You could always try gold or silver paint on a maple bridge. That might be your best chance of a decent sound.

Always nice to think outside the box but in this case: those are soft metals Patrick, not suitable for bridge toppings as they would dampen string vibrations so the sound/tone would be muffled. Also, it wouldn't take long for the strings to slice their way through that metal to the top of the wood.

Here's a bunch of info about banjo bridges you might like: https://banjobridge.com/

It depends on the application.
Most of my claw hammer customers prefer a sycamore base with a rosewood top.Made a few walnut bridges for those players,too.
These woods don't work for bluegrass/melodic players who need a tone with more snap and projection which they find in the time-tested maple base with an ebony top.
I've made solid ebony bridges,solid lignum vitae bridges and a couple with bone tops.

I tried cherry and mahogany and found them lacking a full spectrum of tones.

I feel that the use of maple for stringed instrument bridges was settled on many years ago because luthiers of that time could easily try any other type of wood and found maple to be superior.

Saw this the other day, while scrolling thru eBay........

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166830644551

There used to be a fellow who sold laser-cut flange plates and several other items including a Lion of Judah bridge base. One of the things he sold was a metal banjo bridge. It looked nice but I never was intrigued enough to buy one to find out how it sounded.
I do wish I had bought a set of his flange plates but he's out of business now.

... some of my "don't give up your day job" efforts.   

The two in the middle have vertical aluminum inserts; the one at the back has vertical inserts made from a graphite (?) fishing rod.

[Sorry for the fuzzy pics ... I think my camera is telling me it's time to come into the present century from a technological standpoint.]

The Snickers bar I used was better than the Mars bar, but only just.

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Originally posted by steve davis

It depends on the application.
Most of my claw hammer customers prefer a sycamore base with a rosewood top.Made a few walnut bridges for those players,too.
These woods don't work for bluegrass/melodic players who need a tone with more snap and projection which they find in the time-tested maple base with an ebony top.
I've made solid ebony bridges,solid lignum vitae bridges and a couple with bone tops.

I tried cherry and mahogany and found them lacking a full spectrum of tones.

I feel that the use of maple for stringed instrument bridges was settled on many years ago because luthiers of that time could easily try any other type of wood and found maple to be superior.

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This is interesting that you use sycamore. I have a sycamore banjo that Will Fielding roughed out before he died and my long time banjo buddy, Glenn Carson finished for me. I am using one of many bridges made by Will that I have in my collection made of walnut with a purple heart top.  It sounds very good.  I am wondering just what a sycamore bridge would sound like on a sycamore banjo. Did you ever make a sycamore with an ironwood or purple heart top?  What design do you use? Right now the banjo is full spectrum with a bright edge. Probably due to the Whyte Laydie tone ring topped with a Bacon tone ring.  The depth of tone may be in part to the deep Richard Newman 4" pot. 

All in all I am fascinated by bridges and 14 years ago I did a thread here: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/188807 using a wide range of them made by Bill Rickard.  The bamboo bridge was quite amazing as I recall.

All my best bridges have been maple except one, which was birch. I wish that I could anticipate which bridge would sound good on which banjo but I can't. It's completely trial and error. However, finding a bridge maker with a good reputation and lots of experience does make a difference.

Ever since (1975 or so) I tried an old light weight all-maple 1920s Bacon bridge, I’ve stuck with all-maple bridges for clawhammer. Standard maple/ebony for bluegrass banjos. Has anyone ever seen a fiddler with anything but a maple bridge?

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Originally posted by Bill Rogers

Ever since (1975 or so) I tried an old light weight all-maple 1920s Bacon bridge, I’ve stuck with all-maple bridges for clawhammer. Standard maple/ebony for bluegrass banjos. Has anyone ever seen a fiddler with anything but a maple bridge?

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The bridge on my regular playing fiddle became twisted and finally collapsed. I needed to replace it in hurry so I made up a bridge from some bamboo stock I had for banjo bridges as a temporary measure. That was 3yrs ago and is still going strong on my fiddle, an excellent bridge that I won't swap for anything!

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Originally posted by martyjoe

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Originally posted by Bill Rogers

Ever since (1975 or so) I tried an old light weight all-maple 1920s Bacon bridge, I’ve stuck with all-maple bridges for clawhammer. Standard maple/ebony for bluegrass banjos. Has anyone ever seen a fiddler with anything but a maple bridge?

