Soap Stone for bridge?

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Permalink Reply by carverman on November 21, 2010 at 10:21am

I guess then that the term "soapstone" is a more common name used to describe different things
made from different types of mineral rocks.
Here is a description of what the Inuit carvings are made of..this is what I think of when I
hear "soapstone"..
Excerpt--------------------------------------------
The term soapstone has been used to describe the raw material for carving in the Northwest Territories. Soapstone is made of talc steatite and is very soft. Serpentinite, the usual stone used, is a different class of mineral, much harder, does not scratch with your thumbnail and comes in a variety of colours. Other stone found in the Arctic and used in carvings are silstone, argillite, dolomite, quartz and marble.
--end---


Don Thompson said:

http://www.gardenstatesoapstone.com/about-what.php
The density trait I found quite interesting. But that's just me.
Don

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Permalink Reply by Tony Owens on November 21, 2010 at 8:53pm

Like I said, I ended up going to home depot's cabinet department and got some samples of their solid surface countertop. It's not corian...I can't remember the name but It's made my Samsung. Hard as hell. Here you can see it installed for the nut.

Tony

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Permalink Reply by Tony Owens on November 22, 2010 at 12:13pm

Well...it really isn't a stone per se. It's more along the lines of Corian but seems a little harder.



Francois said:

For all I care, it might just give the guitar a warmer tone...
I never tried using a type of stone as a bridge...

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Permalink Reply by carverman on November 22, 2010 at 12:18pm

I can see a lot of different materials used for the nut, even brass..but for an acoustic bridge,
you need a a material that will transmit the string vibrations easily to the top of the guitar.
wood with bone saddles seems to be the materials of choice. You could make a acoustic bridge
out of marble, but it may be too dense and not transmit vibrations efficiently.



Tony Owens said:

Like I said, I ended up going to home depot's cabinet department and got some samples of their solid surface countertop. It's not corian...I can't remember the name but It's made my Samsung. Hard as hell. Here you can see it installed for the nut.

Tony

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Permalink Reply by Tony Owens on November 22, 2010 at 4:23pm

I'm not using marble...or any type of real stone for that matter. The synthetic material I'm using is what Samsung calls "Staron". The great thing is...if I don't like it....I can always change it.



carverman said:

I can see a lot of different materials used for the nut, even brass..but for an acoustic bridge,
you need a a material that will transmit the string vibrations easily to the top of the guitar.
wood with bone saddles seems to be the materials of choice. You could make a acoustic bridge
out of marble, but it may be too dense and not transmit vibrations efficiently.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) on November 22, 2010 at 5:01pm

My initial reaction is that it should work fine. I've seen people make bridges/saddles out of little pieces of wood and those sounded fine. Soapstone is definitely harder than wood. I'd say go for it.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on November 22, 2010 at 8:13pm

It has been my experance that soapstone and pipestone makes a better bong or pipe than a nut for a guitar. Soapstone is brittle but yet soft. Corian or bone would be my choice With elkhorn, deer horn and bone at the top of the list..

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Permalink Reply by Tim Latham on November 22, 2010 at 10:58pm

I was wandering if deer horn would ever make the list. I have used the deer horn on 3 builds and the resonation is really good to me. I am new at playing myself, but folks who do play and know how to play do comment on the nice resonation of my boxes. Elk horn will be next. Just got to love this site! Thanks all!.

Bob Harrison said:

It has been my experance that soapstone and pipestone makes a better bong or pipe than a nut for a guitar. Soapstone is brittle but yet soft. Corian or bone would be my choice With elkhorn, deer horn and bone at the top of the list..

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Permalink Reply by carverman on November 23, 2010 at 8:00am

Rosewood/ebony/maple are the traditional choices of materials for acoustic bridges.
Bone (or elephant tusk ivory, before it was illegal) has been used for the saddles,
and because of it's unique density, it transmits string vibrations to the wooden bridge
efficiently. I don't see any reason why you can't make a complete bridge out of elk
or deer horn as the composition is closer to ivory, which was the best material.


Bob Harrison said:

It has been my experance that soapstone and pipestone makes a better bong or pipe than a nut for a guitar. Soapstone is brittle but yet soft. Corian or bone would be my choice With elkhorn, deer horn and bone at the top of the list..

• ▶ Reply

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