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Look for "turning blanks". Rocker, for instance, has 5" - 6" long blanks in various sized square sections. Dozens of hardwoods available and very reasonable. I get four bridges out of a blank. Works out to just a couple dollars per bridge.
Besides the tools mentioned, a rounded wood rasp is helpful for carving the hollow in the sides. I used a Dragon brand pattern maker's rasp, cuts quick and smooth. . A piece of sand paper wrapped around a piece of closet pole will work, though slower.
Regards the curve on the top of the bridge, I don't pay much attention to this. I start with it straight, space the string notches and with the bridge in place and strung, work the sting notches down one at a time until i get the action I like. (just lift the string out of the notch and set it slightly to the side). Then I round the top off to match the string slots, leaving a half string depth on each one. The high E especially does not like a deep notch
Hm, in what manner does it protest? I'm curious since I fear that both my unwound strings have buried themselves a little bit too deeply into the wood at the top of the bridge.
If it does it, it will be a sitar like sound. A sitar sound can occurr elsewhere for other reasons so the sitar sound is not always the bridge notch, but a deep notch for the high E. to a lesser extent the B can make this sound, which is very annoying by the way. Drove me crazy the first time I encountered it.
A deep notch can also rob some of the power of the string.
I like the bridge edge to be fairly thin, less than 1mm. I use a nut notch file of the right size to get close to the right string action height, then remove any excess material above the notch, rethin the edge and then just nick the edge with a sharp knife for the final notch. Only deepen it if it is not sufficient to hold the string in place while playing.
I did and in the acoustic section they are all around 11mm thick but your question prompted me go and recheck so I went back and found a double bridge blank in the archtop section. Might pick one up, it's $7 and looks like you could make at least out of a piece.
But this sounds like a way to go:
Thank you Craig, been looking at the Rockler site and it's got great selection.
And your tips is exactly the kind of help I need to get a picture of the process.
Buco
I just got my guitar back from the tech who replaned the neck and did a refret to get the neck straight again. This is the second time he did it since he's done the job originally half a year ago or so.
The first time he used a combination of a heat press and replaning the neck but he suspects that the wood went back to reform to where it was before the heat press process.
He took it under warranty though which was super nice of him.
When I went to pick it up I got deflated as I took a first look. The neck was straight alright, but the angle to the body is pretty much all but completely gone with the strings at the bridge sitting
at about 13mm at highest point away from the top. It's a little over 11mm at the high E.
The next thing is that the bridge is now heavily notched, especially with the high E sitting close to 2mm below the edge of the bridge.
But the funny thing is that when I sat down to really evaluate it at home it actually sounds great.
Low action with about 2.5mm on high E but it doesn't fretout and sounds loud and clear.
I've been using SPL meter to compare different strings and have been taking notes. I played the guitar as it is now and it measures the same as the last time with the same type of strings. Now I don't know how accurate is to use an SPL meter to measure the sound output from a guitar but as I was playing in the room, wife came in and said "wow are you cranking it up, it's so loud".
It also sounds like some of the reverb it had before is now soaked up, sounds drier now.
Still I wish this guitar didn't have to go through all this, I'm especially worried that if the neck moves again the only thing left to do would be a neck reset.
But back to the subject of bridges, I'll get some of this wood ordered and try my hand in making some.
Thank you for all your detailed tips.
Buco
Sounds fantastic!
Very different from my stock bridge with low action.
I set the action on the new bridge to about 3.5mm, it's still fairly comfortable to play.
But the advantage is that the guitar breathes with new life, there is a lot of air in the single notes without a lot of reverb.
Actually it sounds that the new bridge damped some of the reverb and made it drier sounding.
There wasn't an awful lot of reverb before either, though it was definitely there.
We played a trio gig on Sat, 2 guitars and a violin, I and enjoyed my sound.
Only the low E I thought could've been louder.
Which tempts me to hollow out the bottom of this bridge a bit more, as it's somewhat hollowed but you could take out some more wood.
More likely is that I'd leave it as is 'cause like I said I really enjoy the sound a lot.
Instead, I got the wood blanks from Rockler so I'll start experimenting with that soon.
Buco