How rubber bridge guitars became the hottest trend for the next generation of players: 10 songs that tell the story of its unstoppable rise

(from left) Phoebe Bridgers, Ariel Posen, Taylor Swift and Jeff Tweedy
(Image credit: Per Ole Hagen/Redferns, Olly Curtis/Future, Emma McIntyre/TAS23/Getty Images/TAS Rights Management, Per Ole Hagen/Redferns)

When LA-based luthier Reuben Cox began fitting acoustic guitars with rubber bridges – a unique mod that, especially when accompanied by flat-wound strings, gives guitars a muted, almost deadened sound – he probably couldn’t have imagined just how far the rubber bridge would go.

By the dawn of the 2020s, though, the rubber bridge sound had begun making its way onto some of alt-rock’s biggest releases, from which it then caught the ears of a number of pop’s biggest stars.

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