Ignore the fact that this is a slightly
different type of bridge than the actual uke had;
we're considering the location of the
saddle, which defines the vibrating string length,
and these images are photoshop illustrations.
This is the current saddle in the current bridge. It doesn't play in tune at all.
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The green line indicates about where that saddle needs to be in order to make the strings play in tune. Alas, it's just in front of the existing edge of the bridge. So much for keeping the original footprint of the bridge. |
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| If I'd have moved the bridge up the face
until the saddle was repositioned to make the strings intonate correctly
(aligned with the green arrows), there would have been a freshly uncovered area
below the bridge's new location. It would have looked bad.
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Therefore I decided to make a new bridge
to cover the entire area, and to realign the holes side to side such that
the strings lie down the center of the f'bd, instead of off to the treble
side as they had been.
This is a somewhat exaggerated image; the replacement bridge didn't look this wide, nor was it enough bigger to encumber or affect the response of the top. |
| What I did:
I checked the intonation first by replacing the trebles with fresh strings. The strings were pretty shot anyway, and black nylon trebles are notoriously bad with regards to intonation, even when new. I then checked the intonation by removing the bridge (it popped right off) and temporarily clamping it farther up, until the intonation was correct. It was about 3/16" off! The replacement bridge I made had a little less
wood in front of the saddle, which trimmed the mass some. And I made the
bridge a little lower than it was, which gave a bit more saddle height.
The net weight of the replacement was identical to the original. 
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