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Altering a bridge?

P

Primus_rocks

Jan 26, 2005
30
0
41
#1
ok so i bought my tunning pegs for my first bass build and they are beautiful....black with brown pearl knobs(kinda looks like wood) but now i just cant put all black hardware without accentuating that brown somewhere in it. i was thinking of buying a black bass bridge and changing the parts that actually hold the string up to peices of wood instead.

question is though, would this be plausible?? if so with what kind of wood and what kind of bridge???

I was thinking http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41407&item=3779423203 for the style of bridge cause i know a fender style bridge could not take the tension with wood peices(hopefully one of you can prove me wrong on this cause i really want a fender style bridge)

thanks a lot
Joel
 
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#7
Primus_rocks said:
My dad would be the one doing the woodwork for that so it should be all good...i would never even try my hand at something precise like that
Click to expand...

W/your dad around, you might consider learning all you can from him. My dad is 82- he's forgotten most everything I want to know. Also, I don't imagine Cliff Bordwell or Chris Stambaugh came out of the womb building nice basses. They learned; you can too. I'm an old coot raising 2, soon to be 3 kids & I'm building 2 electric uprught basses. They will likely look like crap, maybe they will play fair. The next one will be better. And prettier. I encourage you, it's just wood(power tools are dangerous, though).
 
#9
I've rarely seen any kind of oak in/on basses. I was told it's not as stable(resistant to warping, shrinking,etc.- you DON'T want that in a musical instrument)as more commonly used woods like maple, mahogany, ash, etc. Of course, for a bridge, you're looking for different qualities than for say, a top, neck or body. A dense, heavy, strong wood is probably best- acoustic guitars often have bridges made of rosewood or ebony. Veilette makes basses w/wenge bridges, Cliff Bordwell's is bubinga, I think. Purpleheart is very hard- I think I'll try that on my son's mini(26" scale)bass. I started a thread on 'wood as a metal replacement'- search for that.
Oh yeah, you're welcome. And yes, Primus rocks.
 
#11
-to using stained maple would be that the stain won't likely penetrate the wood very deeply, won't get real dark, & your hand may rub down to bare, blond maple after awhile. To me, a bridge that matches the fretboard(what's yours going to be?)looks cool, but make it how ever you like. Then make another one.
 

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