For playing Old Time open back banjo, what are some good bridges to use, to get a nice bassy tone to the banjo? I have a Cedar Mountain and standard Bart Reiter banjo.
I'd try a medium weight Moon. In the end though, you'll have to try various bridges to see what you prefer. I use all-maple bridges because I find they give me more volume and pop with my Whyte Laydie clone.
I recently bought some new Bridges from Gary Sosebee. These are made of maple salvaged from the ball-rack in an old bowling alley. These are very good sounding bridges. They have a rich, deep tone with plenty of clarity and detail.
I have Sosebee bridges on all my Bart Reiter banjos.
Check out the BHO's own Bart Veerman, he custom makes excellent bridges for CH style banjos, you will not be disappointed...you can contact him through his BHO page or here...
Gary Sosebee has a little more of his "Cotton Mill" wood left -- I highly recommend his bridges built with this wood. I also like Sampson and Fielding bridges a lot on old-time banjos. I'm using a Fielding bridge at present.
Ditto on the heavy Moon bridge. I have them on both of my frailers; one aboard a calf skin head, the other aboard a Fiberskyn head. They are very good compensated bridges.
I'll second the Sampson walnut and ebony bridges. I have them on three banjos, a 13" Romero, a 12" Brooks, and a 12" Ramsey fretless. All of these banjos have skin heads and either a brass hoop or wooden tone rim (the Romero.) Sampson walnut bridges and skin heads give me the tone I like. I have used heavy-weight Moon bridges, but the Sampson works better for me.
I have a FANTASTIC bridge made by "oldman" BHO member... but it is not brassy----but nice mellow tone for my Deering Open Back. I am currently making one of Jerry's Horizontal Dam Bridges..... Hope to have it made and on the banjo by this weekend....
Bridges, as Bill implies are pretty personal. You have to just try a lot of them. For me, I always come back to a fairly meaty good old fashioned "grover" style bridge. Cheap and easy to find. No two sound exactly alike, so you may find you try several of those too.
Play nice , Dan "Ain't no bum-ditty" Levenson www.Clawdan.com Now teaching Clawhammer Banjo and Old Time Fiddle at San Diego Old Time Music Get started with Dan's Clawhammer Banjo From Scratch - Book and DVD (Mel Bay Publications) THEN: Come to Clawcamp! www.ClawCamp.com
Does anyone have any links to recordings of different bridges being used on the same banjo? I understand that they make a big difference to the sound, but I don't truly grasp it - some audio examples oughtta set it right!
I'd also like to recommend Bart Veerman. I once wrote him an email telling him what banjos I had, and what I wanted to get out of them tonally, that I was lacking. He made me two bridges and totally nailed it! Fast too.
i have tried at least 50 different bridges of diffferent materials, weights etc and always end up with the bridge that came with my banjo, i guess it's probably a cheap grover or something, they all have personalities but over all this one seeems to cover the most bases, don't know how anybody can tell unless you pop it in place and give t a go, if you are lucky like me and have a friend with a whole bunch of bridges they no longer use it of course helps as you can spend a lot of money on a nickels worth of wood. Since every banjo is unique i imagine each would cry for their unique bridge, good luck, you'll know it when you find it.
Does anyone have any links to recordings of different bridges being used on the same banjo? I understand that they make a big difference to the sound, but I don't truly grasp it - some audio examples oughtta set it right!
Zepp has some recordings on his store's homepage of the three different sounds that the light, medium, and heavy weight Moon bridges make on the same banjo.
Hi, In my limited experience I've found that there is no best bridge, rather it depends on the particular banjo. I baught an expensive bridge that sounded fantastic on one banjo -- made a huge difference in the sound. That same bridge on another banjo did absolutely nothing for it.
I have a thin rimmed 12" w/ ren head and it sounds good with just about any bridge I've tried. I like a fairly low action and have tried several 9/16" bridges to get 1/8" action at fret 12. The 9/16" OME bridge sounds the best of these.
My 11" tubaphone (fiber skin head) sounds fairly harsh when played over the head (like when one frails too close to the bridge). So I play with my thumb over the neck. Right now, I'm using a 5/8" Grover bridge.
Mike Smith's Kat Eyz "The Kat Eyz pegged bridge is designed to allow the string vibrations pass through the bridge without penetrating a solid glue line associated with a bridge with a glued-on cap wood. The two outside edges where the maple and ebony meet are precisely married, and each peg hole has a pin drop of glue. This design produces a clear and vibrant tone. You can also order a custom pegged bridge. I will also make custom bridges with some very old, very good "regular" hard maple with nice open grain, or you can send me your own piece of wood to make a bridge from.":
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For Old Time Open Back Banjo What's best bridge
Posted - 11/03/2009 : 13:08:39
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