A lot of creativity is shown regarding bridges on the CB instruments I've seen. The quintessential eye bolt seems to show up a lot, dog bones, ball point pens, bottle caps... all kinds of cool stuff. These obviously works great for plugged in CBs, [& for aesthetic "funk factor"] but what about acoustically?

In most non amplified instruments some general rules of thumb I've observed:
1. Most are made of pretty dense material like bone, ebony, rosewood, maple, corian etc.
2. sometimes the body of the bridge is made with dense material like, ebony, rosewood or maple and capped with even harder materials like for banjos ebony atop maple and guitars bone on ebony.
3. Softer materials tend to absorb highs and denser materials accentuate them. I've used this to advantage on instruments like hammered dulcimers by capping the bridges with Delrin [a sort of self lubricating synthetic - I think it's generic name is acytal] this not only helped reduce friction to make tuning easier - it filtered out some of the high frequencies that HDs often have too much of anyway.

One of the ways you lower the volume of traditional stringed instruments is by using a "mute." [And in spite of what one of my T-shirts says a banjo mute is NOT a 9 lb sledge hammer...;~) ]
These are weighted clips that fasten to the bridge of say a fiddle or a banjo. This is helpful if we're trying to balance their volume with other acoustic instruments. But this also tells us that all else being equal, if you merely add weight to a bridge is reduces it's ability to vibrate freely and pass that vibration on to the sound board, and so the instrument gets quieter.

With all that said, I'm guessing large eye bolts work against us if we're trying for optimum sound unplugged. An easy experiment someone might want to try is make a few bridges of different materials, but all the same height, and test them on the same instrument. If you have a cohort who's got the patience a blind listening test might be even a little bit scientific. Any takers? Recording the results and comparing that way might be cool too, but keeping all variables the same can be tricky.

How about other bridge observations?

Views: 697

Replies to This Discussion

I was using an oak bridge/saddle and it worked fine, now i have switched to a wood bridge(mahogany I think) and a small brass rod saddle. The sound is still good, to my ears not much different. Reason for change is the new bridge houses a piezo. I was worried the new bridge would dampen some beacause it is larger and covers more of the soundboard , but it did not effect it.
A domino works great. They're extremely cheap too...I bought 20 for like $2 at Wally World. Cut them into 1/4" strips and slot them for strings, not too deep though, they seem to play better with smaller slots. They won't scratch your box and are pretty easily adjustable. One word of caution, they smell God-awful if you burn them with a dremel tool cutting bit so my best advice is to wear a gas mask. They also shed like corian when cut and a regular dust mask won't rid the smell.

RSS

The Essential Pages

New to Cigar Box Nation? How to Play Cigar Box GuitarsFree Plans & How to Build Cigar Box GuitarsCigar Box Guitar Building Basics

Site Sponsor

Recommended Links & Resources


Discussion Forum

Resonator Ukulele

Started by John Hopper. Last reply by Order99 Jul 9, 2020. 1 Reply

Innards - reinforcements, struts and bass bars?

Started by Diane in Chicago. Last reply by Dustin Smith Oct 25, 2010. 19 Replies

bridges - materials - setup etc.

Started by David Beede. Last reply by Dustin Smith Oct 25, 2010. 15 Replies

Box construction materials

Started by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars Mar 10, 2010. 0 Replies

sound absortion inside box

Started by bucky. Last reply by David Beede Sep 8, 2009. 1 Reply

Latest Activity

Doug Thorsvik commented on Doug Thorsvik's video
Thumbnail

California Dreaming: 3D Printed Cigar Box Guitar

"I agree Alan; she had some serious pipes! Glad you enjoyed this one; it was fun to learn."
5 hours ago
AGP # commented on Wanhavihtahousu's photo
Thumbnail

IMG_5132

"Nice Tins, I'm presuming they all have one of those 3 Pole Magnetic Pickups in them ?? :-)"
7 hours ago
AGP # liked Wanhavihtahousu's photo
7 hours ago
AGP # liked Ghostbuttons's photo
7 hours ago
AGP # commented on Doug Thorsvik's video
Thumbnail

California Dreaming: 3D Printed Cigar Box Guitar

"Another Great Choice of Songs Slingers, "Mama Cass" what a Voice! :-)"
7 hours ago
AGP # liked Doug Thorsvik's video
7 hours ago
AGP # commented on AGP #'s photo
Thumbnail

AGP #533 - ''Beware of Wife''

""Thanks A.D." for the very generous comment :-)"
7 hours ago
Profile IconTimothy Peter Cooper and Sam Tringali joined Cigar Box Nation
10 hours ago
BrianQ. left a comment for Sam Tringali
12 hours ago
BrianQ. liked Doug Thorsvik's video
12 hours ago
Southern Ray replied to Bill Andy's discussion Copper Hardware
"Taffy makes good points. I have no experience either with the paint, but I have a bunch of 50+ year…"
13 hours ago
Doug Thorsvik posted a video

California Dreaming: 3D Printed Cigar Box Guitar

Cigar Box Guitar Slingers - Spokane, 201st Zoom Mtg 05/06/24. Only 1-finger chords, free songbooks here: https://www.cbgslinger.com/download CBG Songbook.pdf...
15 hours ago

Music

© 2024   Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

\uastyle>\ud/** Scrollup **/\ud.scrollup {\ud background: url("https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/963882636?profile=original") no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;\ud bottom: 25px;\ud display: inline !important;\ud height: 40px;\ud opacity: 0.3 !important;\ud position: fixed;\ud right: 30px;\ud text-indent: -9999px;\ud width: 40px;\ud z-index: 999;\ud}\ud.scrollup:hover {\ud opacity:0.99!important;\ud}\ud \uascript type="text/javascript">\ud x$(document).ready(function(){\ud x$(window).scroll(function(){\ud if (x$(this).scrollTop() > 100) {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeIn();\ud } else {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeOut();\ud }\ud });\ud x$('.scrollup').click(function(){\ud x$("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: 0 }, 600);\ud return false;\ud });\ud });\ud \ua!-- End Scroll Up -->