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I picked up a nice piece of Kingwood (Dalbergia cearensis) 3" x 3" x12", with a view to using it for bookmatched headstock veneer, end graft, rosette pieces etc.



The thought occured that being a Rosewood, it might be nice to make a bridge as well. Heve any of you OLF'ers experience with this wood as bridge material?

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Hi Dave

I was talking to Colin about Kingwood as I came across some in Back and Side Sets, when he did his wood test it had an SG 1.2 which he told me is the same as african Black Wood, might be worth asking him about it, as he had some concern over stability, he will also know how this compares to Brazilian etc.

Dave..the piece in the photo looks well quartered. Should be excellent for bridge material. IMO.

Dave, Kingwood is heavy compared to Brazilian at SG1.2 compared to BRW at 0.85. However it does compare with Macassar's 1.09 and the Ebony sp. at 1.03. I know you use Macassar so you should be able to get it to work fine.

I always like my bridge wood to be off quarter, on the skew, to avoid splitting, but of course you use pinless. When we tested wood for vibration transfer (damping) Kingwood, was well in the top half, not as good as BRW, EIR or Madagascan, but better than the ebonies. If I had a lump in my hand I'd give it a go.

Dave, you could probably turn a bit of MDF into a good bridge!

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Thanks Colin,

I've tried using braz bridges on my guitars but the stuff I've tried so far just doesn't work for me - too light to drive the top properly and sounds thin, tinny and like a resonator. If it's close to Macassar then that sounds promising - I just need to make a slightly smaller bridge with the Kingwood. The block I bought is obviously from a very small tree and depending on where I take the cut I can go from quartered to skew to flatsawn!!

I don't know about me making a great bridge from mdf unless it stood for Macassar Devinely Figured

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

I heard somoewhere that way back at the turn of the century, Kingwood was imported as BRW, which technically, is a rosewood from Brazil. I even heard that it ended up on guitars with some frequency. Not sure of the source of that, but it stuck in my mind.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Kingwood and Tulipwood both have been used for guitars. Like BRW, both varieties have been overharvested and are now only available in smaller pieces because there are only small trees left. Usually not big enough for back sets unless you make a 3 or 4 piece back but it makes excellent guitars. It's very hard, dense wood and is still used for fingerboards and bridges when the supply is available. Tulipwood was(is) also used to make zilaphone (probably spelled that wrong)type instruments. Also like BRW...it's illegal to harvest both of these in Brazil now.