Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a client who mainly plays jazz on archtops, and he was asking me if anyone made or marketed a carbon fiber bridge for an archtop. I haven't heard of such, figuring it would be difficult and expensive. After all, ebony or rosewood works pretty well - and is much cheaper. Then he asked about high quality composite bridges - such as made from Richlite, etc. Again - I don't think so - but I told him I'd ask the cats on the OLF.... What say you?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I like the idea... and it may be easier to make than you think. They could be easily cut from stock similar to this https://dragonplate.com/solid-carbon-fi ... ets-plates

Or made from laminated pieces of bar stock and then machined which would be cheaper for a one off.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Good link, Brian. I always got my carbon fiber plates and bars from Luthiers Mercantile, but this looks like an acceptable source, too.

Now then - fitting the feet to the top of the instrument will need a plan. Particles of carbon fiber are quite conductive after sanding or grinding operations during shaping. Care must be taken to keep contamination of the area at a minimum. Aircraft plants here in Wichita found out early on not to use compressed air for cleanup. Also, proper safety gear is a must - the particles can cause the same symptoms as breathing in asbestos particles. Of course - there are other considerations I haven't mentioned.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I've not heard or seen any CF bridges or parts for arch tops. There is arch.com where you could check too. The Archie players what have as clients tend to be purists and very much into traditional arch tops and parts.

archtop.com......

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I've used Richlite for bridges (not archtop) as well as fretboards and have been pleased with the results -- it's hard, machines easily, and presents a good surface. I'd be leery of carbon fiber -- it should be machined under water which could make it difficult to surface. And it's not clear what characteristic of carbon fiber is wanted/needed for a bridge. Typical CF composite has a specific gravity of 1.3; Richlite has a specific gravity of 1.2; ebony has a specific gravity of 1.1 to 1.3.

I make a CF archtop guitar, and still prefer to use an ebony or rosewood bridge. What is your client hoping to gain with a CF bridge?

He's not afraid to experiment, and he's a fan of high tech materials. Simple as that.

Keep in mind, his main axe is a very old Wes Montgomery - bone stock. But he likes his Steinberger, Ibanez, Heritage, Gibson, and Washburn stuff, too. Does a lot of studio dates, some pop and rock. Plays in 3 bands - a big swing orchestra, a roots rock quartet, and a supper club duo. This cat lives guitars - no TV. His idea of relaxing is going through a 4 foot stack of fake books rehearsing show tunes, country songs, and classic Beatles.

We've been friends since grade school, and his SG was the first Gibson I ever worked on way back in 1977. He's not afraid to challenge my skills to keep me sharp, and is always looking to upgrade his gear if need be.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Chris, I know this isn't exactly what you are looking for, but Paul Norman makes CF biscuit for his resonator guitars (I have one in one of mine). He might be able to give you some information about how he fabricates them that would apply to an archtop.

http://www.forbiddenguitars.com/carbonF ... ridge.html

Notice that he has one that is fully compensated which is pretty unusual for a resonator

Cool beans, Freeman. I bookmarked his website to investigate soon.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I am reminded that back in the 80's I actually considered going into the carbon fiber guitar neck business. As you can imagine, with all the carbon fiber airplane parts in Wichita - it seemed like a natural. The big plus - I could build the tooling cheap, and materials sellers here in Wichita were eager to exploit a second industry dealing in high tech materials. It helped that one of my brothers was in the team building the first all-graphite airplane for commercial use (the Beech Starship), and he had access to methods, and production engineering materials. I wasn't going to use a vacuum pump, just an old oven (because guitar necks didn't have to be strong enough for flight stresses).

But someone told the guy running Modulus Graphite (Geoff something. It's been a long time), who sent me a cease and desist order with a reminder to pay a hefty licensing fee if I went ahead with production, and that the firepower of the legal team employed by Hughes Aircraft (who owns Modulus) would be trained on little old me if I was stupid enough to try.

It's just as well, because other companies entered the fray soon after and my puny efforts would have been lost like a fart in a whirlwind.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince