Archtop "Woody Tone Enhancers" For Your "Acoustic" Listening Pleasure!

[joejeweler]

I find it interesting that matching strings to an archtop,....especially to get optimum acoustic tone,......is really "bass ackwards"!!!

I've never seen anything written on it before,....maybe it's out there somewhere,......but why not try what i've done
several times before and match your archtop to most any decent acoustic string.
You'll save a ton of dough on "special" strings,....and your ears will thank you!

What i'm talking about is getting rid of those funky, tone robbing metal bridge adjusters.
How lazy we are sometimes,.....that we would give up optimum tone for the convenience of easier bridge height adjustments!
Once we've dialed the prefered bridge height in,.....we pretty much leave it alone anyway,....right? Flattop players
get their action adjusted at the bridge,....and forget about it for the most part. Why should we be any different?

OK,...so we get rid of those metal wheel adjusters,.....but then what? Well,....don't jump so fast,....those convenient
wheel adjusters can help you out! Use them to dial in the action to your preference,....and take careful measurments
of the empty space between the upper and lower wooden parts of the bridge.

What i do is make a fitted wooden washer in the proper thickness for both the treble and bass side of the bridge,...
....to bring the bridge to the same height as you dialed in with the wheel adjusters. Consider them "Tone Enhancers",
....for you won't believe your ears! If you like woody nuances,.....this is your baby! I haven't even bothered to
experiment with other more traditional archtop strings using this setup,....but i can only imagine it would improve
your tone.

I've used maple in the past,....but prefer ebony as i like the density and strength it has,....especially when making
a small part like this that carries some load. (although my maple ones never failed me)

I just completed an ebony set last night for my new custom Bill Gagnon 15" Custom DeVant. It is strictly acoustic,
......and i ordered it with a 1 7/8" neck as i play fingerstyle solos mostly and prefer that width.

I've only done this to carved topped archtops,....btw,......so with a laminate top you're on your own. The carved tops are where you're likely to see the best results, however,....in the "acoustic" mode.

Anyway,....back to the wooden washers. On some of my installs in the past,....i had to slope the top edge of the
washers to match up with the slope of the upper part of the bridge. On the set of wooden washers i made last night,
....there was no slope needed and i was able to use identical thicknesses for the washers.

I originally recieved the Gagnon guitar with D'Addario set ECG25 light guage flat wounds on it. (XL Chromes).
A decent "woody" tone with the stock metal adjusters,......but simply not bright enough for my ears.

So i soon replaced them with a set of the easy to find locally, and "economical",... D'Addario EJ16 Phosphor/Bronze
light guage acoustic strings. (.012-.053 set) You probably already know these are pretty bright sounding on a solid
wood archtop,.....when used as the guitar "usually" comes.

Stay with me folks..........i know it sounds nuts,......but these sound REALLY good, ....mellow,....and W O O D Y once
you make the washer change! Being roundwounds you'll have to work on your technique to reduce any string noise,
......but your ears will love the tone!

I wish every archtop came with an assortment of different thickness wooden washers to dial in to our preference,...
....but that's simply not going to happen. It's a reasonably easy project to get done,.....and totally reversable,......
.....but i doubt you will!

Once you switch to ebony black,...............you'll never go back!

Anyway,.....any guitar tech could make you a set if you're not handy,.....at reasonable cost i'd think. It only took
me 1/2 hour to get it done,.....and i'm fussy!

Here are some pics on this new arrival with the change made,......the wait of about 6 months is now over.

That tone robbing metal post is also quite thin,.....which is now eliminaed from any critical function
with the use of the wooden washers. The post is still used however,...but now simply to keep the
washers locked in place.
It no longer supports the upper bridge section or transfers string vibrations to the top!

Which do you think is going to transfer a "woody-er" tone to the carved top?







These washers are a slip over fit, but with no extra space so they may appear that they screw on,....they don't.