imitation ivory
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 5:54 pm
Didn't know where to put this. I have a nice piece of redwood and finally figured out what to do with it. Flame maple b+s+binding, black painted neck with Stauffer head and banjo tuners, and a bridge like the one in the first shot. That is a Bourgeois guitar - I contacted them and they no longer offer that as an option because it is too expensive.
Coincidentally, my brother and I were reminiscing about dad taking us to see the nearby Warther museum in northern Ohio in the late 50's. I looked them up and they are still there 60 years later:
the warthermuseum dot com
Amazing - ivory and ebony or walnut. From there it was a short hop to his grand - kid David:
warther dot org
Equally amazing - real ivory at .007" as ropes on a ship. And from there a short hop to Davids website:
guitarpartsandmore dot com
A lot of cool stuff for guitars. And another hop to here:
https://guitarpartsandmore.com/Product. ... k-Large-61
At $275 for a blank, I would be afraid to work on it. I contacted him and he said he also sells the best ivory copy around, Resin-Ivory. It is all over his site guitarpartsandmore. I tend to believe his opinion based on his work.
We corresponded back and forth and he was more than happy to work with me, suggesting Resin-Ivory. He sent me a 7 X 1-3/8" X 3/8" blank of the better of the 2 grades (S grade) and a bunch of cut offs to play around with and they got here yesterday.
The lower 2 pictures are what he sent. The actual color is much closer to the real ivory bridge. I have used a saw, chisel, scraper and sandpaper on the material and it works very nicely. I weighed an ebony pyramid bridge at 35g, and a similar sized piece of Resin-Ivory at 39g, so the weight is about the same. The surface is a little softer, so it remains to be seen what it will sound like as a bridge.
Before I posted, I thought I would look to see if there was any other discussion of fake ivory on the site and found that DanL mentioned Resin-Ivory about a month ago. What are the chances.
I am still a few months from starting this guitar, but I will let you know what happens.
Ed
Coincidentally, my brother and I were reminiscing about dad taking us to see the nearby Warther museum in northern Ohio in the late 50's. I looked them up and they are still there 60 years later:
the warthermuseum dot com
Amazing - ivory and ebony or walnut. From there it was a short hop to his grand - kid David:
warther dot org
Equally amazing - real ivory at .007" as ropes on a ship. And from there a short hop to Davids website:
guitarpartsandmore dot com
A lot of cool stuff for guitars. And another hop to here:
https://guitarpartsandmore.com/Product. ... k-Large-61
At $275 for a blank, I would be afraid to work on it. I contacted him and he said he also sells the best ivory copy around, Resin-Ivory. It is all over his site guitarpartsandmore. I tend to believe his opinion based on his work.
We corresponded back and forth and he was more than happy to work with me, suggesting Resin-Ivory. He sent me a 7 X 1-3/8" X 3/8" blank of the better of the 2 grades (S grade) and a bunch of cut offs to play around with and they got here yesterday.
The lower 2 pictures are what he sent. The actual color is much closer to the real ivory bridge. I have used a saw, chisel, scraper and sandpaper on the material and it works very nicely. I weighed an ebony pyramid bridge at 35g, and a similar sized piece of Resin-Ivory at 39g, so the weight is about the same. The surface is a little softer, so it remains to be seen what it will sound like as a bridge.
Before I posted, I thought I would look to see if there was any other discussion of fake ivory on the site and found that DanL mentioned Resin-Ivory about a month ago. What are the chances.
I am still a few months from starting this guitar, but I will let you know what happens.
Ed