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Double Bass bridges?

kurt ratering

kurt ratering

Dec 2, 2008
241
0
waltham, mass.
www.johnsonstring.com
Disclosures
bass luthier, johnson string inst.
#1
hi all, this is a questions more for luthiers but players, your input is helpful as well. what are people using for bridges these days? i use despiau single trees the "6" model (as listed in howard core). i find that the price increase for higher quality(double and triple trees) bridges isnt worth the extra cash. just curious what everyones using. kurt
 
#3
Hmm. I think the wood is noticeably better in the 'two tree' bridges and very much worth the small upcharge. I used to carry cheaper bridges for the really poor players but I don't anymore.

If an installed bridge with adjusters is around $350.00, why save $5.00 on the blank? The better grain structure means that me and my client don't have to worry about premature warping. I guarantee my work and try to do something as labour intensive as a bridge just the once! :)
 
#6
i think that they are listed under "accesories" on the core site, at least the are in the catologue. im not familiar with th #12, i take it the legs are more vertical? maybe i got sub-par bridge, but i wasnt impressed by my last triple tree.
and i'll take one hungarian and one slovakian bride. if they are shipped together do i save on s+h?
 
#7
despiau,aubert,pampi,teller,..all of the name brand bridges seem consistent, use quality wood, are well manufactured, and up to the task they are intended for. i can only imagine trying to replicate their work...for the most part they are defect free, and often suffer greatly from the crafting that ensues.;)
 
#8
sorry to dust off this thread, but i was going though my bridges and found these, a triple tree and a single tree. i just thought that they illustrated my prior statement about quality vs. price. ill post the pics large so the grain is visible. the more expensive triple tree has maybe 1/2 the grains, and is quite spongey compared to its single tree counterpart.
2qnoy1z.jpg

2eklr9v.jpg
 
#11
drurb, look in the pic below "France", there are 3 little tree stamps on the bridge. The intention is that the more trees, the better the quality of the bridge blank. Now it seems that's up for debate.

I use the one-tree bridges for my pro customers and no-tree bridges for my regular customers. No-tree blanks are actually quite good as well. Not much difference from the one-tree. I'll post pics later when I am at my shop..
 
#12
if you look at the despiu bridge stamp you will see either 1,2,or 3 trees stamped under the despiu logo. these indicate different quality levels of the bridge, 1 being good, 2being better, and 3 being the best. imo the wood on the single tree bridge is better than the 3 tree.
the way i understand it is that despiu will determine the quality of an entire log (1,2,or3) and then every bridge that is made from that log carries that quality of stamp. where as with aubert, again the way i understand it, will determine bridge quality on a bridge to bridge basis.
i guess it really dosnt matter with the despius as i have heard that they no longer make the triple trees, has anyone else heard this?
edit- i guess cody answered this as i was typing. thanks
 
#13
Kurt, I wonder if the grading is done by the consistency of the grain widths. Your one-star has inconsistent grain widths while your three-star, though wider, has fairly even grain widths. My blanks seem to follow that same trend.

I'd post pics of mine but I can't find the damn camera cord. :mad:
 
#15
If you look at your one tree from the side you'll see why its not a two or three tree bridge. The threes always exhibit better quartering and evenness of grain. Despiau has no twos available because they can't get the wood but the CT6 ones and threes I've been getting from the Juzek Brothers at Metropolitan Music are very nice.

I just referred back to your photo and that three tree looks like a mis-stamp, doesn't it?
 
#16
hey jake, i tried to photograph the endgrain, very tricky, and i couldnt get them to come out, but they are both very resonably quartered. as for the misstamp, i hope not, cause i aquired it for full triple tree price. that may even have been the one that inspired this thread in the begining.

edit-i finally got a good shot of the quartering, looks better on the comp than the camera.

afewc2.jpg
 

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