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The bridge on my regular playing fiddle became twisted and finally collapsed. I needed to replace it in hurry so I made up a bridge from some bamboo stock I had for banjo bridges as a temporary measure. That was 3yrs ago and is still going strong on my fiddle, an excellent bridge that I won't swap for anything!

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Sounds like the time I made a sound post with a piece of Tinker Toy. That sound post is still in the fiddle after 30 years. It sounds too good to change out.

Back on topic; I've noticed that the old Grover Acousticraft bridges had bone inserts in them. The newer ones have plastic ones. Has anyone ever done a side by side comparison? Not that I use them anymore but I am still curious.

I remember getting a couple of those Grover bridges with the plastic inserts. I could see daylight between the plastic and the wood in one of them. So obviously the quality control on them is dubious so I didn’t try either one.

Gibson used aluminum topped adjustable mandolin bridges on some A models that I happened to collect yrs ago but don't remember how they sounded compared to ebony or rosewood which was the most common material .

Tom Nechville made a video a few years back, in which he compared several different bridges on the same banjo.
He also talked about his experience with different materials.
I had been experimenting on my own, but I haven't since then.
He summed it all up pretty well, IMO.
Maple or maple/ebony for nylgut or steel strings respectively.
The video is worth the watch.

I have tried walnut, hickory, ash, pear, apple, locust, dogwood, sycamore, and maybe a few others, but always come back to maple/ ebony for my bluegrass banjos.

I made one -- "bigfoot" design, no cap -- out of a scrap of purpleheart.
To my ears it is surpassed only by my Steve Davis bridge.

And I should add, I've pretty much tried them all.

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Originally posted by Culloden

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Originally posted by martyjoe

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Originally posted by Bill Rogers

Ever since (1975 or so) I tried an old light weight all-maple 1920s Bacon bridge, I’ve stuck with all-maple bridges for clawhammer. Standard maple/ebony for bluegrass banjos. Has anyone ever seen a fiddler with anything but a maple bridge?

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The bridge on my regular playing fiddle became twisted and finally collapsed. I needed to replace it in hurry so I made up a bridge from some bamboo stock I had for banjo bridges as a temporary measure. That was 3yrs ago and is still going strong on my fiddle, an excellent bridge that I won't swap for anything!

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Sounds like the time I made a sound post with a piece of Tinker Toy. That sound post is still in the fiddle after 30 years. It sounds too good to change out.

Back on topic; I've noticed that the old Grover Acousticraft bridges had bone inserts in them. The newer ones have plastic ones. Has anyone ever done a side by side comparison? Not that I use them anymore but I am still curious.

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I'm in the process of making an attempt at  building another banjo/fiddle at the moment. From what I've read, the fact that it didn't have a sound post made the first attempt a failure. So this one is going to get a bamboo sound post to go with its bamboo bridge. It will make its own thread when I've completed it. 

There is an old Frets or BNL with an article on installing a sound post in a banjo.
It seems that it must have been on top of the co-ordinator rod.I can't see how it could be at the resonator.
May have been a Siminoff venture.

Here is a write up on some experiments that I did earlier this year with help from Danny at Turtle Hill.

I've tried a variety of other materials (bone, corian, 3d printing resin, etc ). also with mixed results.  We found that the sound that most like best was achieved with Roasted Maple, Roasted Walnut, Osage Orange, and Roasted Osage Orange.  The old time & claw hammer folks seem to like the teak ones.

I've made bridges out of every wood that grows here(S.W. Va.(Appalachian Mtns.) vertical grain, horizontal grain, heartwood, sapwood, whatever. They all perform, but different sound. Several years ago, I made one out of 1/4" birch plywood, cabinet grade, with a white oak top and it performs as well as any of them. It has birch on both sides and 3 plys in the middle made of what I don't remember. I have it on one of my banjos to this day. That bridge made THAT banjo come alive.

I kind of figured that there was a reason for the maple/ebony combo to be the most popular..still nice to read about peoples experiments though...appreciate all the replies

My theory is that the roasted woods have less cellular moisture which absorbs some of the sound energy.  The roasted woods are really popular after people try them.

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Originally posted by euler357

Here is a write up on some experiments that I did earlier this year with help from Danny at Turtle Hill.

I've tried a variety of other materials (bone, corian, 3d printing resin, etc ). also with mixed results.  We found that the sound that most like best was achieved with Roasted Maple, Roasted Walnut, Osage Orange, and Roasted Osage Orange.  The old time & claw hammer folks seem to like the teak ones.

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The bridges in that link Chris, are all of them made at the identical dimensions, or at identical weights or is each one tweaked for max performance depending on their wood species?