Exotic bridge woods?

[Ortonomics]

Hello all. I am just curious if anyone has made and/or has experience with alternative woods (other than maple) for a bridge? I am curious if kiln dried woods are necessary or if air dried is sufficient, which woods might be acceptable alternatives, and how they affect tone.

My main interest in asking is pure aesthetics, I wondered how much I could play with the materials before I run into tone loss. I also read in another thread about a graphite bridge. Interesting, but homely.

Thanks!

[Gearhead43]

NO!

Making a double bass bridge from any wood other than maple could rip a hole in the space-time continuum and kill us all!

It's madness I tells ya!

[uprightbass.com]

Aesthetics? Who besides you and a gear geek standing in your personal space would notice that you have an exotic wood bridge instead of maple?

[Ortonomics]

I would be the one who notices, I would be the one who appreciates it, I would be the gear geek and artist who cares about these things. If someone else does too, great!

[Cody Sisk]

Why stray from maple? James has got cher exotic right chea!

[kmanley_29649]

I've seen people dye/stain their bridges, so that is one option you could check out without sacrificing tone.

[Ortonomics]

Wow! Funny that ironically I like everything about that bass except the bridge! But different is interesting for it's own sake.

Yes, I agree color staining would be interesting, particularly if it accents the woodgrain pattern. A nice heavily spalted piece of maple would be interesting too... Thanks guys, just musing on possibilities.

[sirero]

I recalling reading that the best Bridges of old were a specific type of Beech in europe, but I can't for the life of me remember where the statement is from, or even if the statement was about basses or violins. I want to say it was in the opening pages of a Bass method book of all places.

[Gearhead43]

When I fit the nice maple bridge on my bass, I used a little Watco Dark Walnut finish on it. (just a light swiping) My bridge looks all antiqued looking and classy now.

I hate a bright white maple bridge on a bass, looks like it ain't done yet.

[bigolbassguy]

Originally Posted by DallasStrings

Why stray from maple? James has got cher exotic right chea!

You should post a new thread with pics of this axe, unless there's already one in the archives. I'm really interested in the neck mortise. Crazy.

Oh, yeah. Topic. What kind of woods are you talking about here? Any fancy figured maple or other hardwood is probably going to rob you of volume and low end. And then there's the whole space-time continuum issue.

[Ortonomics]

Well zebrawood would look hot but it would probably be too dense... Which possibly could be accomodated for by reducing the thickness...Not sure I guess I hadn't gotten that far, but I figured if anyone had tried one that did or did not work I could make a note of it. Haha... Make a note.

Yes the spacetime issue is one to consider. However I don't believe I can build an Einstein-Rosen Bridge out of wood.... If I did it would have lots of wormholes!

^lol

[uprightbass.com]

Originally Posted by Ortonomics

Well zebrawood would look hot but it would probably be too dense... Which possibly could be accomodated for by reducing the thickness...

^lol

Thinning wood will not compensate for the tonal effects of density.

[bigolbassguy]

Originally Posted by Ortonomics

Well zebrawood would look hot but it would probably be too dense... Which possibly could be accomodated for by reducing the thickness...Not sure I guess I hadn't gotten that far, but I figured if anyone had tried one that did or did not work I could make a note of it. Haha... Make a note.

Yes the spacetime issue is one to consider. However I don't believe I can build an Einstein-Rosen Bridge out of wood.... If I did it would have lots of wormholes!

^lol

Wormholewood? I wonder what you'd get if you distilled the bark. Point A-B synth?

wa-waa.

[forester]

search some past threads...they discuss not only woods and composits materials for bridges, but also proven methods of crafting them.

[Don Higdon]

My bridges are dipped in linseed oil. Subtle aged look. No one will think it came from Sam Ash or Home Depot.

[MR PC]

Linseed oil, perfect! Other oil finishes might dampen the tone, since they soak deeper in the wood.

[sXeMike]

I've made them out of lexan and a few acrylics. With a standard shape, they didn't make a noticeable difference in tone or volume.(on my ply basses)

[timobee4]

hahahahhahahahhahah! That is in deed the best and the wisest quote of all time! I must write it down! Also when little maple trees in the forest talk amongst themselves of their most secret future ambitions, some wants to be furniture etc, but there is always a smart little dense one, that wants to grow up to be a bridge on a Double Bass!

Originally Posted by Gearhead43

NO!

Making a double bass bridge from any wood other than maple could rip a hole in the space-time continuum and kill us all!

It's madness I tells ya!

[Feral Feline]

I happen to like how those graphite composite bridges look.

Spalted maple would look cool, but would it be as strong as a straight-grained maple bridge?

[forester]

if it was hard maple,and quartered... spalting has little or no effect on strength.