Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on November 20, 2010 at 12:59am

I agree with Turkish.


Matt

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Permalink Reply by Tony Owens on November 20, 2010 at 1:10am

Thanks guys. I went to Home Depots cabinet department and got a few different samples of solid surface counter top material. I think that will be a much better choice. Thanks for the input

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Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on November 20, 2010 at 2:53am

I like Corian



Tony Owens said:

Thanks guys. I went to Home Depots cabinet department and got a few different samples of solid surface counter top material. I think that will be a much better choice. Thanks for the input

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Permalink Reply by Paul Doug on November 20, 2010 at 5:47am

I have worked soapstone and corian and corian is much harder. Soapstone can be scratched with your fingernail. That being said, I think that with care you could use soapstone. Alabaster would be better in my opinion only because it is a little harder. I'm wondering if the softness of soapstone might deaden the sound of the strings some. I don't know, never used it for that purpose.

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Permalink Reply by carverman on November 20, 2010 at 11:52am

I've never heard of using soapstone for a guitar bridge..but anything is possible. The only
concern would be that the treble strings will bite into the soapstone, which is softer than
bone saddle and that will eventually dull the string tone and probably affect intonation..
so tuning might be a problem, I would think.

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Permalink Reply by carverman on November 20, 2010 at 11:55am

wes carl said:

ok fokes, im not talking about soapstone like ya would mark metal with if ya were a steel worker ( witch i was) im talking about the old time soapstone they made sinks out of, like in labs an laundery rooms, or im i confused ( it wouldnt be the first time) give me an answer please

There may be different types of material that is called soapstone then. The carving soapstone
(like the stuff Eskimos (sorry Inuit people) used is way to soft and may have voids in it.
You must be thinking of some kind of slate-marble or granite maybe?

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Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on November 20, 2010 at 2:00pm

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 carverman on November 21, 2010 at 4:21am

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 2:53pm

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 6:13am

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 6:18am

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 10:23am

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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