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I tried emailing them and they gave me the wrong info. Two customer service reps claimed they're made out of lightweight alloys, but I found a page on their website that says they're made of high heat and pressure treated organic polymers.
ArchtopBridge | Graph Tech Guitar Labs
This is what the customer service reps said:
One customer service rep said only TUSQ XL saddles contain PTFEs, while the other said TUSQ material contains PTFEs.
I don't think they're giving me the correct information. The Resomax Archtop bridges that I see in all the online listings don't have saddles and they're not made of any metal alloys.
I was able to find an older model or prototype Resomax Archtop bridge that does use saddles:
However, this isn't the one that's in their current listing, and I couldn't find photos of this anywhere else.
The AI assistant on their website freezes when I try to ask for help. I have tried calling them and their automated voice message just directed me to email them.
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05-21-2025 09:41 PM
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The saddle is the entire piece that holds the strings above the bridge. Many, if not most, archtops don't have individual saddles for each string, only Tune-o-matic styles do. What is often called the bridge is perhaps more properly called the base. The entire bridge consists of the base and the saddle. AFAIK only the Tusq XL saddles have Teflon in them, the white ones don't. But I have no inside information on that. The term alloy can be applied to materials other than metal, it basically just means a mixture of materials. If you're paranoid about PTFE, perhaps a wooden saddle would be better for you.
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I can't answer you question, and I can't help wondering what your concern is. What I can say is I have these bridge tops installed on 2 guitars with positive results.
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Can't tell from the picture, I wonder if the saddles are adjustable.
Originally Posted by Wrogsprit
I was able to find an older model or prototype Resomax Archtop bridge that does use saddles:
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. There are no saddles on the current resomax bridge. Just a conventional two footed archtop bridge made of the tusk material. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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Maybe you don't follow any news sources that pay any particular kind of attention to environmental and health issues? Originally Posted by skiboyny
PTFES, PFAS and whatever they're called are extremely obnoxious substances, one of the best examples of actual black magic that I could think of.
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Of course, I'm referring to the one in the quoted picture. Originally Posted by skiboyny
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I try not to. I live in the US where the environmental contamination is impossible to get away from. The food, the air, the water all compromised. I feel like a little guitar bridge is the least of my worries. No plans on eating them. Originally Posted by RJVB
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Right. Cool idea bet it was cost prohibitive to produce. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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The amount of harmful substances escaping from a bridge saddle it too small to worry about. Microplastics from water bottles are far more dangerous, because of the sheer volume. I have a nut and saddle on a guitar made from Tusq with PTFE, and I don't worry about it, because the PTFE isn't escaping in enough quantity to be of concern. A non-stick pan, which is in regular contact with food, and which can be scraped and overheated easily, may be of legitimate concern to some, but a bridge saddle? Give me a break.
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PTFES, PFAS and whatever they're called are extremely obnoxious substances, one of the best examples of actual black magic that I could think of.[/QUOTE]
Could you expand a little on “obnoxious” and “black magic?” I’m not following you.
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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances - Wikipedia
I live in Minnesota, home of 3M which made enthusiastic use of these chemicals over decades. Teflon is probably the first of these chemicals that most people ever heard of. Unfortunately, 3M's (and others) manufacturing and disposal of these products has succeeded in contaminating the groundwater of the eastern half of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Filtering that material out of the water requires the construction of expensive water treatment plants. Not to be an apologist, but for most of the time 3M used these chemicals there were little to no restrictions on their manufacturer or disposal.
"Obnoxious" and "black magic" are a bit over-wrought, but it would be fair to say these chemicals are extremely problematic. It is not clear to me that exposure to a TUSQ nut or bridge would pose significant risk to the user, but their inclusion in the manufacturing process could conceivably be of concern. However, absent any knowledge of how these items are produced it's impossible to say.
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No, they're not overwrought. Black magic for the properties of teflon, obnoxious for long-lasting effects of the various substances used in the production of these materials. Originally Posted by Cunamara
There's a Chemours (formerly DuPont) plant producing the stuff near Dordrecht, which has also been releasing a lot of pollution over the years which basically makes anything (home) grown or produced (eggs included) in the area unfit for consumption. Local cancer (and IIRC other illness) incidence rates are significantly higher.
Evidently you don't have to worry about health effects of using a bridge made of the material. It's the continued use of the stuff in everyday products that should have us worried.
It's a reason why I don't use carbonfluor strings, because they too contain related substances.
