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While making bridge tooling a made a cherry sample pinless bridge and a madagascar rosewood bridge. While checking out how it looked on the guitar a started to wonder which one I liked best . So I'm wondering what your thoughts might be on this.

The Macassar.
I think the Cherry might be a bit soft in this situation, but there are Walnut bridges out there so I could be wrong.
Try one in Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry). I used that for the bridge and fret board on #4 and I really like it.

Steve

Madagascar rosewood as well for me.

The colors of the cherry one does not find anything around it that corresponds to it, while the fretboards color fits well with the madagascar R/W bridge.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

The Fret board is MRW too.

Macassar looks best to me with that fretboard.The cherry just doesn't match well.

It might be because it is what we mostly see, but a dark wood bridge and fingerboard always look best to me. Madagascar looks great buffed and since it is so oily it has a rich look, I wonder if it will hold as well as ebony due to this.

By the way the shape looks good also

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Definitely the Mad Rose!

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I like the contrast.

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Ken are you talking about the contrast between the cherry bridge and the FB?

I think the MRW looks best. Actually I guess I'm pretty traditional in that I like the F.B. and bridge made from the same species of wood.

Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!

Of the 2, I like the MRW...but only if it weighs less than 25grams.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

unquestionably the mad rose.

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sweat the small stuff.

Ditto on the mad rose. I can see some dark contrast/inlay on that cherry bridge looking pretty cool.

MRW.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I like the MRW

Chuck

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Another vote for MRW

Glenn

Definitely the MRW.

Vince

I told myself "I'm going to find something I like better about the Cherry and I'm going to pick that one".

After looking closely at the pictures for a while, I couldn't do it. I just like the Mad Rose more.

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

Well I did buy the MRW with the intent to use it with the board. And it's 22 grams and I still might take more off the back of it. Perhaps I'll use the cherry with a cherry board down the line sometime. Thanks for the responces you all.

Me too. Hey Chris, don't forget to post when you get that bridge done.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I'm waiting on a 3/32" ball end mill to get here so I can mill the slots for the strings to the piano wire pins. I'm going to be uploading 2 parts of a youtube video on how I made the bridges and later more on the fixtures and jigs I made to make it as soon as I leave here. It takes me 2 hours upload time for each 10 minute segment video.

How about starting a new discussion and check the archives. I don't think you will get many responces to that question here since people are only looking in here to take the poll and many probably won't be back.

Chris, Obviously you have an overwhelming number of votes for the Mad Rosewood. However, I would just like to suggest another option--beyond the constraints of this particular guitar: If you are tempted to experiment with cherry on a future guitar, why not try staining the cherry bridge darker? No, stain won't turn your cherry into rosewood, nor give it the acoustic properties of rosewood, but it might satisfy the visual aesthetics of some potential customers. And who knows? You and some of your customers might like the sound of a cherry bridge. Or, you might not. You really won't know until you try it. I can tell you this: I once put a walnut bridge on a flat top. It MOST DEFINITELY wasn't the recommended wood choice, but I had it on hand, so I used it, and I like the sound. If you tried such a thing with cherry, and if the result disappointed you, you could always swap out a rosewood bridge. In that scenario, you would never feel obligated to go down that particular road again. In a happier scenario, you might go down that road often. I'm just encouraging you to experiment. You and I already know that many experienced builders will not agree with this particular bit of encouragement. Still, I think experimentation is at the heart of our forum.

Patrick

I hear you. The truth of the matter is I did plan on using the MRW that's why I ordered the bridge and FB blank. But when I was making my jigs and fixtures I used a piece of cherry I had laying around for my set up pieces. I made the cherry one and taped it to the guitar to get a sense of how the shape would look. It was on there for a few days resting against the wall in my living room. I looked at it as a reversed belly bridge too but it kind of looked like a smile to me and decided against that. The cherry actually adds some what of a different texture to the look. Well, when I put the MRW bridge on it seemed to jump right out. I kind of think I could get the cherry to work as in person it can grow on you. That's why I posted the pics to see what others thought. But I've decide to go with my first choice. I really like the the color I got in both blanks as this is the first time I've even seen MRW. I got them from LMI. It's hard to see in the pics but there is some nice black grain streaks running throughout both blanks. Thanks for the responces Guys.