get it exactly in tune using them. (Upright basses do NOT have fine tuners in their tailpieces)

As you are tightening the strings to correct pitch, tuning the violin, cello etc, keep pulling the top of the bridge back toward the tailpiece as it will tend to lean toward the fingerboard as you tighten the strings. If you let it lean too far it will SLAM down loudly and scare the heck out of you!

You tighten all the strings up snug against the bridge, and then tighten them one at a time to their correct pitch – or as close as you can get. Pluck a string firmly and listen to your tuning fork, pitch pipe or look at your tuner to see how close to on pitch you are. Keep checking the bridge to pull it back to feet flat on the instrument and standing straight up.

The strings tune from largest to thinnest G D A E for violin. Viola is C G D A, one string lower than violin. Cello is C G D A, largest to thinnest string and one octave lower than viola. Bass is E A D G same as a bass guitar, largest to thinnest string.

Push in very firmly as you twist the pegs to tune each string. If you don't they will not hold and can twirl all the way loose as the unwinding coiled metal string will make them spin.

You will need to get each string close to exact pitch, then do each string again 2-3 times to actually get them all real close to correct pitch. Then you can use the fine tuners to zero in on exact pitch for each string.

Keep the bridge upright so that the feet stand flat on the face of the violin etc. This is necessary to fully transmit the vibrations of the strings into the violin body, necessary for fullest sound. Usually all but the cheapest violin outfits have the bridge fitted to the violin top and notches in the bridge where the strings lay.

That's about it. You can get really technical about setting up a bridge and pay a shop $20 to $50 to do this. That's really not necessary for a beginning student if the factory setup of the bridge is good enough. That's only if you want to bring out the most from the violin and that is not vital to getting started. Save your money and have your youngster prove they are going to stay with it before investing more money. Then a nice setup will be appreciated. The instrument only needs to be setup right to be played easily where the strings are not too high or the bridge too flat. Teachers can tell you if the instrument is okay as it is or not.

Some violins come with the bridge not low enough to bring the strings close enough to the fingerboard for easiest playing. If the teacher spots this then a pro should lower the bridge to get it easiest to play. Cost should be $20 to $40 unless the pro wants to do more work on the violin. Tell them to only do what is vital to allow the violin to be played easily, not an extensive setup to maximize its sound quality - unless you're ready to spend that money.

Get any of my violins as they come with a nice setup already. :^)

Email me with any further questions you have, I'll be glad to help out.

Sincerely, Tom Kerr : sometime musician and provider of low cost good instruments!