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I have abjured Teflon for decades, ever since I noticed it peeling off of a frying pan in the early 1980s and ending up in my scrambled eggs. Most of my cookware is cast-iron, enameled cast-iron or stainless steel. But the larger concern, beyond my personal exposure to it from items in my home, is the wide-scale pollution created by the manufacturing processes, waste disposal, etc. Not so much my frying pan but the water we drink, the air we breathe, the contamination in our food. Contamination of the aquifer is what has exposed hundreds of thousands of people living in my area and forced municipalities to spend money they don't have to build water treatment plants. And unfortunately, money to assist with this that they were counting on from the federal and state government has mostly evaporated.
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Not really, "black magic" is a good analogy in that it means pursuing an objective for personal gain despite it's harmful effect on others. "Industrial black magic" might be more to the point. Originally Posted by Cunamara
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Sort of a good definition of our capitalistic society. Originally Posted by Mick-7
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I put some graph tech saddles on a strat once hoping to cure string breakage at the saddle. It immediately became the most plinky sounding guitar I ever owned and it didn't stop the string breakage. Lose-lose.
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Teflon and all of its derivative products is a substance that purely exists in human kind. Not in nature. It does not and cannot break down. For this reason it is known as a forever chemical, which can be fragmented into smaller pieces, but the molecule will always stay.
We (humans) turned it into on stick frypans, house wraps, goretex, firefighting foam, Forrest fire retardants, paint additives, fabric stain protection, wire insulation you name it thanks to it’s ability to withstand attack from chemicals, heat, corrosion, friction, conduction etc. At the time of discovery it has hailed and marketed as a wonder product. Now we are trying to remove it from our drinking water so we don’t end up with cancer. It’s right up there with Agent Orange and gly-phosphate weed killer, but probably worse since it is so far spread into our societies.
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Plus, back then the nostick layer was glued to the pan with a substance that has now been banned (here) because it's probably an even more acute health risk than teflon itself. Originally Posted by Cunamara
And what baffles me: paying more for a flimsy pan that you can't even stick in the oven and has to be discarded sometimes after only a few months, than you pay for a basic cast-iron pan that will last several lifetimes and can become almost as non-stick. (Esp. true when you can get Lodge pans for US prices.)
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Do you include string coating in "wire insulation"? Originally Posted by EastwoodMike
Ah, Round-Up ... I wouldn't have drawn the parallel but yes. I wouldn't underestimate exposure to that stuff though, it's probably more direct to a much larger (more widepread) population than the exposure to PTFE/PFAS/etc and their associated waste. And even the EU keeps postponing a ban on it (though it's now available only to professional farmers).It’s right up there with Agent Orange and gly-phosphate weed killer
Fortunately it turns out that the geraniol-based "natural weed killer" that replaced it for home use can be pretty effective too, short-term at least
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I heard that they had to stop making these graphite neck guitars because of it's toxicity to the factory workers, etc. I think they only made them for 1 year. -- Westone Modulus Villain Metallic Red 1990 – Chicago Music Exchange
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This thread brings to mind what is acceptable risk.
How about those who work with and handle nitrocellulose? Essential hazard assessment of nitrocellulose via numerical and experimental investigation and calorimetry thermokinetic approaches | Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry
Impact of ebony use? The Environmental Impact of Ebony Harvesting: What You Should Know - Simpli.com
Mahogany? Brazil: Mahogany loggers destroying the Amazon forest | World Rainforest Movement
Child labor? Labor practices of off-shore guitar manufacturers - Electric Guitars - Harmony Central
Broken strings? Worst guitar string injury you've ever had? - Electric Guitars - Harmony Central
Injuries by playing? Breakdown Of Guitar-Related Injuries Statistics - Breakthrough Guitar | Online Guitar Lessons
Electrical shocks? Can an Electric Guitar Shock You? Understanding the Risks – fretboardfrenzy.com
There is no way to count all the dead and injured in making guitars. Start with those who died in the forest looking for wood, perhaps a bear attack. It may end with the truckers who brought the instruments to the shop but crashed en route and all the others who died in that wreck. But it doesn't end there. There's those who go to concerts to hear live guitar but die from overdosing. There are countless workers who lost fingers or worse in manufacturing.
It's not like people don't die from cars, planes, and food poisoning.
I fully agree that we should embrace safety. But whatever you do increases the likelihood that something else will kill you.
And let's not even open the topic of piano risks. Death by Piano!?!
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I love iron and steel pans. Non stick always seem dodgy to me. I find them harder to clean. Originally Posted by Cunamara
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I prefer carbon steel for skillets, used for frying/sauteing. I'm not a big fan of teflon coated pans, but they're okay, I suppose, if one is careful and doesn't scratch or overheat them. I consider them a specialty tool, used when necessary. And it seldom is necessary, because a well-seasoned carbon steel pan is about as non-stick as teflon, and you can bang on it if you need to. Proper seasoning takes some effort, but it's well worth it.
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PTFESand PFAS are obnoxious and black magic. Just read about them
Ll.
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