Double Bass Bridge position and string tension

[ctrlzjones]

How do both relate?

I'll have to confess that I am a physics numb... even my intuition fails miserably here...

Moving the bridge south causes more tension or less? Or does it even have no effect on tension at all?

And yes, I know that the bridge needs to be placed correctly for sound, not being moved around for other reasons.

 

[AGCurry]

Moving the bridge south, towards the tailpiece, makes the speaking length of the string longer. When we lengthen a stretched string, its pitch gets lower; therefore, we must tighten it, increasing its tension.

However, the tension we perceive in our hands from the change is not much related to that change.

 

[turf3]

We don't perceive string tension in our hands. What we perceive is the force required to stop the string. With normal geometry, moving the bridge south will increase the sounding length, yes, but it will also lower (slightly) the action, as the string is not parallel to the top of the bass. So when you tune the string back up, the force required to stop the string may be slightly more or slightly less.

 

[ctrlzjones]

This was the reasoning I was missing. Thank you.

Moving the bridge south, towards the tailpiece, makes the speaking length of the string longer. When we lengthen a stretched string, its pitch gets lower; therefore, we must tighten it, increasing its tension.

However, the tension we perceive in our hands from the change is not much related to that change.