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Lots off folks have used the "hobby ply" made from birch - either 3 or 5
layers 1/8" thick. Not a bad choice, but I still like the stiffness of having all
the grain oriented parallel to string pull to avoid cupping.

FF

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Cheers,

Frank Ford

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I think I know what Frank is saying, it would be interesting to see a drawing of grain orientation of each piece.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

>>I watched Frank take a new Buffer buff and cyano the inside area. After it hardened he took a tap of the thread size he wanted and threaded the buff on the inside, then screwed the buff on the very end of the shaft to protect guitars from the shaft threads. Amazing.<<

I'd guess that this is amazing, but I have no idea what you are saying.

I have run the grain on a plate the way Frank describes. Worked fine. But I part with Frank on seeing this as resisting bellying better. It's true that the grain running parallel to the top's grain resists the bridge's tendency to roll forward more than the standard cross grain. But I think the greater part of bellying is from upward pull, and the the cross grain plate adds more stiffness to the top in its more flexible (cross grain) direction. So I suspect the standard plate of the same size and shape resists bellying more. I used the opposite orientation for the reason that it better resists splitting of the bridge.

I'm now trying to have the best of all worlds. I'm using a two piece laminate, with each piece both rift sawn and skewed at about 25? from the cross grain orientation, with opposite skews (I think Al Carruth used 'skew' above to mean 'rift.' Rift is a cut somewhere around the middle between quartered and slab. I take skew here to mean angled somewhere between the way the bridge grain and the top grain run). My choices of woods vary.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

This is one of those times when there seem to be different 'standards' of terminology. Each is 'right', but they're different. I use 'quartered' to refer to wood cut with the annual ring lines perpendicular to the surface, 'flat' for cuts where the ring lines are parallel to the surface, for the most part, and 'skew' for cuts where the ring lines are more or less at a 45 degree angle. That's the set of terms I learned. I've heard 'rift' used mostly in refering to oak, which shows that prominant ray pattern when cut anywhere near the quarter, but not when flat cut.

I'd think that skew cut rock maple would be pretty close to the same hardness and split resistance as persimmon, but I don't have data on that.

I suppose you could think of the bridge on the top and the bridge plate underneath as giving some sort of 'balanced' construction, as is needed with veneers. Whether it has any benefits on a guitar top is hard to say. Somebody need to do experiments, and report on them in 75-100 years, when we've seen how the instruments age. Any of you young guys want to take that one up?

Alan, You are right, discussion is just air without testing.

I'm glad Frank feels strongly about his idea. You just can't respect a wishy-washy luthier.

Howard, sorry to confuse you with the buffer info, that refers to the ability of CA to stiffen fibers, even cotton fibers of a buff. That refers to what Frank did to the buff, it was so rigid he threaded it and turned it onto the shaft of the buffer to protect the guitar. Sorry that was unclear. I bet I could find it over there on Frets.com

Great thread. I bet there are good reasons the old timers stuck with maple. Maybe the boss said, "do it or else."

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Yeah, the bridge plate is a bit of a soapbox topic for me, I guess.

No, I'm not contending that the parallel grain plate helps resist bellying -
that's a totally different thing. I'm concerned with the bridge/top integrity.
A cupped or cracked "conventional" plate can obviously contribute to the
bridge peeling loose and/or the bridge cracking through the pin holes.

Rigidity in that area is what I try for. That's also why I insist on using hot
hide glue because it dries to a very rigid nonflexible joint, unlike Titebond,
which is subject to serious creeping at "festival temperature."

FFFrank Ford39106.8231481481

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Cheers,

Frank Ford

FRETS.COM
HomeShopTech
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[QUOTE=fmorelli] Anyone laminating their bridgeplate?

Filippo[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I know a guy who is doing that....   

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I read on another forum that John Arnold uses black locust for
bridgeplates.

No one has yet mentioned the Bruce Petros method:
http://www.petrosguitars.com/features.htm
a big spruce plate in 45 degrees with small hardening part.
I have used similar design twice and it has worked fine as far as I can tell, although it is hard to tell what the effect is compared to some other design.

Hmnnn ... dumb question time. Aesthetics aside, what's wrong with using thin carbon fiber laminates as a material for bridgeplates?

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D..

[QUOTE=Dennis E.] Hmnnn ... dumb question time. Aesthetics aside, what's wrong with using thin carbon fiber laminates as a material for bridgeplates?[/QUOTE]
Not dumb at all. I've heard of folks using thin carbon sheeting on the bridge plate where the string balls lie. Don't know, though, about using carbon exclusively.