I highly recommend Tim for his great customer service and excellent product. No complaints whatsoever. The tonal qualities are well balanced an clear. Banjo, and it really magnifies any quality or tone issues. The factory bridge is very good, and I had preferred it that to all other bridges I had - except I wanted to shorter bridge (factory was 11/16"). Ballard's bridge is really the best for me . it is as exuberant as hell and yet there is a clear improvement in the bass notes even or the Mystery bridge. I also didn't have the Stelling with me that I bought it for so I put it on a different Stelling to try it out in the meantime. Two are 6/8 inches in height, one standard and the other Crowe spacing. | I measured the distance every string needed to intone correctly. It was kind of fun, my banjo still sounded great but I thought can it sound better? The high end has all the brightness and punch that I need to hear. I immediately ordered another one for my Bob Flesher Grand Cotillion with similar results. I've tried an Emerson bridge and a Deering bridge they don't compare with my Snuffy III. So, afew weeks ago when I was taking apart one of my Stellingsto photograph for my Banjo Construction Photo Archive, I noticed that the bridge was pretty wallowed out. It cost 25$. The banjo has no more intonation issues up-neck. The quality and care he puts into his work is absolutely noticeable. Solid, crisp tones all the way up and down the neck. My banjo still doesn't sound like a Deering Saratoga Star, but it sounds a whole lot better than it did. Was $50 worth a missed shift and seven hours of driving for Maggie? to try it out in the meantime. That was until I put Tim purcel's Dogwood bridge on. The only other banjo I rally had to compare it to that I had actually played were an RK-35 (that sounded 'angrier' to me if that makes sense, and fatter) and my buddy's Goodtime 2. The best poems for funerals, memorial services., and cards. I ordered a Zebra Wood Katalox bridge from David. Then i switched back to the Scorpion just for fun. Where Purchased: direct from Greg at a festival. The bass response is full and the high end sounds pretty good too. They are the best compensated bridge on the market. I have decided that the sound this bridge gives my banjo far outweighs the inability to mute the instrument. Both 11/16" two-footers with Crowe spacing. He went to work and left a note a few days later that it was on the way. I ordered a 5/8" bridge and the bridge that I got was marked 5/8" but it measured 11/16". He sent me one of his first McCormick spice factory wood bridges in the KatEyz style, with ebony top wood, at 2.3 grams. The engineering and craftsmanship of his products are absolutelythe best. This bridge rocks!! These are really great bridges at less than 1/2 the cost of the others. Ive had one of Barts Archie bridges on my mid-sixties flathead bowtie for a few months now, and I have been loving it. See also. I've found that with these bridges it actually takes less hand/finger effort to play. Try it, you'll like it! Bart estimated seven to 12 days. Ive been doing the music thing for years and have worked with countless people who thought they could sing (I once had a girl tell me she had a six-octave range!). This thing Rocks!!! I bought two for my main banjos in 2010 and haven't went back. It really sounds wonderful, better than any other bridge I have tried. Bart's website is also a great resource for banjo information in general; worth checking out even if you're not in the market for a bridge. Be the first to post a memory or condolences. Highly recommended. Ive wanted one of Barts bridges for a while now, so I was curious to see what he might suggest for me. The bridge I received from Bart was perfect. This is the genius of Bart Veerman's work. I have already sent an order for one of his "better" bridges, to install on my early Gold Star. by Year; by Job; by Ratings; by Votes; by Genre; by . I still had the same powerful, solid sound I had before. All are great. The best suit is custom made by a master tailor, thebest banjo bridge you can get is made by the master bridge maker, Bart Veerman. Thanks, Silvio!! Just bought a Huber banjo, & just for kicks I put the Davis bridge on it & it accomplished the same thing. Aside from more mellow tone I asked for a little more string spacing to help me with my plucking and pulling off. He was portrayed by Tim Purcell. It fixed that and brightened up my RB-4 quite a bit. I'm currently playing the head just above a G#. Location of This Business. I kept the Hatfield for another day. After experimentingfor several years with different bridges, I've come to favor the Veerman bridge, especially on my '63 Vega Scruggs model. I have owned 4-5 original Snuffy Smith Bridges over the years and there is no difference in sound. Many of the other bridges I've tried lost some of their pleasant, musical nature when trying to deliver more bass tones. Ive used cheap Grover bridges and more expensive Moon bridges and some in between. This is one of those rare thngs. You could'nt deal with a nicer guy than Tim and he has a nice selection of different woods, he'll make them whatever height you want, Crowe spacing,Radius top and bottom, and his workmanship is beautiful. The bridge was packed