by Walter Grover
(Condensed from an article by the famous manufacturer in 1925)
The rapidly growing demand for bridges of the better type for banjo, tenor-banjo and banjuke leads us to believe not only that sales of these instruments are rapidly increasing, but also that the players are becoming more educated on the subject of bridges. Sales of Non-tip bridges for banjo have always been very large. On this instrument the string tension is very slight, and the bridge has a very strong tendency to tip over, and also to move forward away from the tailpiece. Accordingly, a large percentage of banjo players feel that they cannot get along without a Non-tip bridge, which today is the only bridge so constructed that it cannot tip over.
There are any number of bridges on the market, differing from each other greatly in design, thickness, amount of wood and material. The layman cannot help but wonder at this variety, particularly when he considers that all violin bridges are, apparently, quite similar. It may be of interest to some to learn what our twenty-five years’ experience in making banjo bridges has taught us. The most important point, we believe, is the kind and quality of wood used. We have found that the only wood that will produce the desired quality and volume of tone is curly maple, and it must be very hard and well seasoned, that is, dry. In this respect, banjo bridge and violin bridge requirements are exactly the same. Violin makers have recognised this important fact for a great many years; in fact ever since the first violins were made. It is interesting to note this result – practically every violin made today, except the very cheapest, either in this country or in foreign countries, is equipped with a bridge of hard curly maple. American banjo makers, however, have not yet learned this important point, largely due to the fact, we believe, that few of them have any real players or instrument testers in their employ. It is a fact that is well known to any good banjoist that many American factories turn out banjos equipped with a roughly made bridge of soft, stringy maple, or, in some cases, of a wood that is dyed to resemble rosewood or ebony. These instruments, in many cases, would produce a fairly good tone were it not for the bridge, which is incapable of conducting the tone vibrations from the strings to the sounding-board of the banjo. Thus, for the sake of saving a very small fraction of a cent per banjo, manufacturers put out instruments that will never produce a good tone until a good bridge is substituted for the poor one. We have demonstrated the above facts to several banjo manufacturers who make “commercial” lines, with the result that we are selling plain two-legged bridges that are made of hard curly maple, and are correctly slotted, cut and designed, to many of these manufacturers at a very slight increase in cost over the “shredded wheat” bridges that they formerly turned out from scrap material which they hated to throw away. Using cheap bridges is perhaps the worst form of economy in which a banjo maker can indulge, for a saving of a hundred dollars a year on such an item can easily do a manufacturer’s business thousands of dollars’ worth of harm in the course of a year.
The second point of importance, we believe, is that of design and weight. Since one depends upon the other, these two factors may be considered together. There are a few bridges made that are too light to produce a full tone, but the general error is in the other direction. A very large number of bridges made today are much too heavy to enable the instrument to produce a tone that has both volume and snap. Today, the professional tenor-banjoist insists on a bridge with an ebony top or insert. It is rather difficult to glue a top of ebony on a maple bridge without making the bridge fairly thick at the top and at the point where the ebony is glued to the bridge. If this ebony top is thin, it soon comes off the maple base, rendering the bridge useless. In order to avoid this, many manufacturers are using an ebony top bridge that will stand a lot of wear, but which is too heavy to produce a snappy, penetrating tone. The writer happened to be in the store of a New York dealer actually on the day when a new model tenor-banjo arrived from a manufacturer. The instrument represented a beautiful example of the woodworkers’ art, metal parts were gold-plated and the wood was inlaid with considerable mother-of-pearl. The dealer and several salesmen had been trying out the instrument, and they were greatly disappointed with the tone. They had done several things to try to improve the instrument; they had put on a new set of strings and a different tailpiece that put more tension on the strings, and they had tightened the head almost to the breaking point. The tenor-banjo was equipped with a finely made ebony top bridge of fancy and attractive design, but there was a lot of wood in this particular bridge. The writer suggested that they try a lighter bridge on the instrument. They did so, and the tone then produced made it difficult to believe that one was hearing the same instrument, the improvement was so marked. The old style two-legged bridge of light weight is disliked by many players and manufacturers, because the small bearing surface of the bridge on the head, and the great tension of the strings, cause the feet of the bridge to sink into the head to a noticeable event. The natural move is to increase the bearing surface – make the feet wider. This is being done quite generally, but many sacrifice tone by so doing, for they put too much wood into the bridge. If more wood is put into the bridge at one point, it must be taken out at another, or the tone will be rounder and less penetrating.