How To Make A Rubber Bridge For Your Guitar
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- What do y’all reckon? I'm into it. Don't tell my guitars - I spent years trying to make them as resonant as poss, so understandably they might get frightened by a big ol' slab of rubber. But it's all part of the fun!
Stay tuned and I might be tempted to try it on a Tempest guitar...
Definitely let me know how you get on if you try this at home - it really couldn’t be easier.
Reuben Cox article - this guy is a legend, owns a shop out in LA and made the rubber bridge as cool as it is today: reverb.com/new...
Love,
Daisy x
Tempest sweatshirts: www.tempestgui...
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90% of woodworking is just figuring out what things are called. Boy, ain’t that the truth. For me it was an obscure type of fastener which, lucky for me, I was able to source from a local shop thanks to a very knowledgeable clerk. I think there’s a lesson in that about over reliance on tech. Anyway, I really enjoy your videos Daisy, not just for what you teach us but for the utterly charming way you go about it. Keep up the great work!
"I'm going to keep it real simple" *plays beautifully*
Fingerstyle too, lmao
Yep what’s that about.
your playing is not bad at all!! (it's way better than some people I've come across calling themselves guitarists...)
I second that.
I third.
It's better than mine 😂
It seems that guitar makers spend most of their making and not practicing. That said your playing was totally serviceable!
It is always great to see you Daisy doing what you do best!!!!!
PS all true musicians are critical of their playing.
Yes I’m doing a rubber bridge on a 1962 Kay, that I picked up at a garage sale for $90. It’s been used and abused, but it’s still in good shape. I even got the original case. I decided to not put the output jack in the guitar strap hole because I couldn’t get my arm into the guitar to install the jack. I’m also using flat wound strings.
And your playing doesn’t suck. You’re better than me.
Bass player (and builder) here 🙋🏼♂️. We’re quite familiar with this concept, muting of electric bass strings was pretty fundamental in early rock and roll and Motown/soul recordings, it gives a distinctive “thud” sound. It was usually a piece of sponge stuffed under the strings near the bridge, and that was at least part of the reason that early Fender basses were produced with the distinctive “ashtray” covers over the bridge. Leo Fender apparently hated the idea of a random piece of sponge spoiling the sleek look of his instruments, so he hid it with his typical design flair.
You said block of rubber and I immediately went back to one of my jobs during uni which was moving blocks of raw rubber about in a factory. My idea of a block of rubber is two tonnes.
Hey Daisy, here’s a challenge for you; what about a glass or quartz bridge? You might have to find a lapidary shop to make it for you. I would personally love to hear what that does to the sound of a guitar. A material that would hold together would be a cryptocrystalline quartz such as flint, chert, chalcedony, or agate. These materials would allow you to work them down to fine dimensions without falling apart. A challenge, maybe?!
Another fun string deadening thing you can do is weave a strip of paper in between your strings. It creates a cool percussive muted effect. You can also move the paper strip closer to the bridge to lessen percussive/staccato effect.
One could also pop for a guitar mute. The rubber block would work well for an over string mute; they are similar to a violin mute in the manner of usage. Fender Jaguar 's can be fitted with an under string mute at the factory or purchased from them in the after market. Get a pro like Daisy to install it for you!
Was looking up what the hell a rubber bridge is and got your video. Who would have thought this thing I never heard of was in everything, including some Phoebe Bridgers.
I learned a lot here! I do like the sound of bone enough that I used it for my homemade banjo (unfortunately it's my first project and its unplayable.)
Just split a length of small rubber automotive vacuum hose up one side and slip it under the strings and over the saddle. Small clear oxygen hose will work as well. Same effect without ANY modification.
it's nice to see someone who understands intonation do this
It is so great that I found your videos as I was stumbling around the UA-cam rabbit hole. I am a frustrated "maker" because I have neither the tools nor the space even though I have the time (I just retired). I am restoring an LBC (Little British Car) so I can still revel in dirt and bashed fingers all while employing a lexicon of creative curse words that are appropriate for the specific task. When it comes to music, my family consists of gifted amateurs all the way to professional musicians. Apparently, I must have been swimming in another gene pool because I can't tell the difference between middle C and a cauliflower. However I can tell you all about carburetors for a 1966 Spitfire. My brother is an amateur luthier, though and I sent him a link to your videos.
