Making a violin bridge from Chakte Viga wood.

[Steelbeatinviolin]

I have some Chakte Viga wood and was thinking I could make a violin bridge from it a small piece of it, and see how it sounds compared to the josef teller 2 star that is already installed.

If you don't know Chakte Viga, it's the wood that is called, Mexican Pernambuco. This is what modern new pernambuco bow is made from. It's got some similar acoustics of Brazil pernambuco, and is almost twice the density of bosnia maple.

 

[Andreas Preuss]

5 hours ago, Steelbeatinviolin said:

I have some Chakte Viga wood and was thinking I could make a violin bridge from it a small piece of it, and see how it sounds compared to the josef teller 2 star that is already installed.

If you don't know Chakte Viga, it's the wood that is called, Mexican Pernambuco. This is what modern new pernambuco bow is made from. It's got some similar acoustics of Brazil pernambuco, and is almost twice the density of bosnia maple.

 

Try it and you will see. Maple is not only wood which can be used for bridges. It’s just more work to make a bridge from a plain plank. 

[David Burgess]

Violin bridges have already been made out of just about everything imaginable, yet maple remains the most popular choice.

Let us know how your experiment turns out.

[Don Noon]

I tested a pernambuco bridge, and you should read thru the thread where I posted the results.  Basically:  it's a huge pain to carve, you need to severely lightweight it to get anywhere within the functional range of weight, but if you do that, it's maybe OK.  But why?

 

[Steelbeatinviolin]

@Don Noon I did read the post, and I will not be doing my test. However I am curious about making the bridge and keeping it heavy and test the acoustics. Maybe not as powerful, maybe even seem little bit quite, but maybe it would still have good acoustic? It would be different. I do not want to do it.

 

[Don Noon]

13 hours ago, Steelbeatinviolin said:

 I am curious about making the bridge and keeping it heavy and test the acoustics

You can get a pretty good idea by sticking bits of clay on a standard bridge.  Around the feet, not much difference; up near the strings, it's a mute.