Official Luthiers Forum!

Thanks Roger - I haven't noticed any reaction to PF. Did one guitar with no issues. I seems to be the lightest bridge of the lot I made.

Steve - Not a hijack at all. That is one of my points of this tread. Alternative woods. It would seem that Ebony and Rosewoods are use just because they are the most accepted. I find the Wood Data Base to provide a good benchmark.

Bob - I don't use them simply that I like my balls to be anchored to the bridge plate. I think there would be a lot less chance of a bridge lifting. What do you think?

That is hilarious...

The pinless bridges I have looked at seem to be much larger than a standard bridge. Therefore I assume heavier. If any one uses both, detail would be interesting.

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EddieLee

Has anyone ever used a mahogany bridge? I would think it would have less mass than ebony or rosewood.

It's a sensitizer, the more you use it, the worse it gets. I've made several bridges and a neck out of it, and it didn't bother me at all when I first used it.

I've used maple, walnut, and mesquite for bridges, as well as the usual suspects.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I originally used a pinless bridge on this one, but it has been removed and replaced with a pinned bridge, both curly maple. I made one out of bloodwood, but it was too heavy, so I switched to maple.
viewtopic.php?f=10133&t=37283&start=75 (near bottom of page 4 for bridge)
The pinless bridge was around 25 grams, the pinned bridge that replaced it was about 15 grams without the pins. Same physical size, the pinned bridge was a less dense piece of maple.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

It seems to me that you are drilling out a lot of material to accept pins, and replacing it with a different material. It may weigh more or less than the drilled out material, depending on what each was. It would likely come out pretty close to a wash. Only measuring would tell for sure...

I don't think a pinless bridge of necessity reduces weight that much. Plastic pins only weigh about 3 grams/set, ebony closer to 5, and bone about 8-9. You drill some wood out to put them in, and have to count that against the pin weight. Of course, with a pinless bridge you don't need a inside bridge plate, and that saves both mass and stiffness. OTOH, some pinless bridges actually look heavier to me than pinned ones. The bottom line is that I'm not at all sure it's clear cut one way or the other.

Most of the painless bridges I've encountered have had bridge plate as well. Even I were to go,painless, I'd be very nervous about not adding a bridge plate. Is that common?

Painless bridge?

I think it is more common to skip the bridge plate entirely (or use one of spruce) for classical guitars. I haven't made many, but I've also used a "normal" bridge plates along with the few pinless steel string bridges I've done. The bridge plate contributes both mass and stiffness to the bridge area, which has both structural and sonic implications. You should be able to get away without one it if you compensate adequately in other ways structurally, whether you'd like how it sounds in another matter.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I have definitely noticed a faster and cleaner response by using a lighter bridge. Mine tend to end up in the 16-20 gram area. On my smaller 0 and 00 guitars I've have also gone to a spruce plate with a very small rosewood patch to prevent damage to the plate. Bear in mind I've only built 19 guitars so take my opinion for what its worth. I have done one pinless bridge and I used a .030" spruce plate for it, the attached photo (albeit a bad photo) is of that bridge, it was 19 grams. For whatever reason that guitar has the cleanest fundamental tone of any I've made and that attribute has been noticed by many.

Tim