Reasomax archtop bridge

[skiboyny]

I've always changed a tuneomatic bridge top with wood and prefered the sound. The tuneomatic does sustain better, but has a metal ping, and less depth of sound to my ears. In the past I was able to find ebony bridge tops that has good quality and sounded nice, not true today. Finding good ebony with the right spacing seems near impossible. I stumbled upon the Resomax archtop bridge made by Graph Tech. I was primarily interested in just the bridge top in a gibson spacing. The thing comes as a full bottom and top, but regardless which one you choose, the tops are all the same. Gibson spacing is 2-29/32 resomax specs the top at 2.91 so I figured I wouldn't have to much to do to get a proper fit. I dropped right in.
I have to say I'm impressed. The guitar is louder acoustically with great sustain. It "might" be livelier than really good ebony. Something to keep in mind for anyone looking or looking to experiment. Lot for sale on reverb. Times are changing!

[ThatRhythmMan]

It’s obviously a non-traditional material, but I’ve tried Resomax bridges on a couple of guitars with bridges that were completely shot or of bad quality. I’ve gotten some great results with them too.


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[skiboyny]

It’s obviously a non-traditional material, but I’ve tried Resomax bridges on a couple of guitars with bridges that were completely shot or of bad quality. I’ve gotten some great results with them too.


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Non-traditional yes, but might just be a good substitute for low $ comparatively. Ebony seems a tough item to find and if you do it will cost.

[sgosnell]

I have a Resomax bridge on one of my archtops, and I like it. I just don't like it enough to buy enough to put on all my guitars. I have a number of Tune-o-matic bridge saddles lying around, removed from guitars that came with them. I just don't like them on any guitar. I tried several bridges on the one guitar, trying to find a sound I liked. I seem to have made a mistake in ordering it with X bracing, and I sort of knew better but I did it anyway. The Resomax comes closest to giving me a sound I like out of that guitar, out of all the saddles that I tried, and I tried a lot of them.

[rolijen]

Glad you’re liking the Resomax bridges. I put one a MIK Broadway a while back and posted about it. Initially, I wasn’t happy with it until shaping the feet to match the curve of the top. I liked the result—it imparted an even, clear tone that was well balanced across the strings.

But… I recently sold/gave that Broadway to a student and he wanted to try a wooden bridge, so I plopped a dozen different archtop bridges on the table for him to choose from (varying woods and styles). He chose the rosewood bridge that had originally been on that guitar and we made the swap. I couldn’t believe how much louder (acoustically) and richer the tone was with the rosewood bridge. Very interesting as I had been pleased with the tone of the guitar since switching to the fitted Resomax.

[John A.]

I had a Godin Kingpin that the previous owner had fitted with a resomax bridge. Sounded good to me, though I don't know what the original sounded like. That guitar was quite loud acoustically.

[skiboyny]

Glad you’re liking the Resomax bridges. I put one a MIK Broadway a while back and posted about it. Initially, I wasn’t happy with it until shaping the feet to match the curve of the top. I liked the result—it imparted an even, clear tone that was well balanced across the strings.

But… I recently sold/gave that Broadway to a student and he wanted to try a wooden bridge, so I plopped a dozen different archtop bridges on the table for him to choose from (varying woods and styles). He chose the rosewood bridge that had originally been on that guitar and we made the swap. I couldn’t believe how much louder (acoustically) and richer the tone was with the rosewood bridge. Very interesting as I had been pleased with the tone of the guitar since switching to the fitted Resomax.

I would have expected the rosewood to be warmer and not as loud. Go figure! The bridge can make a big difference though. I really offer the post up as a available option for folks that want to change a tunomatic with a Gibson spacing. Good quality wood bridge tops are becoming hard to find. The resomax is real good for not much money. Ymmv

[Woody Sound]

Gibson spacing is 2-29/32 resomax specs the top at 2.91 so I figured I wouldn't have to much to do to get a proper fit. I dropped right in.

Yeah, 29/32 = .906.

