I saw this post by Matthew Tucker today on facebook and though it would make for a great thread starter. It is a bridge made from skateboard deck blanks:
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Double Bass Non-Traditional Bridges thread
- Thread starter james condino
- Start date
Here is a carbon fiber hybrid I made a couple of years back:
The maker of the skateboard bridge goes by @litttledesign (note the 3 't's) on Instagram. I asked him how much he's charging -- it'd look great on my aluminum Pfretzschner!
What's the best metal for bass?
But then, if you're going for a custom bridge, you really need a matching tailpiece too.
This is what . . . to combat neck dive?
This is a ‘wingless’ bridge by Andrea Spada. The traditional wings on a bridge may mute the overtones. ‘Wingless’ may help to achieve a more focused sound on a dark bass.
Not Heavy.
Actually there have been a number of aluminum designs for double bass bridges. I can't document the benefits of aluminum for this use, but I do know some banjo makers starting in the late 19th century used it.
Aluminum at that time was more valuable than gold, btw. So save your Coke cans, history repeats itself.
Wow, that looks like it was picked up in a 1950s Soviet army surplus store.
It's definitely USA made, it was custom made at the same shop as the bridge, Deuce Bass Co. From what I have heard, that same shop also produced dune buggy and sand rail parts, so...
Joel Quarrington with another version of the ‘wingless’ bridge on his Maggini bass. This is a screen shot from his Bach 6th Suite YouTube video. He uses this type of bridge on at least one other of his basses.
that bridge has partial wings and was made by Mario Lamarre. I’ve seen Joel use bridges without any wings entirely - he got the idea from Ludi Pollack in the 1980s. A few cellists uses bridges like this but it can make an instrument sound incredibly harsh unless it is a very dark bass IMHO.
In Pops Foster's (auto?) biography there is a picture of him in 1945 playing a bass with one of those metal bridges with the three feet in a triangle shape, so they've been around for at least that long. I think they've been shown in a thread here before. Didn't the original Baby basses also have a metal bridge?
Thanks for the back story. I don’t really know anything about the 3pointer. It certainly does look like it has some age on it. I just visited the Google machine for interesting imagery when I saw JC’s new thread.
... And Pop's biography is a great read for lots of other reasons too, if anyone is wondering. Lots of great history recollected by one of the foundational early jazz New Orleans DB'ists.
Two hours before someone drove 1000 miles to pick up their new bass on a Sunday, I discover that the old Slowey bridge I had been planning to use for several months was a bust. Improvisation time. The reflection on the old polished ACLOA is a nice mind bender. Yup, I've been 'burstin the custom bridges to match the rest of the bass theme for a few months:
It’s on my reading list after Milt Hinton’s book.
