Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a few rosewood bridge blanks like this one. I like the wavy grain pattern but I'm wondering if the curl would mean a weak glue joint with the top. It's over 8 inches long so if I used it, I could use the left end where the curl is less pronounced. or ?

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I think that you should send me a couple of those bridge blanks for some in depth analysis, Jay.

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Probably a bit weaker, but you could make it a bit bigger to compensate. Also, you could warm up the bridge and then pre-coat it with thin hide glue, let it dry, give it another light sanding on the guitar to remove any raised grain, and then do the final glue-up. That should clog any exposed endgrain, and give a better mating surface.

I think it would look great on a curly redwood top But then your joint is even weaker... but I remember a thread on the AGF where Harvey Leach posted a picture of a curly redwood 12 string with a typical sized bridge, and said it's been fine for over 10 years. So that pretty much confirms that curly joints aren't doomed to fail.

And if you do use curly redwood, do the hide glue pre-coat on that too. As mentioned in this thread, the exposed endgrain of curly redwood can suck up a lot of finish, and therefore would likely do the same to glue.

I love that bridge blank! It looks kinda thin... Is it 3/8"?

_________________
Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

IMHO no it would not.

Thanks for the replies.

Alex - Thanks for the offer, but I'm already fully committed to a full in depth analysis with replication here.

Steve - It's about 7/16ths thick so it'll work.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I thought so! I'm looking forward to seing it on one of your guitars!

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Will likely be just fine, in fact I wonder if the reversing grain might make it less prone to crack under the forces resulting from string tension.

That is one sweet piece of wood!

I like that piece. I don't know if this is a good idea for a bridge but what about stabilizing it with shellac? Like one would do with a knife handle or pen blank... You'd need to hold the piece in the shellac under vacuum for 24 hours or better.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I'm not sure what you mean by reversing the grain.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Would the shellac treatment improve the strength of the glue joint?

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I don't know.
What the shellac does though is fuse the wood together internally this strengthening the wood fibres. Don't think it would effect the gluability though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Given the vast holding strength of glue vs the relatively light load, I'd wager that as long as you got a good bridge fit, it'll be just fine.