[Woody Sound]

Glad you’re liking the Resomax bridges. I put one a MIK Broadway a while back and posted about it. Initially, I wasn’t happy with it until shaping the feet to match the curve of the top. I liked the result—it imparted an even, clear tone that was well balanced across the strings.

How hard was the material to sand?

[rolijen]

How hard was the material to sand?

Was easy to sand. The top of the guitar I was using the Resomax bridge with was flatter than the default radius of the bridge feet. Because the feet are connected by a very thin strip of material, the flatter top caused the bridge posts to tilt inward such that the saddle would not easily adjust up or down. Plus, it looked goofy with the thin strip bowing down. After a couple of email exchanges with an engineer at Graphtech, I was confident that the bridge material could be fit-sanded as you would a wood bridge base. So, I used a Stew Mac bridge fitting jig to keep the posts in proper/parallel alignment while I gently dragged the feet across sandpaper taped to the top of the guitar where the bridge sits. It turned out great and really evened out the string to string balance. Tonally, it did not overly emphasize highs or lows but seemed to impart a good balance between low, mid, and high frequencies. I liked it enough to keep it on the guitar for the last couple years.

[Archie]

Metal tailpieces also create those metal overtones, so you might not get rid of it, even if you change the bridge, if you have a metal tailpiece.

[rolijen]

I will add that the compensation built into the Resomax archtop bridge saddle intonated my Broadway nearly perfectly.

[skiboyny]

Yeah, 29/32 = .906.

I thought I might have to elongate the holes a bit, but it worked out for some reason. Didn't bother to find out why. It's always a struggle to find workable bridge tops if you don't want or have a need to change the base.

[Woody Sound]

Was easy to sand. The top of the guitar I was using the Resomax bridge with was flatter than the default radius of the bridge feet. Because the feet are connected by a very thin strip of material, the flatter top caused the bridge posts to tilt inward such that the saddle would not easily adjust up or down. Plus, it looked goofy with the thin strip bowing down. After a couple of email exchanges with an engineer at Graphtech, I was confident that the bridge material could be fit-sanded as you would a wood bridge base.

Ah, I can see what you mean by looking at pics. I'm surprised the strip is that flexible.

[2bornot2bop]

Was easy to sand. The top of the guitar I was using the Resomax bridge with was flatter than the default radius of the bridge feet. Because the feet are connected by a very thin strip of material, the flatter top caused the bridge posts to tilt inward such that the saddle would not easily adjust up or down. Plus, it looked goofy with the thin strip bowing down. After a couple of email exchanges with an engineer at Graphtech, I was confident that the bridge material could be fit-sanded as you would a wood bridge base. So, I used a Stew Mac bridge fitting jig to keep the posts in proper/parallel alignment while I gently dragged the feet across sandpaper taped to the top of the guitar where the bridge sits. It turned out great and really evened out the string to string balance. Tonally, it did not overly emphasize highs or lows but seemed to impart a good balance between low, mid, and high frequencies. I liked it enough to keep it on the guitar for the last couple years.

Which sandpaper sizes did you use?

[RJVB]

How hard was the material to sand?

Can't seem to find it now but last time I seem to recall that the saddle is made of the same artificial bone material they make nuts and flattop saddles of: Tusq.

That's what I had in my Seagull jumbo, and it's not hard at all. The saddle gets scored by the 1st set of strings you put on.

[Cunamara]

Glad you’re liking the Resomax bridges. I put one a MIK Broadway a while back and posted about it. Initially, I wasn’t happy with it until shaping the feet to match the curve of the top. I liked the result—it imparted an even, clear tone that was well balanced across the strings.

But… I recently sold/gave that Broadway to a student and he wanted to try a wooden bridge, so I plopped a dozen different archtop bridges on the table for him to choose from (varying woods and styles). He chose the rosewood bridge that had originally been on that guitar and we made the swap. I couldn’t believe how much louder (acoustically) and richer the tone was with the rosewood bridge. Very interesting as I had been pleased with the tone of the guitar since switching to the fitted Resomax.

