Bridge weight and dimensions

noodlenot · December 2013

Osage... Good one. I suspect it to be heavier than padauk, if what he's aiming for is utter lightness.
It is supposed to be splintery, but supposedly very low damping... Now, what about pernambuco? Got to try that one someday....

Shawn · December 2013

Thanks for the feedback guys! It's quite funny that you mention Padauk, because that was going to be my choice for the next prototype. I'm actually considering building another that is a combination of about 3 or 4 different low weight but strong woods. We'll see what happens, but it's fun to experiment and I'd actually like to see if I can get a bridge down to less than 1 gram while still remaining strong under string pressure.

Craig Bumgarner · December 2013

Shawn wrote:

I'd actually like to see if I can get a bridge down to less than 1 gram while still remaining strong under string pressure.

I'd like to see that too 8)

Jazzaferri · December 2013

Carbon fiber

scot · December 2013

I made what I thought was a lightweight bridge a few years ago for my '84 Favino. I tried to post photos but it won't upload for some reason. But here is a link to a small picture http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/1796/lightweight-bridge/p1 I cut the block to size then cut the horizontal and vertical slots on a Bridgeport, shaped the bridge by hand and hollowed out the feet with a dremel. It's made of ebony and to my surprise it's quite heavy at 15g. But repeated tests showed a real improvement in sound over the old bridge. It's been on my guitar for a long time now and isn't caving at all. When it was off the guitar this morning I measured it against the original spec and it's still the same.

I may make another one like this of lighter wood and I am certain that I can remove quite a bit more wood in other places without structural problems. But the challenge of a really light bridge is interesting. We have a composite shop at work with musicians working there - they made some CF banjo rims. If someone wants to make a plug, I'll see if I can have some CF bridges made of high fiber cloth and we'll see what we get.

Jazzaferri · December 2013

They make pretty fine cellos and cello bridges of carbon fiber

noodlenot · December 2013

i dunno... carbon fiber is kind of heavy: the one i got my hands on was double the density of indian rosewood... to make it the same weight, you´d had to use half the amount on a regular rosewood bridge

Jeff Moore · December 2013

Shawn,
I think the lighter the better, but a couple of times I just wanted to make them fast. I tried a whole different look, just cutting from one foot then cutting right up toward the "saddle" (where the strings live and back down to the other foot. Such that there's nothing much between the feet. It's quick, flexible, and sounds bad.
Anyway, stiffness seems as important as lightness. The typical Selmac bridge is a long pyramid. Naturally stiff structure. But even when I hollow out above the feet, I leave the base of the foot strong and intact. I can get em a lot lighter than Dupont bridges and they're louder too. I only have a balance scale so don't know the weight in grams-ounces et al.

Do people who are experimenting have any conclusions to share. I'm thinking very stiff and very light is the thing. I've made probably 25-30 by now. Heavy, light, non typical, etc.... but have come back to typical looking, but light and stiff as giving the best sound.
The best sounding are actually wider than typical 3/4" width. They're 7/8" wide (wider than the mustaches), stiffer and have a bigger contact area (feet).
This also allows more room for setting intonation. I've eventually found that the typical width bridge cannot intonate the low E. It "intonates" properly at the very back edge of the typical width bridge.

Jazzaferri · December 2013

If one was going to mould one out of CF or BF the walls would be like 1mm thick at most and even that would overkill strenghthwise.

It would be very odd designwise to make a solid cf bridge....very odd indeed.

Doing the feet so one could sand them to profile would be the biggest challenge.