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I'm sure there's plenty of very scientific information on the internet about this, but here's my experience.
On a build where acoustic volume is important (i.e. vibration of the soundboard) the 'footprint' of the saddle/bridge should be as small as possible, so the energy of the strings is passed more effectively through a smaller area onto the soundboard. I would imagine this is also important with piezo pickups as the output will be tied to the level of vibration in the soundboard. This is what mine look like:
As you can see the material is no only quite thin, but I've used a drill to make arches so the footprint is even smaller. I use a combination of hard wood and bone to make sure as much of the string's energy is transferred through the bridge as possible, which then vibrates the soundboard. This is standard practice with banjo bridges etc. Using softer woods, or larger saddles will result in more of the energy being lost on the way.
If you are using a magnetic pickup, the saddle/bridge is not as important, as the pickup works off string vibration. If you have a look at hardtail type bridges, they have a much larger area in contact with the guitar body. They won't be as loud acoustically but they don't need to be. They also might contribute to the rigidity of the soundboard which would give better sustain.
Hope this helps!
That is a very interesting question! Never thought of that. One of my loudest CBG's has a Bolt with 2 nuts on it. Only the flats of the nuts are against the lid. I think that, in this case, the volume has more to do with the box, but I'm not sure!
theres a mountain of material here
http://www.murphymethod.com/index.cfm?event=pages.content&conte...
Thanks for that link. Quite impressive info and photos!
Yeah buddy, bone is considered good as it's extremely hard, so it will carry vibration very well. Lots of people use Corian (an artificial hard material used for counter tops etc. which can be worked with wood tools.) You asked what materials I used; well as I'm a bit of a stickler for aesthetics, I make my bridge, pickup bobbin and tailpiece out of the same wood I use for the fretboard... the ones in the picture were English walnut. But I've made them from oak, maple, mahogany... They are in fact pretty easy and quick to make, and I've been meaning to post a 'how to' for ages. Maybe today is the day.
Randy sells his bridges, as well as amazing slides etc... I shudder to think how much the ironwood one is though - probably more than 6 bucks right Randy? :)
My Ironwood topped slides are the same price as the stock wood top ones. It`s the burls and striped ones that go up higher in price...but just a few dollars. As I have to pay more for nicer figured and burl woods eventually I will have to raise my prices a bit...but I believe I still will get customers wanting to pay a bit more for my work.
Oh yeah Ironwood can be more expensive then Gabon Ebony. I buy it by the pound, which can get very expensive but it`s the most wanted wood for my slide tops that customers ask for. The Ironwood burl is double in price then regular Ironwood, but with all the woods I use it`s still my favorite. Here is the Ironwood burl tone bar I made for Wes
Okay, so what species is that? We have a tree that has always been called ironwood, but it is not an uncommon common name. It is carpinus caroliniana, and I have never heard of taking them for lumber, but they're also usually not large trees around here.
I love this guys page about mandolin bridges.
He has experimented with all types of woods and shapes.
http://www.murphymethod.com/index.cfm?event=pages.content&conte...
And here are some I made out of some wood a luthier friend gave me.:
Padauk, Honduran wood, Oak
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