Nomex / APP Bridge Plate

[Jason_Patrick]

Hi forum

new to this and cannot find historical topics on this matter.

short and sweet...

I am openly copying the Acoustic Parallel Plate (APP) design belonging to Kevin Ryan because its absolutely brilliant and looks so professional. Whilst doing this I was wondering if anyone has tried his APP plate with Nomex honeycomb instead of a spruce honeycomb? Do you guys and girls think I am smoking my socks here or its worth a try?

Regards
Jason

[Lespaul123]

I have worked with a bunch of Nomex and my concern would be the ability to crush the panel/nomex. I think this is part of the reason why the Ryan design is so clever is that he can regulate the crush resistance based on the thickness of the cell walls.

[Jason_Patrick]

Thanks LesPaul123 I appreciate the response. Would I not prevent crushing the Nomex by glueing a bridge plate onto the top of the nomex for the bridge pins to go through? In this way I spread the weight of the pull from the strings over the small bridge plate ontop of the nomex...

So I would bond the Nomex to the sound board and then a small bridge plate on top of the Nomex? Or do you think this still won't work?

cheers
J

[Lespaul123]

Certainly gluing the bridge plate on top of it would help, but the crush resistance may be dependent on the thickness of bridge plate that you use. You may want to glue in a solid piece where the pins run through the top, then glue your bridge patch on top of that. This way you can go thinner on the bridge patch. I would weigh everything first to figure out what gives you the stiffness you want as well as figuring out which way is lighter.

[Jason_Patrick]

Thanks for the advice ... What you say makes sense!!!

[Oxwood_Handmade]

There was a fella on here a whole back experimenting with it as well. I can't recall his name but I remember he also built a bunch of "Stella" guitars.

EDIT: A quick search told me what I needed to know...his screen name is Haans.

Brad