Oh, by the way, I don't care what anyone says, you have beautiful hands that reflect the beauty you make.
Really enjoy your videos!
Woah just discovered yours too! Amazing!
Rubber stiffness can be described with a scale known as durometer. Would be interesting to experiment with various levels of stiffness, as well as amount of mass in contact with the body.
Great Video! I have experimented a lot with various materials for bridge saddles - woods, plastics, hard rubbers, metals, bone, horn, etc. I live in a small house with a wife who likes quiet. I found that hard rubbers with an 80 - 90 shore "A" hardness produce a very nice mute. They make steel strings sound like soft old nylon strings, cutting the volume in 1/2 without changing the tone much. Many types of hard rubber and plastic are available as sheet goods in 1/8" thickness, and small quantities or "samples" for experimentation.
BTW, you have an interesting playing style; one of my old teachers called it "first ready". That is, to play with T and 2,3,&4, leaving "1" ready to attack a melody line as needed. Gotta love old swing players.
I saw one of your videos like 6 months ago and genuinely enjoyed it but I forgot to subscribe. This one popped up in my recommendation and I was super excited because I remembered your face. Definitely subbed now. 😊 Now I have plenty of new videos to watch!
Had a rubber saddle in my old trusty yamaha fg 335 for 25 years, my wife let her dad borrow my guitar (without my knowledge) and when I got it back he had replaced it with a bone saddle. He said your welcome. I wasnt happy, but had to smile and say thanks.
Don't think twice. You did a fine job.
i like your geetah playing sounded cool stick with it music is food for da Soul 🌖🌕🌔
Reminds me of a violin mute, makes the instrument a little quieter, shorter sustan and warmer...it's cool. Would be interested to try it on my resonator
seen a few variants of this, another one I like is sliding a folded cigarette paper next to the bridge under the strings, that produces a really unique sound
Sound pretty good it cuts some of the high notes out and allows a deeper tone. I like it.
To get a flatter sound similar to that rubber saddle I ran a 1/4 inch threaded rod through the back of the guitar with a plastic tip that adjusts up and down to directly underneath the middle of the bridge.I installed a tee-nut on the inside back of the guitar with a small block of wood.I stamped the end of the threaded rod to accept a small allen key/wrench.
Same effects could be achieved with towel under strings, or some rope weaving between strings.
I've used that while practicing long time ago... And read about that in some Francisco Tarrega biography article.
PS. Hope your index finger is good - it seems that you're recovering from some trauma((( Take care!
Hi Daisy, I greatly appreciate and enjoy your videos. I teach high school furnishing & engineering skills in Australia; and we regularly find that our top students are girls. Even though we promote these classes to both girls & boys, our enrolments by girls are always low. At times it seems that they can't "see" themselves in workshop activities. I saw on a PMTV interview that you do talks in schools; would you be able to do a UA-cam video aimed at inspiring high school girls to "have a go" at workshop subjects. If possible, could you also relate various workshop, luthier & business skills to everyday life, such as; training your eyes to pick changes is colour tone or reflection when woodworking, which can help with presentation skills and developing presentation material. Likewise, numerical manipulations from customising projects and having to change dimensions, measurements, helps to read numbers as a language, which in turn, helps navigate the bombardment of sales and marketing "discounts" etc, to find the best value. Keep up the good work, Jim
I have been making a lot of bridges and saddles lately for various projects (banjos/older guitars) so this is timely for me. I planned to work on one today.
I think if I were to keep the rubber bridge I would glue a bit of veneer to the base of it as I can't imagine contact with the rubber would be great for the guitar's finish.
Interesting sound, though, and it opens up thoughts about various materials that could be used for saddles/bridges.
Good video. Thanks.
Very interesting and again we learn new ways to expand our knowledge. Excellent as always.
