The Crow Hill Company released Solo Bodhrán and Acid Synth earlier this year, before rebranding for Season Two. Bridge Guitar is the first release since the rebrand.
Bridge Guitar focuses on a particular sound that started in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, around 2010: the rubber bridge sound.
The rubber bridge innovation is credited to Reuben Cox, guitar luthier to the rich and famous. Although if you listen to any interview with Cox, it’s clear that it’s not all about custom builds for rock stars, and he’s just as happy doing a basic setup for local musicians.
Replacing a typical wooden bridge with a rubber bridge removes much of the natural sustain, and instead of notes that ring out, you have a muted, percussive sound.
Despite being a very popular sound over the last decade or so, it’s a sound that’s either perfect for a song or you don’t use it; there’s not much in between.
With that in mind, Bridge Guitar is an excellent addition for anyone (like myself) who would never own a dedicated rubber bridge guitar.
There are some temporary workarounds that I’m sure many of you have already explored, such as tennis racquet string dampeners and specially crafted adaptations from music stores.
In those cases, it’s great that you can adapt any guitar to the rubber bridge sound, but there’s still a problem for some part-time guitarists. The rubber bridge guitar is quite unforgiving, and you must be very precise with each note in a melodic line, as you can’t hide sloppy playing behind sustain and resonance (I’ve tried).
For me, Bridge Guitar is a good choice because I can create melodic/arpeggiated hooks that the sound is famous for, much easier using my MIDI keyboard.
Bridge Guitar sports the newly enhanced Vaults interface, but the controls will be familiar to any previous Vaults users.
The Mute dial controls the degree of dampening, allowing you to make the sound punchier or slightly rounder.
The Distance dial allows you to transition between mid and far mic positions.
The smaller controls start with the Mod knob, which is a frequency-shifting chorus effect. If you want to add pronounced movement to the sound, the Lo-Fi knob introduces all of those vintage tape imperfections.
Rounding up the controls, as always, are the Echo (ping pong delay) and Splosh (reverb) controls.
It’s a particular sound, but one that’s highly impactful at the right time.
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Last Updated on July 17, 2025 by Tomislav Zlatic.
