Parts of a Banjo Bridge

Video Transcript

"This part of your banjo right here is called the bridge. This is a very, very important part of the instrument. Probably one of the most important parts. Its function is to take the vibrations of the strings as you pluck them and transfer this vibration onto the head of your instrument. When the bridge vibrates the head also vibrates. And this moves air particles in a wave form and actually makes the banjo much louder than it would be if it wasn't attached to the head. The bridge is movable it's not stuck to the head of your banjo, which can create some problems. The correct positioning for the bridge to size the intonations for all of the frets so put your bridge in the right place, you need to measure the distance from the nut to the twelfth fret and then take that distance and make it the same from the twelfth fret to the bridge. Meaning that the twelfth fret is exactly half the length of the string. You can check this by using a harmonic which is when you don't press down all the way on the fret and then fret the twelfth string. These notes should be relatively the same. If they aren't that means your bridge is in the wrong place and you need to move it."