I had no idea that such a thing existed haha. Your playing is beautiful and I wish I was half as good!
Well done! Thanks!
IMHO - Daisy. Great video. I was surprised that old beater sounds better with the rubber bridge than the original. I have a vintage Harmony F-hole in horrible shape and I might consider doing that to it just for fun. Thanks.
Petition to get Madison Cunningham playing one of your guitars with a rubber bridge 👀
I think that those old tunes often were done on "dead" strings ala Nick Drake on the acoustic side. A lot of bright harmonics go away and the sound is more like jazz electric. Al DiMeola is a gifted palm muting electric player.
I don't get how the bridge doesn't compress until the string is too low. Unless you manage to find sufficiently hard rubber.
What I did was find some silicone caps, I think they're intended to cover things like exposed protruding screw threads or for painting protection. They are about 12mm long tubes, closed on one end, with about 1.5mm ID. )D is about 5mm. I simply slid one on each string so that it rests on the existing saddle, with the string inside, such that the silicone hangs off both sides of the bridge about equally. Enough to do the muting effect. The advantage is that you don't have to cut anything. They work on pin bridges as well as floating bridges. Perhaps any small diameter rubber hosing will do as well.
Cool. Interesting. Weird. Well done and entertaining as always.
Relaxed & Rolling your Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper so easily, over the Rubber Bridges in life.
That same sound can be achieved (as you mentioned) by palm muting, by an elastic band at the nut or weaving something between the strings, also to some degree covering the sound hole with some material of choice, I and many players experimented with these and many other odd ideas in the 70s, all good fun but nothing new heh heh
Love it - who would have thought- a rubber bridge!! Well done Daisy!
Just ran across your channel. Had to back up and watch few videos. You do seriously great work! We were in London for a bit last month and it appears we were close to your shop. If only we had known, we would have dropped by to say hi! Keep up the great work!!
Interesting _ Thanks Daisy - Cheers from Canada
Great video - I was about to buy a jeweler's block but then thought that a hockey puck may work instead. I tried it out and it seems to have worked pretty well!
I love the bodyshape of your guitar!! you should feature thwm more!!
In my opinion this rubber bridge thing which is all the rage at the moment sounds a lot like nylon strings on a cheap classical guitar (don't get me wrong, I got one of those suspects in my collection and I don't wanna miss it), with some advantages and disadvantages. An unmuted classical will still have more sustain, but steel strings are way better for bending and can be amplified with magnetic pickups. But here comes a fun fact: I also play a lot of bass and for us bass players this kind of thing is not a new idea at all. If you want to (at least somewhat) emulate the sound of an acoustic contrabass, you have to use a mute. There's different ways of doing it, the easiest one is just to shove some foam or rubber under the strings close to the bridge, but if you want to deploy and remove the mute quickly, a slotted strip of foam/rubber on a strip of plastic or wood is perfect. Experiment with density but I found this foam stuff for putting under pickups works great and is easy to get. There's also commercial versions of that (like the Nordymute), but it's sooo easy to DIY, and then you can cut the string spacing exactly to your needs. I use my mute all the time when we play jazz in the local wind orchestra. Another sidenote: There's integrated mutes for electric guitars and basses too, also mostly known on basses, especially Rickenbackers.
Thanks for the inspiration! Now I will go and make such a plop-on mute for my steel string acoustic too!
A fascinating topic today. Thank you.
It is not exactly my choice but it works surprisingly well with this guitar. It might be interesting to use as a supporting part. I’ll keep it in mind!
Not related to rubber bridge, which is kinda cool… I may try that… , but a question about your finger picking style, which sounds quite good! I notice you don’t use you index finger. If you don’t mind my asking, is that due to an injury? A technique choice? Or just how you happened to learn and now it’s habit? Just curious. ps - I love your videos!!!
A really good rubber to use would be an Ice Hockey puc, really hard rubber and shock absorbant
Leather also works really well, and is far easier to work with
I had my doubts about a rubber bridge. After hearing the results I can see myself switching to a rubber bridge with one of my acoustics.
