Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi there!

i just found some small (around 1.3 x 1.3 x 20 inches) pieces of aged (30-40 years old) BRW (D.nigra) and thought i could use it for bridges (that is, when i get to build my first guitar...), but since those are not cheap, i wonder if there are any advantages of BRW over EIRW as bridge material? I know BRW is a bit heavier and stiffer, but not that much. It also has the BRW sound, but i don´t know if it will come out if only the bridge is made of it...

any thoughts?

cheers,
Miguel.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes

If you have Brazilian, use it. Life is short, art is long.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

It is wiser not to make generalizations. It depends on the piece, as the two species overlap perfectly. The density varies by 25% for both, from c. 770 Kg/m3 to 1050 for the samples I measured. As an example I have a number of near black, glassy sounding, heavier than water Indian bridges.

Many Indian bridge blanks tend to sound woodier, not so glassy when tapped. I would save those for cedar topped guitars.

This being said, I think it would be quite a waste to make your first bridge from BRW. Perhaps save it until you are confident you will not ruin it. If you must have something of the glassy sort, get some Madagascar from Madinter.

_________________
Build log

i dig that haiku-ninja approach.



Regarding your question, it´s sold at around 20 euros per kilogram, but there are some cracks here and there, so i don´t yet know how much could be used out of the whole block.

Alexandru, incidentally i´ve been looking at those bridges in madinter, maybe on my next order i´ll get them.


cheers,
Miguel.

_________________
member of the guild of professional dilettantes