I know bridge placement has been discussed, but what about the difference between the glued on bridge with the strings pegged, or hooked on like a uke or hard tail, compared to a bridge with a tailpiece and the strings pressing down on the bridge.
I know that more down pressure is good(to a point) but what about up pressure. The acoustic guitars with pegged strings would have a pulling force on the soundboard rather than a down pressure. What do you cbg wizzes think of one over the other for acoustic purposes. I'm hoping to have as long a debate here as John got started so lets go.
Replies
The main thing to remember when building a acoustic is lighter is best and the less wood that is in the box the better it will sound.
More over thinking
He Charlotte, I'd be interested to see the boxes that you make, I can't get decent boxes here so I've started making my own as well Having found a size that I'm completely happy with I've made a forming box so they all end up the same size making it easier to nut out where every thing will go. I'm still struggling with the best wood to use for sides and lids, I've been using 3/16 American oak for the side and 1/8 ceder ply for the top and bottom. I know some ply woods work well on acoustic guitars but feel that over a small airier such as a cbg it is too rigid to resonate so I'm experimenting with making my own one piece straight grain tops.
regards to all
I bought a box joint jig from Rockler that works with my router table and a 1/4 inch spiral cut router bit and I'm making some box sides out of poplar and some out of pine. They both are very resonant when tapped and I'm going to use spruce for the tops and a 1/8 inch craft ply wood for the backs. The craft plywood seems hard enough and nice enough to even consider it for tops. I'm stuck in the process right now trying to decide how I want to proceed with neck attachment, bridge method, etc.
I also have some 1/8" birch ply I wanted to try for a top but have been busy on other projects and need to finish the CBG I've been working on for some months first.
This thread has been dead for a while but I just now read it so I'll add a little to the list.
If you think about it all or almost all of the guitars today with floating bridges are hollow body arch tops. Most all of the "flat top" acoustics have glued on bridges with the only notable exception being the selmer maccaferri guitars like D'Jango played.
I asked my brother, who is a lifelong arch top player if he ever heard an arch top with a floating bridge sound as good as an acoustic such as a dreadnaught and his answer was no.
On the other hand we can look at violin's that have tail pieces and floating bridges and they can be remarkably loud with great tone. Unfortunately I don't know if anyone has ever made a violin with a glued on bridge, so there is no comparison to be made. Since we are usually putting electronics in our cbg's the point is moot.
I will mention that I was considering some time ago using a sound post directly under the bridge that would connect the top and back just like on the violin. I haven't done it yet but now that I'm making my own boxes it should be easier to do.
I build lid on the back i find it more stable. I call this the fishtail I use it with a archtop style bridge and a modified strat style bridge plate for a tailpiece screwed through the box end and into the fishtail. the top is supported only by the area around the neck joint and the small part on the tail this gives the top a chance to vibrate. This is how i built them before I had seen a CBG and now I have a million ideas thanks to this site.
Many thousands of stringed instruments have been built over hundreds of years using both fixed and floating bridges, if there were any appreciable difference one would have won out by now. The break angle of the strings over the bridge or apron makes substantially more difference in volume and tone. Too shallow an angle and you lose volume and its possible for the string to slide back and forth causing unpleasant sounds. Ive experienced this while experimenting. Supposedly the ideal angle is about 45 degrees.
Hi guys, I'm a newbie here but seeing as we are all full of crap I'll donate a spoon full. I've just finished my first cbg by following some of the basic steps, I made it a through neck with a relief for the lid to resonate, the tail piece is screwed to the back of the lid and neck and the strings pass over a floating bridge. acoustically it sounds fine BUT it has very little sustain. this Leeds me wonder if the downward string pressure is actually limiting string vibration.
I should also mention that I thickness-ed the lid from 1/4'' to 1/8'' which weakened it considerably and then needed to brace it.
So trough neck versus bot on, tail piece versus bridge pining. Can we have good sustain and resonance at the same time? Regards to all, Walt
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next