So, I'll be in London in a couple of days, just for a couple of days. Not sure if you would have any interest for me to visit you and have you as a guest on my channel. I'll be visiting the music shops on Denmark Street, probably on August 24, and hope to capture some good videos there. Just let me know if you have time or even any interest. Cheers.
What do you think about slotted pins vs slotted holes advantages/ drawbacks on/ in steelstring bridges?
Instead of a rubber bridge I have seen ppl use rubber elastic band woven throught the strings, to dampen strings it worked fine imho.
I once thought for about 2 months I killed my Epiphone LP because I changed the strings from 1.1's ( came with guitar)to 0.8's after a week of playing since I bought it. Everything needed to change because, you know why.
I just thought how hard can that be, so I changed the crap to it. It got from bad to worse, to whoops might have broken it in about 3 weeks time.
So I bought a book about guitars, bought some tools I needed. And then after a month of measuring, adjusting etc. everything ,I had a perfect guitar.
But I swore, I will never ever do that again.
And thats why I have got so much respect for you👍
Interesting experiment but guitars are about resonance not dampening. This is just not something for me but I am a big fan of your work! Cheers!
Your playing is perfectly fine to me, though I don't understand what you're doing with your index finger, it's very interesting! If it works for you though, that's great!
Self taught and very wrong technique 😂
Omg thanks for saying it’s a rubber SADDLE. Drives me nuts that people call it a rubber bridge - kind of like the vibrato-trem thing! 😂
I like your idea to use a guitar with an adjustable bridge. That’s a really quick and easy way to do it. If someone wants to use a regular acoustic, you shouldn’t even need to cut the rubber to fit into the saddle slot - I have seen people do it by placing the rubber right above/in front of the regular saddle and it sounds great.
Maybe you’d like to expywith a few homemade ideas I’ve sort of thought about, but I haven’t tried them myself yet. I keep wondering why it needs to be done at the bridge end. Shouldn’t it theoretically make the same effect if you put the rubber in front of or behind the nut, kind of like the GruvGear dampener that goes under the strings behind the nut?
You could also probably make one kind of like their popular FretWrap by attaching rubber to a hair tie and wrapping at the top of the frets, which should dampen with a piece of rubber if the hair tie is tight enough.
Or you can make something that just goes on the strings like the Bass Fump (I think that’s the name) made by GruvGear, which clamps to the of the strings by the bridge by using a hair clip and a piece of rubber.
I’m obviously taking a lot of inspiration from GruvGear products, lol. 😂😂😂
Also, can I suck at finger-style as much as you?! Cause you are quite good!
Would be cool to see a video on how you do your side dots/fretboard markers!
First your guitar playing is fine. Second there other options that I would prefer. I have a piece of shag carpet I have folded over and put between my pickup (I have electric guitars) and the bridge that mutes the strings just fine. Otherwise you could simply buy a Gretsch Country Gentleman with mutes already installed! Just joking, but I do use the carpet scrap to do the same thing and can be removed in seconds, a valuable commodity when playing live! That is actually what the Herman's Hermits did on Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter.
First of all, love some Bob Dylan, secondly, love your videos, third a Jaguar used to come with a flippable mute. If you made a mute like that that could go right in front of the saddle would that work on an acoustic.
hey; just wanted to share that this design is originated by Ruben at Old Style guitars in LA. he created the concept and everyone has largely been copying his specs. He’s a legend and deserves more credit for this !
Maybe watch the video first? She does give credit to him in the end...
I'll stick to muting wit the edge of my hand thanks.As a teenager I did something similar to my cello acoustic.I repaced the bottom half of the bridge with a two ounce tobacco tin lid for a nice dobro sound...............................................
Very interesting ... perhaps more experimentation with differing materials on the same guitar with the same perfectly acceptable playing 😊
I feel like an extra large pink eraser would do for stock material.
sounds good. Trying to find the right names of things is a nightmare especially searching t'internet that contains bloody everything. You can also take some of the pinging high end noise off by having a wee bit of sponge under the strings next to the bridge, as used by bassists mostly (or buy a nylon string guitar 🤔)
Thanks for this, nice work, it made a difference. And, I do like the sound of your instrument, and, as noted below, you have not heard my playing, you are tops in comparison. :)
Awesome deal on this.
