Solid Bridges Ebony is superior
 

For What it’s worth. I posted a couple earlier threads on Solid Carved Bridges on Acoustic Arch Top guitars. After much experimentation with Traditional Adjustable Bridges and few different Woods. I have found the Best Choice is high grade Ebony. Ebony gives the best Projection and overall Tone Depth and Volume. Ebony is far superior than Rosewood and even Rosewood topped with Bone. A few years ago, I carved a Brazilian RW bridge for my 1953 Zenith. It Sounded pretty good. Definitely better than adjustable bridge for sure. Few weeks back I put in a Bone top on it. I found it gave it a bit more brightness but actually lost some natural rich sustain. So today I carved a Ebony one piece Bridge for the Zenith. Wow!! what a difference unbelievable difference. This Solid bridge has a continuous foot print and doesn’t sport the 2 foot design. Hope this helps some in their Quest to get best tone out of their Arch top. I’m sure there are other woods out there that would produce great results. African Blackwood maybe. Iron Wood maybe

That is a beautiful bridge! Great skill there! Got me wanting to find one to put on my Loar. Do you know anyone that sells solid wood archtop bridges? I am not skilled enough to make this lol

Thanks ZCregle. I will do some checking around and see If there is a source for a quality Ebony Solid Bridge Blank that is pre profiled and ready to be customized for a individual guitar. All you would need then is a few files/ and Maybe a Swiss needle file set too and various sandpaper. Another option that I did years ago is buy a quality Ebony adjustable bridge. Set it up on your guitar for perfect action. Measure and make note of the space between the bottom of the Ebony base and the top Ebony compensated section. Then Remove the metal posts. Pick up a small piece of Ebony and sand it to the thickness of the Gap!!! Then glue it with tight bond clamped between the bottom and top of the Bridge pieces. Sand and clean it up. Install it on your Guitar and you should be good to go. It works. IÂ’ve done it a few times.

That's a beautiful looking bridge.

I have only had an archtop for a few weeks, but I have already messed around with 3 different bridges (Tusq, rosewood from StuMac and a cheap Ebay "rosewood", which is softer than the StuMac rosewood) and 4 different string types (80/20, PB, Monel and pure nickel). So far, for me on the second hand Godin 5th Avenue I have, softer compounds have been sonically better. The guitar seems to get "lively" very easily, with too much presence for my playing style. But I'm getting lush bass and rounded top, plus bags of volume, from the Ebay "rosewood" adjustable bridge and pure nickel strings.

I've not tried ebony. My feeling is that it may be too hard for my guitar? I would like to carve a solid two footed bridge myself as a project but I was thinking of maple or perhaps one of the fruit woods, depending on what I can find. Something around that 1500 hardness or less mark?

I'm quite prepared to try and fail. At present I'm still trying to work out how to get a perfect fit for the feet to the top. I don't want to get the expensive StuMac jig as it only works for adjustable bridges. My next effort will be to use a profiling gauge on the top of my guitar and make a wood template with the same arch so I can match the feet to that off the guitar and hopefully only then need very light or no sanding on the guitar. I'm struggling with sanding bridge feet on the guitar top by hand without any jig.

Thanks Robin. Your dead on that each individual guitar will respond differently to different densities of Wood. Here is a YouTube Video I ran across that shows a unique simple way to trace the Arch tops Arc to the bottom of the Bridge Blank material! https://youtu.be/XgjIAkPE-Mk Experimenting will always have huge rewards. You will become better at the luthier craft. Finding that certain recipe of Wood and bridge design that makes your guitar blossom is very satisfying. I don’t use a jig, but have found that. 3M brand makes a super high grade sticky sandpaper that comes in Rolls. It is not cheap, but the best sandpaper I have ever used for guitar building. For my final surface matching of the feet of my carved bridges to the guitar Top. With the strings on. I lay a piece of 3M sandpaper down where bridge goes. Then get bridge aligned and with a just a little forced string tension, I carefully work the bridge along the sandpaper and perfectly sand the bottom to match the surface of the guitar. It Takes a little practice and time, but has worked well for me. Keep on picking!!!!

Thanks for the info!

He has some lovely tools in that video - what I have available is a lot more basic! I though that the ebony foot and rosewood top was interesting - and I loved the rolling washer to profile the arch. :D

I'll have a look out for the 3M self-adhesive sandpaper. I may be able to find that in the UK.

matching bridge to top - don't overlook the use of carbon paper and power tools. I have a sanding drum with a 3" diameter mounted in my drill press, after I rough out the feet I can rub on the carbon paper (lies loosely on the guitar top, or you can tape it down), sand down the high spots, repeat. Then sand paper on the top and work the bridge by hand in a small circle motion, I would at this point put pencil marks all over the bridge feet and again work down the high points. I stop around 75% matched, more is not really necessary. Wood - both bridge feet and top - moves, so what is perfect today probably won't be in 8 weeks.

