Double Bass Which Side of the Bridge Faces Down

[Ned Smith]

I have read instructions that say the label on the bridge faces in a certain direction. My raw bridge does not have a label and both sides have some anguarity. I assume the side with the smallest angle is the "perpendicular" side.

 

[Don Hergert]

The more flat side (the right-angled side in relation to the feet) should be toward the tailpiece, allowing more "angular leverage" to help avoid having the bridge flip toward the fingerboard.

But, lots of people have them the other way, even after being properly setup by highly regarded luthiers.

Maybe the point is that however it is done, a bridge still needs to be constantly maintained to be perpendicular to the table top despite string pressure to lean toward the fingerboard.

 

[Ed S]

What he said. And tho I haven't crawled around and checked out the bottom sides of a bunch of bridges, sure seems like the majority of them have imprints facing up.

 

[BPM Strings]

The manufacturer stamp on bridge blanks is meant to face the player.