Alejandro's New Ebony Bridge

I built Al the Les Paul Style and he has been playing it a lot. I had carved an aluminum bridge that sounded great but was breaking strings. The Metal was too soft and aluminum can be sticky. I decided to make a bridge using saddles made of bar fret I had left over from refretting old Martins. I made a split saddle for improved intonation and pinned the bridge to the top under the feet. The new bridge sounds better than before, less ringing a little more precise in articulation.

Rose Pickguard

This was taken with my phone, apologies for the quality. This is going on a Jumbo acoustic I am building for Chellie Rose. The pickguard is made from phenolic resin which doesn't dampen like plastic. The shell used is Paua Abalone, white and yellow mother of pearl.

Harmonics

stunning bass-string shot from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

I found this video of a bass string vibrating. See how harmonics work? The waves visible when the string is plucked are harmonic waves, a fraction in length to the fundamental tone caused by the total length of the vibrating string. I would also like to point out how wide the sting swings. This illustrates clearly why instruments buzz against the fingerbaord or frets, the mortal enemies of luthiers is exposed quite clearly. I don't mean for this as an excuse for a buzzing guitar, but...Yes I do.