Moustache Ends

mab

Hello,

I have a Cigano gj-15 with a sunken top. I've replaced the bridge and jacked up the action, and recently, I carved out and sanded the bridge down to lighten it. All of these things helped the sound of the guitar a considerable bit.

The other day I decided to remove the moustache ends to sand them past the black ( Do they ebonize them? The black was pretty deep.) because the bridge is unstained rosewood. I really got to playing it today, without the ends on, and the thing seemed a hair louder and crisper and the treble even had a little bite to it. I don't inherently trust my ears, so I played it for my dad and he agreed. He even remarked that he wouldn't have thought that would have made that noticeable of a difference. I wouldn't have either.

I was wondering if anyone might have some insight as to why? Would that small of an amount of weight really make that much difference or did I just finally get it right to allow the top to resonate properly?

Michael

Shawn

I'd say it's a combination of things. Reducing the weight of the bridge and it's contact points with the soundboard helps tremendously, but I think the case could be made that the added (although very minute) weight from the end pieces does dampen a soundboards response slightly...so I think you may have a point.

FYI...by "ebonize" they basically mean they've been stained with an ebony color. I prefer the look of rosewood myself, so I usually sand off the color and re-shape the bridge and the end pieces with some 2000 grit sandpaper, which also gives them a very nice shine.

Bones

make sure the guitar is not fallen victim to low humidity. That will cause the top to sink. Can be corrected somewhat with a case humidifier but don't over do it.

mab

So reducing the contact points is a good thing? I wasn't sure when I narrowed the bridge lengthwise a hair whether it would be a good idea or not. The stock bridge and end pieces were quite chunky, I hollowed out the end pieces in case I want to put them back on but it made enough of a difference that I'm probably going to leave them off despite the looks.


re:Bones
Thanks, unfortunately I started humidifying it 6+ months ago and it made no difference on the top.

Craig Bumgarner

The mustache ends have some weight and weight in the bridge area especially has an effect on the sound. A simplistic analogy is to think of the top as a spring fixed at one end and a load of some sort attached to the other. The behavior of the spring will vary with the mass of the load and the stiffness of the spring. Mass added or subtracted to the top assembly including bridge and adornments will affect the sound for better or worse. In the bridge area, it doesn't take much.

Many people have commented on this forum (and elsewhere) about hearing a difference after lightening a bridge or removing finish from a top. These changes are often just a few grams, but the effect can be heard, so it is not too surprising that removal of a mustache end might be enough to be heard. If the end was thick ebony, one might weight ~ 5 grams. Two would be 10 grams. Considering a well made bridge is less than 12, 10 in the ends is significant. I make mine from rosewood which is nearly half the weight of ebony and keep them thin, they come out around 1.5 grams each. At that weight, I can't personally hear the difference.

Manipulating bridge weight is a common method of fine tuning guitar tops of many styles.