Proper Bridges

[Joel Hooks]

I've been making bridges for myself since I stopped using wire.  I thought that I would make up a few to take to the gathering and see if anyone would pay me money for them.

I normally just make them from pine and basswood, both very easy to make.  Stewart was adamant on using maple. So I thought, what the heck, get some maple and try it out.  After the procurement of a plank, and with the guidance of my father (an excellent woodworker) we went to chop, table and band sawing my plank.  Here is the results on a couple I finished up...

https://classic-banjo.ning.com/photo/maple-bridge-1?context=album&albumId=2667446%3AAlbum%3A15149

https://classic-banjo.ning.com/photo/maple-bridge-1/next?context=album&albumId=2667446%3AAlbum%3A15149

https://classic-banjo.ning.com/photo/maple-bridge-2/next?context=album&albumId=2667446%3AAlbum%3A15149

The maple bridges are cut at 7/8" and the others are 3/4".  The above photos are on my Korean "beater" banjo as It will be with me tomorrow.  These, of course, would need to be cut down or sandpaperd to be used.

This is very early in the game, and I don't know if I really want to spend time making these, but if I were to offer them un-notched and left tall, I could sell them pretty inexpensively.

I could notch them, but the maple is a pain in the ass to work more than one or two at a time.  also, I've got no Idea of the thickness of strings used.  They would cost more.

The size is based on originals I have acquired, and are a tad wider than the measurements given by Stewart.

Is this something folks might be interested in?

[Trapdoor2]

Too bad it would be so expensive to mark them "Stewart"...and besides, Deering currently owns the trademark.

I would expect to sell a few...esp. if the price point was less than a "standard" BG bridge. Going to nylon/nylgut is gaining in popularity and I think if you advertised on BHO you might get more requests than you bargained for!

Personally, I prefer the Cole style bridges (5 footed), 'cause they look so cool. However, I'm always game to try different stuff. I have a few original Stewart bridges (god knows where they are right now...in some Uhaul box somewhere) but I've never really wanted to use them.

[Joel Hooks]

I have a stamp on order to mark them J. W. HOOKS, those actually cost almost nothing, "STEWART" would be a matter of matching font.

As much as I would love to make counterfeit products, there exists in this world people who might want to age them and try to pass them off. Civil War artifacts are constantly being faked. That was half the reason I stamp my thimbles, 6 months buried in the backyard, and Tom Briggs' thimble will be on ebay as a "dug/found" object.

Really? I thought that would have been in the PD as it has not been protected. They better get to suing over the peghead. I guess Stewmac could not offer a banjo.

Who owns Buckbee? I'm thinking about ordering about 100,000 cheap copies from china of the one I have and stamp them with different 19th century banjoists names. The "Dobson" models will cost the most.

[Christian Stanfield]

Joel gave me one of his maple bridges at the Banjo Collector's Gathering in Nashville this past weekend, and it completely opened up the sound of my reproduction Whyte Ladye banjo. I built the banjo several years back and set it up for steel strings. When I made the conversion to nylon, I made a new bridge that frankly had too much mass. Clarke Buehling said it sounded like listening to a banjo with a head cold, that's how muffled and choked the sound was. When Joel swapped out the bridge, the banjo sprang to life. Thanks much, Joel - I highly rate/recommend/endorse the Hooks bridge, as well as the Hooks thimble for stroke style playing. I also have one of his cocobole tailpieces, and I will get back to you with how this works out once I swap it out for my string-breaking No Knot tailpiece.