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First time poster...

I have started to collect wood for my 2nd guitar (as I continue building my 1st). I am looking for ebony (black) for an oversized bridge I need a 4"x8" blank. Does anyone have any recommendations since most Luthier Supply shops do not carry such large blanks.

1st guitar--in work--(Martin D-16 copy with rosewood accents, binding, headplate, bridge, fretboard). Rim and Back are completed...doing shell inlay on the rosette at the present time.

Welcome to the OLF Mr Dread, wish you the best for your first and second guitar!

Serge

Hi Dread! Welcome to the OLF! Any of our fine wood vendors would be able to help you out im sure of it!

Just pick on and shoot them an email.

Also, how about some pictures of your current project

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

There are oversize bridges, and oversize bridges, but 4"x8"? What are you thinking of making with that hunk of ebony?

You do realize a bridge anywhere near even half that large would weigh a ton and kill off any possible amount of decent tone and volume, right? If yuo're thinking of making it large and flat, it would also be prone to wraping and all kinds of weirdness due to that size.

Help us out, so we can help you. Was that a typo? Sure hope it was <bg>Mario38739.05125

Dread1916
I can supply you with a piece that size but like Mario I question why so big?

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Gibson cutout style? Interesting. Those big ol' Gibsons always made me wonder, why? What were they called? Mustache bridges?

8" x 4" wouldn't make a mustache bridge. More likely full beard and sideburns, maybe some backhair.

We're really wondering what in the world you have in mind that would require a bridge blank that size. That's over 4x times the area of what I consider an oversized bridge, and about 5x a fairly standard one.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Perhaps it is a suspension bridge, or a bridge over troubled braces, or a bridge like in George Washington's wooden teeth ( I think ebony would be a fine choice if you ate a lot of chocolate)
In reality how about a part of an upright bass fingerboard?
See if anyone has any remnants around.
Evan

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Even an upright bass' fingerboard or tailpiece isn't that big....

We really, really need to know what's up here <g>

I've seen bridges smaller than that on some of these Alabama county roads.

I can't think of any reason to use something that size on a guitar top.

Thanks all for the well wishes.

The bridge blank is large, and well, I guess I will come clean on what I am doing. This will be used to copy a guitar my great great grandfather built while he worked at Martin Guitar (i'm a Nazareth Native too). Anyway, he had a great impact on guitar design (which I did not know until about 1 month ago which is nearly 7 months after I started my 1st guitar) and I have now vowed to reproduce a guitar he had built for himself in 1917.

Way Dread if you can achieve this, don't forget pics!

Serge

I have now vowed to reproduce a guitar he had built for himself in 1917. Pics?

Frank as everyone knows is also a mandolin picker. He did an interesting little thing with a mandolin bridge, he reduced the weight without altering the oustide appearance. He shot it full of holes from underneath with a drill bit. www.frets.com Seems he said there was a noticeable difference in sound.

Have you ever placed an ebony mute on a violin bridge? The little fingered piece that slips between the strings and adds mass to the bridge. Just that tiny amount of weight absolutely kills the sound production of the violin.

So, I wonder if the same would apply to a guitar? I know we need mass to hold the sucker in place, but is there a way we can do it lighter?

Dread1916, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself.

While you are at it, consider putting up an Bio on the Luthier's Bio page. You can type it up and email it to Lance. He's the man.

Brock is concocting a do-it-yourself Luthier's Bio page, which I think is a great idea. I have a new set of lies I'd like to tell on myself.

Hi Dread,

I wrote an article on my observations/experiments with bridge design and shape. It was published in "American Lutherie" #66, Spring, 2001. Basically, the more mass on the bridge, the more inertia to overcome with each pick before the strings' energy can even begin to make sound. The transient response involved takes time, and if the energy can't get the bridge moving fast enough, quick enough, it backs up in the strings, limiting headroom.

Furthermore, the bridge lies in prime treble generating territory (if you buy my ideas) and the more surface area it occupies (even if very thin) the more treble is lost. I proved this by removing the handlebar mustache bridge from a Gibson collaboration I worked on with Ren Ferguson in 1998, replacing it with one of my simple design. It let the treble work (a major problem with this guitar) especially up the neck. Too bad Orville had a mustache. I'm sure he didn't intend to kill sound for style. In all fairness, Ren said he designed the solid winged mustache one based on customers' expressed wishes. If Orville were alive today, he'd roll over in his grave...

I plan to bring this guitar, a CL-20, to my workshop at he 2006 GAL convention for plucking and feeling.

Scott

Pics Scott of your bridge, I'd be interested in seeing it along with dimensions and weights for comparision. I may have that issue of American Lutherie, will go look. bd

Page 16 Summer 2001, I've got it. Thanks.

I've got a slightly different 'take' on it than Scott, although the end results are usually the same.

Basically, an easy way to think of it is that the strings don't deliver much horsepower. High frequencies require that the top get's moving fast; i.e., lots of acelleration, and we all know that if you want to build a car with a small engine that has good acelleration you have to keep it light. This means keeping the _whole top_ light. However, since the bridge can weigh as much as _all_ of the other bracing on the top, it's a good place to start.

The bridge _is_ a brace. Usually it's not a very good one, in the sense that it adds more mass than it does stiffness to the top. You know this because the man tap tones drop when you glue the bridge on, usually.

A long bridge, one that gets closer to the edges of the guitar in the lower bout, will add a lot of crosswise stiffness, and that can help bring up the high end.

If you are worried about gluing area and weight both, go to a less dense wood. Walnut makes great bridges, so long as you leave enough material in front of the saddle slot. Angling the slot back helps, too. You can make a tall, wide bridge of walnut which will add a lot of stiffness to the top, and still keep the weight down. This was one of the things I did on my 'twin' Small Jumbos that I took to the ASIA meeting three years ago, and wrote up in 'Guitarmaker'. I was trying for some of that high-end clarity that you get in an archtop, and they worked out pretty well as jazz boxes.

I'll definately post a bio soon and some pics as things progress on the 1st guitar and then the reproduction guitar. At this point it is unclear if the bridge was lightened as Dicky stated, but, I will definately be working to fing out if it was lightend.

Scott Van Linge--you have very valid points regarding the top and how it vibrates to produce sound.

I will go into more details about the project along with my bio hopefully in the near future. I just need to get a bit more info together and I'll be ready to share more.

Thanks again for your warm welcome in to this GREAT forum