It is very easy to do an A-B-C-D test and end up with circular results of A > B > C > D > A.

[rolijen]

Which sandpaper sizes did you use?

150 grit as I recall. I typically protect the top of a guitar with low tack protective tape and stick the sandpaper to that, face up, between the f-holes and go to town. As far as size, enough to drag the bridge base at least an inch or two each direction. Here’s a link to a video showing the process.

[sgosnell]

Both the saddle and the base are made of Tusq. It's too hard for the strings to make enough of an indentation to keep them in place, and IME it's necessary to make them with a tool. I used nut files, which work well, because it's easy enough to make the slots the same size as in the nut. It's not necessary to make the saddle slots deep, just enough to keep the strings in place, but some slots may need to be slightly deeper than others in order to match the radius of the neck, if that's an issue to you. It is for me, because it affects the action of all the strings, and I prefer to have it near the same for all the strings, albeit with it rising slightly going to the bass strings. It's easy enough to raise the bass end slightly but getting the D and G as low as the outer strings can sometimes require deepening either the outer or inner slots slightly, depending on the relationship between the saddle and neck radius. I'm sure some players just aren't that picky, but I am.

[2bornot2bop]

So I ordered one of these bridges. And to my surprise the company is just over the border from me in Delta, British Columbia

I could have driven there. But it’s cheaper to have them deliver. Can’t wait to see what all the fuss is about. And I needed a bridge.

[skiboyny]

Both the saddle and the base are made of Tusq. It's too hard for the strings to make enough of an indentation to keep them in place, and IME it's necessary to make them with a tool. I used nut files, which work well, because it's easy enough to make the slots the same size as in the nut. It's not necessary to make the saddle slots deep, just enough to keep the strings in place, but some slots may need to be slightly deeper than others in order to match the radius of the neck, if that's an issue to you. It is for me, because it affects the action of all the strings, and I prefer to have it near the same for all the strings, albeit with it rising slightly going to the bass strings. It's easy enough to raise the bass end slightly but getting the D and G as low as the outer strings can sometimes require deepening either the outer or inner slots slightly, depending on the relationship between the saddle and neck radius. I'm sure some players just aren't that picky, but I am.

Radius measures 12 on mine. Pretty common although I'm sure the builds have variances to that spec.

[skiboyny]

So I ordered one of these bridges. And to my surprise the company is just over the border from me in Delta, British Columbia

I could have driven there. But it’s cheaper to have them deliver. Can’t wait to see what all the fuss is about. And I needed a bridge.

I hope it works out for you. I have reshaped the same material with 120g easy enough. Lots of times the split foot bridge base will just fit if your lucky. I think the quality vs price is the best out there at the moment. I'll be curious at your impressions.

[Woody Sound]

I wish they would make a brown version to match rw bridges.

[2bornot2bop]

So, since I’m so close to the border near B.C., I received the bridge the very next day.

I’m so happy that I finally clicked on this thread after passing on it several times.

This is one of the very finest Bridges I’ve ever discovered. The guitar has come alive, and now vibrant and playing every nuance.

Surprisingly the feet fit well, just as suggested. I will have to work on the saddle for the action is a bit high. But that’s a small issue considering how this acoustic now sounds.

Thanks to the OP for creating this thread, and to those of you who contributed towards it with your positive feedback. I can’t thank you enough.

[skiboyny]

Real happy it worked out for you. I'm not surprised! That material really does sing of course we all hear things differently.

So, since I’m so close to the border near B.C., I received the bridge the very next day.

I’m so happy that I finally clicked on this thread after passing on it several times.

This is one of the very finest Bridges I’ve ever discovered. The guitar has come alive, and now vibrant and playing every nuance.

Surprisingly the feet fit well, just as suggested. I will have to work on the saddle for the action is a bit high. But that’s a small issue considering how this acoustic now sounds.

Thanks to the OP for creating this thread, and to those of you who contributed towards it with your positive feedback. I can’t thank you enough.