Official Luthiers Forum!

Shouldn't bridge blanks be 1/4 sawn?
How far off quarter is "tolerable" - is 45 degrees usable for example?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I prefer mine to be rift -and orienting the grain opposite of the saddle pull force- but quarter is fine as long as the saddle slot does not follow the grain. I have nothing against using flat-sawn for bridges either.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I wouldn't like a perfectly QS bridge, it is easier to split at the saddle. I like 60-70 degrees best. Grain lines should tilt towards the soundhole. I think I used one with even less than 45 for an earlier guitar and it's been fine. Use dense tight grained rosewood, with good ping, and I could say there is some pretty good vibrational transfer in any way you cut it.

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Build log

Perhaps I have misunderstood.
Is that not two contradictory recommendations as to grain orientation, 1st against string pull , then other towards soundhole?
My instinct leans towards the first for strength of saddle slot. (Neck______________|////////|_____Tail)

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I use [tail //// neck].
I read about this in one of Rick Turner's posts when he was still around here and it made sense to me. Besides the rift-greater-split-resistance-which-you-get-anyway; in this configuration the saddle tilting forward seems to be compressing the grain lines and the lower left end of the grain is wedged against the saddle. In QS or back-tilt mode, the saddle looks like it is trying to pull the grains apart?

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Build log

tail /////// neck is my perfered way. Don't know if it's better for sound or not but would be less split prone.

I agree. Logically, to prevent splitting,

Neck \\\\\ Tail

is better than

Neck ///// Tail

Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

IMO the opposite. Most wood (such as rosewood) splits more readily on a radius than on a tangent to the annular rings.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Good point Howard! Hmm.

We should test this by cutting a slot on both long sides of a blank and draw the hammer.

I am surprised there are so few replies. So what's up, you guys don't use bridges? Or don't you care about choosing the safest grain orientation?

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Build log

I've thought (based on my own little box of intuition and nothing else) that if one were going to use a perfectly quartersawn bridge that it would be best to align the bridge pin holes with the saddle...assuming that person angles the saddle for compensation. This way the bridge pins don't seat in the same annular ring or grain line. I personally prefer rift to flatsawn bridges but I have to admit I've never paid much attention to the way the bridge ended up sitting on the top of the guitar.

Just as a side note it seems harder to find flatsawn bridges that have the grain running straight from end to end. Always seems to be the annular rings will rise and fall through the face of the bridge. That's been my experience in cutting a lot of bridges too. I've attempted to cut the flatsawn bridges such that there is NO rise and fall of the annular ring on the face of the bridge. It's hard to find those areas of the board which will yield this type of bridge..and usually wasteful if you do.

Chris

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I never cared about it.
I'm using ebony for now.
I am wondering how many bridges actually crack at the pins?
Have you seen much of that?

Hundreds, at least.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I've always slanted the bridge pin holes even more than the saddle compensation, firstly to avoid having the holes directly along annular rings, but also to get similarly shaped saddle slots creating a similat break angle over the saddle, as the saddle is usually a bit lower (and string thinner) on the treble side.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

After reading this thread and never having made a bridge, or a guitar, I would go with flatsawn.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Are we discussing SS (160+#) or classical (80#)?....maybe both....

I have had an ebony SS bridge crack at the saddle.....more of a design issue as the saddle did protrude a bit high and basically torqued the bridge crack....IIRC it was just off qtr....will check.

Just completed a batch of 10 classical bridges using honduran RW with flat,rift and qtr.,...tap tone seems generally consistent/similar...not sure the lower tension requires the scrutiny that a SS requires.

Man, Howard, that's a lot of cracked bridges.....

FWIW, I would generally be opposed to a thru slot on SS for strength reasons.....