in a bubble wrap envelope including a small insert with some basic bridge info, installation instructions, and specs. This bridge really does the trick! The $25 it cost was well worth the investment. Thanks Tim! If I was perhaps more experienced I would be able to tell if this has made much of a difference but the truth is that so far I havent noticed a difference that I could attribute to the bridge being compensated. Fantastic. Tim Purcell . Great craftsmanship, and working with Don is great. Looks great, no buzzes, a fine piece of craftsmanship. OMG I hope I didn't violate a patent! I'd like to thank Bart for his work making banjos sound better and I highly recommend reading his website and ordering a bridge that's right for you. I like its looks, the workmanship and the sound. The rest of the set up was a breeze. Things just happen that are amazingly right, and at quiet to ear-blistering levels. Plenty O' Volume. The biggest improvement was up the neckall the way up. Sheer power would be the best description. I think they call it a "no-direct-route" approach (every string's path through wood to the head is interrupted by open air). The Kateyz 3/5 Crowe spacing is the clearly the best in terms of volume and clarity up the neck. It made a noticeable change in the sound of my banjo. As others reviewers have said, Tim's a great craftsman and stands behinds his product. I'd write more, but I've got a banjo to play, so stop wasting time reading these reviews, go to Bart's site and get a bridge, you'll be happy you did. Suddenly a light came on over my head and I realized that was why that banjo always had an intonation issue. If you are an open back player that uses genuine hide heads this may be the bridge you need to get! I have been using a Cunningham Z/K on it. All the bridges sounded very good. The bridge arrived in a padded envelope with a business card and invoice. For only $25, you can't go wrong. These are first class bridges. They are very cleverly cut, very inventively made, and very effective on my various banjos. Luckily, since its a 12" banjo there was some low end growl to spare anyway, and the improvement in the high and mid range far out paces the slight loss of bass. Very prompt delivery. The bridges produce a fuller, more robust tone that is rich in both treble and bass. Good guy.great product! By bass, I don't mean mellow or plucky. Either way don't wait order one!!!! However, I felt that the banjo's tone and volume could use a bit of a tweak, so after many recommendations I opted for Bart's bridge. Just received a new Scorpion 11/16" bridge fromSilvio. This is a new product from Bart Veerman. I was fortunate enough to get one of David's maple/katalox bridges and replaced the stock bridge on my 1980OME Juggernaut. The bridge is expertly crafted, visually attractive and precisely made to customer specs. I've had it for over a month and the banjo still has that growl so I'm sure it was the different bridge that caused it. I bought it to replace the no name 5/8" bridge that was on my Saga SS-3 which is my carry around banjo. Ordering: Barts order form asks a number of detailed questions about your banjo to ensure the bridge you order best matches your instrument. in computer science from Stanford University in 2001, and his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University in 2004. I like his design very much. Thank you, Donald (Zepp) for introducing them to me!Craig (frailin). He was extremely helpful in helping me figure out what would work best given my banjos and playing style. I never in a million years thought that swapping the bridge on my banjo could make such a huge difference. My friend well-known luthier John Bowlin had recommended that I get in touch with David Cunningham at DC BANJOWORKS in St. Peters, Missouri. Saw Dave's shop. The 11/16 went on my 03 golden era and instantly opened it up, and improved the tone all over the neck. Maggie left the next day for Nashville. Bridge for years. As lead singer and keyboardist in the successful regional rock bands, Lou's Blues Revue, and Perfect World, he developed a reputation as a dynamic performer. (the Old Barn one is nice too for a woody sound). Superb! But this is the bridge that very quickly brought me improved results in my set up, so I recommend it. I did not expect a $30 item to make such a big difference in a finely-crafted, custom-made instrument. I use a Renaissance head, no-knot tailpiece and medium strings and with a folded sock under the head I'm getting some really nice rich and clear tones without any unwanted overtones, and it has noticeably more volume than the stock bridge. The more I thought about it I began to realize that this might be my chance to put together that strong vocal ensemble I had always dreamed of. Four are 5/8 inches in height, two with Crowe spacing and two with standard spacing. I tried a 5/8" with Crowe spacingfor the first time--felt fine, sounds great. I then switched to aKat-EyzCanadian maple/purple ebony and I thought that was the right bridge. I notice much better note separation, much better volume and a tone that was a very nice surprise-crisp maybe is a word I would use for it. I've bought a few of Tim's bridges for setup customers, and his quality just keeps getting better! Sacrifice