Nice work as always. Your playing is fine btw. It did sound a bit 'don't think twice it's alrighty'.
It’s really easy. You can do it at home. (Moves to fully kitted out workshop).
Hahaha true but I only use basic tools!
Really nice playing I thought!
Have tried a block of Eva foam next to the bridge you would probably only need 5mm to mute the strings
@3:27 Are you playing Don't think twice it's alright by Bob Dylan ? Thanks for the tutorial, I might try this on an old epiphone casino as it has the same type of floating bridge than the one in the video.
I'd say 90% of life is just figuring out what things are called. 🤣
Today, I learned that that thing is called a rubber bridge. Thanks!
Does that photo at 44 seconds show brass bridge pins? Have you experimented with different types. I'd love to watch a video of you experimenting with different material bridge pins and how/if they affect the sound. I assume they do but... Thanks for the great content!
I've been wanting to do this, i just need to find a good candidate for the project
your playing is lovely! give yourself some credit here :)
Daisy, how cool would it be if you could make a guitar where it would be easy to swap out the bridge for a rubber bridge from the OG bridge for a player if they wanted to play around a bit? Maybe have an accessory available and figure out a way for the player to mount it quickly and easily. I don't know, I'm just riffing here.
Came here thinking I was going to learn about rubbers in the card game Bridge 😳
Dig the Travis picking!!
"I suck at guitar" plays acoustic guitar 100% better than I ever could. Classic woodworker.
SCAM DO NOT CLICK
Did you yet try to make a "jawari" (sitar) bridge for a guitar ? And how about this: a friend is sometimes playing his medieval lute with an additional "buzzing" bridge just in front of the actual bridge !
There are different densities of rubber. The greater the density the more vibrations are transferred to the guitar body.
Obviously, you are not exactly a metalhead, but this sparked an idea... An electric guitar made for hi-gain playing with a rubber nut to mute the non-fretted notes?
Hi Daisy, next time, for the idiots like myself who don't have a good musical ear, could you put the two musical parts side by side ? Or alternate between the two so the comparison is easier ?
Ma'am what is your thoughts on the piezo mic that Mr. Cox imbedded in the guitar body and can you explain the wiring?
Well done, figuring out what things are called, then remembering it.
I always wanted to hear your playing. You do really well. Now if you want bad playing - please listen to me sometime :) Trust me you're great.
I wonder if you could switch between a hard bridge and a rubber bridge by means of a lever and cam system whilst playing? Giving the player the ability to switch between the two styles during a piece of music.
I have an old Dalphine classical guitar... Rubber bridge good for those too?
What are you doing with your right index finger when you play?😊
Good video, good picking. Just not impressed with the sound of the rubber bridge. But that's just me. Keep on Daisy!
Could you just slide a piece of rubber under tye strings up to the bridge?
Playin a lil Bob Dylan....nice
Xtraordinary....
Bit late to the party here, I just wanted to remind everyone NOT to do this with a guitar that has nitrocellulose finish (common on gibsons, martins and many others). The rubber will cause a chemical reaction that burns the finish and makes a reallu ugly permanent mark. You need to put a sheet of wood or paper between the rubber block and the guitar.
was that "don't think twice?'
Theeeeee saddle?
As others have said your playing is ok, more practice can always help you get better
the sound change was like going from metal to nylon strings, only easier.
According to a witty engineer's video I saw recently, a damper decreases the amplitude of a vibrating object while a dampener applies water to something. Who knew?
I tried this years ago before I even started making instruments as a family member worked nights and slept through the day. My idea was to mute the sound. I changed it back after a while.
Do you think rubber would help to reduce feedback on an acoustic with built in pick up ?
Great, very informative. Nothing wrong with your playing either.
interesting. Your guitar paying is fine by the way. Have you hurt your index finger, or do you just not use it for picking? :)
When I was learning I think I had hurt my finger (self taught) I seem to recall this is why… old habits die hard