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pickinBob
Sep-07-2004, 7:48pm
I have this on it now and want to change it to a Brekke Bridge. The old one is rosewood and the Brekke is ebony. From Weber specs they say they use the brekke. Any experience out that is willing to help would be appreciated.

pickinBob
Sep-07-2004, 7:49pm
I should also say that this is my octave, a tenor guitar conversion.

steve V. johnson
Sep-09-2004, 11:08am
Note directly about OMs, nor guitar-bodied OMs, but it seems that views of trad bridges vs Brekke bridges, and rosewood vs ebony (and/or bone) are pretty widely spread among Cafe denizens. I've read folks say 'the Traditional made my Weber much louder' followed a couple days later by 'my tone improved a lot from the Brekke replacement'...

My impression is that more folks go from Brekke to trad than the other way round, but... There isn't enough of a pattern to day that one or the other is universally better. Try the Brekke!

Personally, I like bone for guitar-things, and if this were my instrument, I'd probably try an ebony bridge with a bone saddle, and I'd get several bone blanks so that I could experiment with shapes and intonation tweaks. But that's just me. It would be a -lot- easier to just buy a Brekke and drop it in!! <GGG>

That IS a lovely instrument!

Best wishes,

stv

Ward Elliott
Sep-09-2004, 4:21pm
I have to agree with sliabhstv, I'd try one with a bone insert in it. I put one on a similar "conversion" zook and it was a big improvement.

pickinBob
Sep-11-2004, 1:28pm
Steve.

is carving bone difficult? What about the intonation part, how do you know how to carve the compensation correctly?

This isnt a really need project, just me wanting to tweak things for experiments sake. The instrument sounds wonderful now. I just dont like the way the bridge looks. Teh instrument it self is on the rough side but sounds wonderful to me.

neal
Sep-11-2004, 2:16pm
Bob, you can find compensated bone tops for most bridges, including your present one, #search for Kurt Gisclair from Husky acoustics (I think) then you just have to slot it.

mikeyes
Sep-17-2004, 10:08am
Another solution is to email Red Henry (http://www.murphymethod.com/maplebridge.html) and ask him to make a bridge for you. I have one on my Dave Dart Octave mandolin and it sounds great!