bass for treble, or vice versa. I think the Emerson bridges are the best you can get, and I've tried many, many, many, others (I went through a bit of a 'bridge' phase).This one isn't better than the sweet Power II, it's just different, being brighter. Give one a try if you have not already! The increase in note decay is just enough to provide that clarity of note separationI've been looking for. Problem is that there are so many high-quality bridges being made it's hard to differentiate among them. My mahogany KK-3 had really come into it's own after I had replaced the stock ring with an JLS#4. I did have to file the slot a bit for several of the strings, but that was easy. The buying experince with Don is great, if I get another banjo in the future I will definetly be getting another Dam Spillway (maybe the 3 pack) just to see what the others will do. When the bridge arrivedand I set it up I notice right away that it really did wonders with the intonation. I bought a 11/16 Crowe. Both bridges were exceptional, but I was especially impressed by David's two-footed model. I will definitely buy more of these when needed. I noticed it most with my hammer-ons which were much more clear. I just put one of Greg Galbreath's new solid-foot bridges on my Bart Reiter banjo and it sounds fantastic. Who knew that such a little item could end up sounding so "important," right? I have the heavy weight model.I immediately noticed an improvement in volume and sustain. Made this inexpensive banjo into a real player. It is a full, rich, pretty sound. So I decided to try the "Archie" bridge. There are 100+ professionals named "Tim Purcell", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. As usual, Tim was very easy to work with - highly recommended!! However it just needed that final tweak. First off, I haven't seen this good of workmanship on any other bridge, including mine. It has no wood rim, no tone ring. Not the easiest to change in and out without doing a lot of slacking the strings and re-tuning, but I can't see how to fix that issue. I am new to banjo and just figured the bridge, that came on the instrument was good enough. Update: Still using this Bridge. It might not stay on the banjo indefinitely; Ill try any new banjo bridge once. I communicated with Tim over a couple of email's about my banjo, setup info, preferences and what I was looking to achieve. Arnold is the maker of The Pyramid Banjo that's out there right now for purchase. I then tried it on my Gibson RB250 that has a swee mellow tone and can crack, but without much volume. When I first put it on, I think I noticed a bit of loss on the bottom end, low on the 4th string. The tone has more clarity, pop and warmth with a quick note decay. Being a practical gal she demurred and I, being a totally hedonistic impractical male, went out and spent 800 bucks on abanjo. Arnold got the bridges to me just in time to celebrate my birthday, ( and Bill Monroe's ) on September 13. View Tim Purcell's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. I've always felt the sound was only decent at best, somewhat lacking in complexity and tone. I will order more of the same in the future. BBB File Opened: 8/30/2010. Service Technician at A&R Mechanical Contractors . -BC. This translates into a lot of volume if you really dig in, should you ever need to peel the paint off your walls. For my particular banjo,I preferred the American Cherry. One thing that pleases me a great deal about this bridge is that it does not take away anything from my banjo: some bridges give you something really good, but take away from something else equally as fine to give you that "boost." The overall character is not quite as note separated as my previous bridge (likely more sustain) but nonetheless I really like the full complex tone of this bridge. Get one - you'll like it. I have given them to my friends and it always make their banjos sound amazing. Dave was a complete joy to work with and his customer service is second to none. All three were outstanding. Overall the bridge is very nice and looks nice on my banjo.Sound - I found this bridge to have a very bright sound. I believe that these pegged-top bridges give the best tone of any bridges in current production, and I recommend them without reservation. During my working life,I have been fortunate enough to have worked and travelled to over 40 countries and to live in Europe, New Zealand and Australia developing a wide and diverse network of contacts and resources that I have worked hard to maintain. It has a fabulous bass response and nice round mids and real pretty highs. It was a pleasure to deal with him. I ended up leaving in an old Iida 225, in which it gave a noticeable improvement in tone, especially up the neck. Both sound great, but I would go with the lightweight for both if I had to pick again. Tim Purcell - Co-Founder - Lykeion | LinkedIn Tim Purcell Principal at Halcyon Advisory Partners | Co-founder at Lykeion Austin, Texas, United States 2K followers 500+ connections Join to view. So, I decided to post my review of this bridge that I received this past Saturday. In less than a week I had 3 new bridges to experiment with. A very balanced and "open" sounding bridge. 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