In terms of bridges in general - I started with solid bridges, thinking that they must be superior just because solid, but found that seasonal changes caused pretty significant acton height adjustments needed on my hand carved solid wood instruments. I experimented with a lot of different things, and found that light bridges were always superior, but that remarkably little tone was lost with adjuster screws, so that's what I went with. I no longer obsess with perfect intonation either, quite happy with a straight saddle, maybe a bit extra for the B string, because to my sadness I truly understood the impact of equal temperament. Intervals are mostly out of tune one way or the other anyway, so why obsess over making octaves in perfect tune? As soon as the octave is a third, it's out again...

Brian thanks for sharing in on this. I do my roughing out with few power tools also 1x42 Sander and a 4 inch table belt rig and I have drum sander set ups for my drill press. I rough sand using the belt over the 4 inch round pulley and rough carve the profile of the feet. From there it is all files and S paper. I have mainly experimented with Ebony and RW. Thought about trying maple and other less dense Woods. Read where guys even use spruce. It does come down to each individual Arch top and how they respond. There really is no definitive bridge type! Skys the limit. Think I will try few other woods some rainy day. I have never had noticeable compensation issues , and just compensate the B string as well. I like the line up of instruments in your arsenal! Keep on picking! Sage

Sustain and sound is nice but what about intonation?
 

Looking at the bridge, beautiful job. But I see not much compensation
I have not experimented with all soild bridges, but I find it very important and possibly more important to have correct intonation. If the octaves are off, I cannot play complex/dissonant chords, they all sound bad to me.

I used to just carve the intonation into the ebony bridge, but I am finding that too tedious as I am getting older. for one thing, It is easy to overshoot, and then there is no going back other than starting over. I tend to use thicker strings with wrapped G, and I find that the factory compensation (if any) is done for unwrapped g, so it is the wrong way. Lately I started to use tune-o-matic crosspieces w individually adjustable tusq saddles. I have seen this on one of my Ibanez archtops. and my reaction was "it is not horrible". Maybe I loose something on sustain and sound, but I think having the intonation dialed in spot on more than makes up for this in the overall experience. Having a well-intoned bridge adds a magic quality to the guitar. Once it is tuned up, all chords sound good all over the neck. I cannot overstate how nice that is. I have friends with perhaps less keen ears, but even they notice that "something is special" about my well-intoned guitar.
I use a stobe tuner to double chek my ears, when something is off by a few cents is is hard to hear which way. Although it becomes more apparent when I adjust it the wrong way, and it gets worse instead of getting better.
Hence the ability to reverse an adjustment is pretty useful.
Just my 2c

https://i.postimg.cc/NjfTzTqx/P1130143.jpg

LOL!!!! A man after my own heart :D

I put round topped non-compensated bone saddles onto my flattops. Just angling the saddle slot I find is enough compensation. You sort of have to think why there is compensation for the "b" string - due to a thicker plain string pulling sharper than a thinner one. Then think about using different string sets, and a capo, and perhaps different tunings - and the whole thing becomes guesswork. So we all tend to sweeten our tunings anyway. In fact, I'm sure than the reason the TC Unitune and Polytune are so popular is because they don't show cents, and there is a bit of leeway when all those green lights show. So we use our ears as well as the tuner and can get our own nice blend of strings whilst the tuner is still giving us the thumbs up!

And then, of course, there is temperament! I'm pretty sensitive to being "in tune". So much so that I build my own fretted zithers (one above) with diatonic just intonation fret positions. Playing in equal temperament against the root and 5th drones is audibly harsh compared to playing in just intonation against the root and 5th drones.

So, because I spend a lot of my time when playing guitar using a capo on every fret up to the 6th, I too would go for a non-compensated archtop bridge if I made my own and simply position it to give the best intonation I could and then tweak my tuning depending on capo position and key. But then, I'm not playing complex jazz chords all over the neck.

I carve the Slant angle of compensation into the Bridge itself and then File a further compensation for the B string —just like I do when I craft the xtra wide Bone or Ivory saddles for the Flat tops I build! That way the Bridge is placed straight on the top like the old Adjustable bridge. I have had no problem getting excellent intonation up and down the neck. I am not a player that plays a just few Cowboy chords. I am all over the fretboard in all styles of music. I use a capo all the time. Keep on picking friends!!!! Sage