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What is your favorite bridge material and why?

I am makes bridges for a couple of new guitars. I have some BRW I had planed to use but have no paperwork for them. My other options on hand are African Blackwood, MadRose, and Ebony. I am leaning toward African Blackwood but it is much denser than the BRW I used on my first.

What do you think?

Thanks,

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EddieLee

Brazilian. Hard, low damping, reasonably lightweight, and dark colored. Basically no functional drawbacks, only political/environmental. But confining the guitar to the country of origin is indeed a major drawback.

African blackwood is beautiful, and damping-wise seems good, but the density is a problem for large guitars where soundboard mass is a major concern. Probably great for small guitars, where it could kill off some of the harshness and lower the resonant frequencies. And it is possible to get the mass down by shaping of the bridge. This one is 6" wide, has very thin wings, and the thickness tapered about as far as I could get it while keeping the part in front of the saddle over 5/16" tall. 24 grams. If you have a large bridge plate inside the box, stiffness of the bridge itself isn't as important (the wood around the bridge doesn't bend so much, so the stress is carried away rather than being focused on the bridge and warping it over time).


Madagascar rosewood is good, though not quite as good as Brazilian due to the higher density, and still iffy international-wise. Bois de rose (D. maritima) is my favorite of the Madagascar species.

I don't like the high damping, density and humidity expansion of ebony, but obviously a lot of people get good results with it.

Pecan is great for dark soundboards, if you can find it.

There really aren't many great looking options for light colored soundboards... especially sustainable ones. Dye is always an option, but I don't like it. Perhaps good old Indian rosewood is the best all-around.

Easy. Brazilian except maybe Ebony on dreds.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Since Simon Fay suggested Bois de Rose as a bridge material in the classifieds a while back, I've used it on three guitars -- a baritone and two small-bodied Odalisques, and I really love it. It's the closest thing to BRW I've come across, and smells almost as good -- like cinnamon. Great medium density, high Q/low damping, and very beautiful.


Ken Jones
Mountain Song Guitars

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

African blackwood is difficult to shape.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

WOW! That's very nice. Always impressive work.

-j

Never had any problems.
Bit harder than many tonewoods, maybe tougher on edge tools (but planes and scrapes beautifully) and sandpaper (resinous), but not difficult to shape - ?
Can make a good bridge. Resonant but heavy, depends on the guitar
Ebony can be more difficult to work with, as well as more prone to crack and less stable.

I've heard good things about MadRose, but don't have any myself.

Personally, I like a good chunk of EIR. What's not to like? Just bought a EIR neck blank, beautifully dark and resonant and am considering a resaw for bridge blanks, but it is perfectly quarter sawn.

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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.

In my very limited experience tucurensis seems ideal light and resonant. Just a bit pink !

Very unscientific assessment on my part -- but I have always been a huge fan of Rosewood, its lighter than Ebony which I believe is a good thing. My main drivers however are based on the notion that the best Xylophones have Rosewood keys and that many if not most of the prized old timey classical guitars usually have an Ebony fingerboard, while bridges are made of Rosewood -- likely Brazilian.

For pin less I use Black Walnut -- trouble free glue joint is the logic (less or no oil or resin to deal with)

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I'm against modern theory in this regard, but I strongly prefer ebony.

Well, I can easily shape ebony bridges using sanders and dremel sanding drums. However African Blackwood would gum the sandpaper up immediately. It also doesn't cut easily with files... metal actually cuts easier than ABW.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Planes beautifully? What kind of steel are your blades? Blackwood eats mine for breakfast. A few decent shavings, and then it's all snagging and tearing, or sliding helplessly over the surface. Scraper seems to be the best tool for it, and is what I did most of my bridge shaping with. Chisel works for rough carving. Jeweler's saw and needle files worked ok too.

A2 plane blade in an LN 102 plane, used it on this http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/download/file.php?id=47264 to plane the slope at the back of the bridge.
Just checked for run out like normal for planing, then shaved away, easy peasy.
(I weigh bridge before gluing it on, and then weigh the shavings and sanding dust to get an idea of final weight)
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doJkt4Z62-0 for someone hand thicknessing an ABW back. Uses a Veritas plane, (Probably A2 blade, they hadn't brought out the new sintered metal blades in 2009) followed by an LN 85 scraper plane if I'm not mistaken.
Did I do something wrong?
Yes, ABW does gum up sandpaper, just like any resinous wood does.... I thicknessed the wings on my ABW bridge with a Robosander, 80 grit.
Last thing I did with the sleeve before I chucked it (after several other things I used it for before the ABW)
Love the smell too, guess I'm just wierd

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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 never tried A2 steel but the plane blades I got isn't all that hard. It works beautifully on rosewood for a few swipes but then starts to glide over the surface helplessly. It worked great for softwoods like spruce however.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Ah, that's just what I was wondering So there is a place where A2 really shines. I foresee the contents of my bank account decreasing in the near future...


Not at all. ABW smells great.


Same with padauk.

African Blackwood. Never had a problem with it, and it shapes nicely. I like much better than ebony because when you drop a blank on the table saw it goes ping instead of thud. Never cared much about a few grams here or there...

Yeah, I haven't had any problems shaping ABW either. I've done a couple of bridges with it and really like the look but they're a touch heavier than I really like.

Ken, that is one incredible bridge design! Unique and just hits that creative spot. I love it.

walnut, cherry for ukes , walnut , tamarind , pernambuco for CL gtrs , walnut ,rosewood for SS gtrs

I've had great results with most of what's mentioned above. I've also been happy with Bolivian Rosewood, aka Morrado. Has a great ring........ whatever that means.


Or maybe it was just the Bloodwood pins.

I've used ebony, Brazilian, mad Rose, African blackwood and Indian rosewood. I like them all. It is difficult to judge them tonally when some go on cocobolo, some Koa, some Pau ferro, some sapele, some Indian rosewood, ect, etc. And the tops range from Sitka, to Lutz, to redwood and western red cedar. I'd listen to the experienced ones here. They can probably tell you how the bridge material effects tone, at least for the guitars they make.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Thanks all. Great input.

I would second that Ken's bridge is very very nice.

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EddieLee