The next day, Cox started tinkering around to see if something like it would work on a guitar and ended up wandering around Home Depot in search of the right part; in a Dadaist twist, he found the plastic he needed in the toilet aisle. \u201cVery Duchampian,\u201d he told me, laughing as he remembered the process in an interview from the shop. But instead of having the mute applied after the fact, as with the banjo, Cox designed his device into the guitar, with the mute becoming the bridge, where the strings rest near the sound hole. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, well, let\u2019s try this and see what happens,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it ended up being a bull\u2019s-eye.\u201d<\/p>\n
First through Mills and then through word of mouth, the rubber bridge guitar, as it\u2019s come to be known, became an Excalibur in the guitar community of Los Angeles and abroad. Musicians started lining up to buy or commission one \u2014 either electric or acoustic \u2014 compelled not so much by what the rubber bridge sounds like, but rather what it doesn\u2019t. With the rubber dampening the fullness of the notes, Cox\u2019s design makes a guitar resemble a banjo or a plucked violin \u2014 and for guitarists in search of something fresh, that lack of resonance actually serves as an inspiration point.<\/p>\n
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\u201cL.A. is full of musicians,\u201d Cox said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re always looking for a new sound that\u2019s going to inspire them.\u201d Once they have the \u201cconventionally attractive sounds accounted for in their collection,\u201d he explained, it becomes a search for \u201cthe other sounds.\u201d <\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve been playing guitar for a really long time,\u201d Cox explained, \u201cyour hands go to the same places and you repeat yourself. It\u2019s this different sound, and it jumbles your mind in a way, and everything feels new. For a lot of people, songs would just pop out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without ever being formally advertised, the rubber bridge\u2019s popularity grew, and its presence \u2014 gentle, sparse and somewhat haunting while never crowding any vocals \u2014 started to float in on all kinds of notable records. Mills played one on Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cRough and Rowdy Ways\u201d; Aaron Dessner of the National put it on Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201cFolklore\u201d; about \u201c80%\u201d of the guitars on Phoebe Bridgers\u2019 \u201cPunisher\u201d were said to be rubber bridge; Jeff Tweedy, who uses rubber bridge guitars regularly on Wilco albums and tours, said in 2021<\/a> that he had bought \u201cat least\u201d a dozen of them from Cox directly.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes it sound like those high notes are even harder to play because they choke out,\u201d Mills explained to me in a video interview. \u201cBut something about how that sounds sort of fragile is really moving. It\u2019s kind of beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n For a while, the only way to get a rubber bridge guitar was to get one through Old Style<\/a> or attempt to make one yourself<\/a>. Cox then started doing rubber bridge conversions on budget-friendly Recording King guitars<\/a> in order to keep up with demand and have something around for people to buy. And soon small-scale guitar craftsmen, known as luthiers, began to sell their own<\/a> rubber bridge guitars, which Cox said \u201cbemused\u201d him. But the bemusement stopped in 2024 when Orangewood, a Los Angeles-based guitar company founded in 2018, began offering a mass-manufactured acoustic\/electric rubber bridge guitar, which it dubbed the Juniper, starting at $395<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Orangewood model uses a similar style of pickup, flatwound strings and tailpiece in comparison to Cox\u2019s guitars, he says.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Cox playing a rubber bridge guitar at Old Style Guitars in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Fitting into the lineage of other prominent guitar innovators like Leo Fender and Ted McCarty, Reuben Cox doesn\u2019t even play guitar. He can hit a few chords, sure, but insists that he has no musical talent, and was only drawn to building guitars as a hobby \u2014 and a way to bring him into a particular social orbit. \u201cI just love being around musicians,\u201d he said, \u201cand people using instruments for their intended purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n When I arrived at Old Style recently, the shop wasn\u2019t yet open, but the Band\u2019s \u201cLonesome Suzie\u201d was playing inside, where Cox, 53, had been getting work done anyway. Tall, with shoulder-length hair and clad in head-to-toe denim, he looked like he could be in a rock band himself. It quickly became clear, though, that he\u2019s more of a mad scientist. There were cobwebs in the corners and work permits crudely taped to the wall. Guitars were strewn all over the place \u2014 some for sale, some being fixed and some just in the process of being scrapped for parts. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t even work,\u201d Cox told me, pointing to a bizarre guitar with a \u201cWalking Dead\u201d paint job, which he said a neighbor gave to him. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Do you want this?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Sure, I\u2019ll take out your trash.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Making something out of nothing has become the specialty of Old Style. Cox opened the shop at age 37 during the financial crisis in 2010, with less than $10,000 in savings, and just had to make it work somehow. He was previously a photographer who taught classes at Sarah Lawrence in New York, but when his then-wife, who worked in the music business, took a job in Los Angeles, he decided to attempt to turn guitars into a career. After he rented an affordable spot on Hoover Street, he started learning on the job with the help of \u201clots of YouTube-video watching\u201d and a willingness to \u201cchoke down sawdust.\u201d Every aspect of running the store was uncharted territory to him. \u201cI had no idea what to charge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Most guitar shops cater toward high-end collectors \u2014 \u201cblues lawyers,\u201d as they\u2019re disparagingly called, who have money to burn on new and used instruments that can cost as much as cars. But Old Style, with its ramshackle vibe and low prices on salvaged and Frankensteined instruments, started to cultivate a different clientele: young and working-class musicians, to whom the function of the guitar is often more important than its collectability.<\/p>\n The rubber bridge guitar was born partially from Cox being the type to \u201cthrow pasta against the sonic wall and see what sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cL.A. is full of musicians,\u201d Cox said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re always looking for a new sound that\u2019s going to inspire them.\u201d Once they have the \u201cconventionally attractive sounds accounted for in their collection,\u201d he explained, it becomes a search for \u201cthe other sounds.\u201d You may want, say, \u201ca guitar that sounds bad on purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n The rubber bridge guitar was born partially from Cox being the type to \u201cthrow pasta against the sonic wall and see what sticks.\u201d It was also an attempt to give musicians like Mills a new weapon to work with, usually on the cheap, with a refurbished guitar most would have thought was bound for the dump. \u201cHe\u2019s not afraid of taking a chance on something that could easily be overlooked as worthless,\u201d Mills said. \u201cHe\u2019ll have seen something in it of merit.\u201d<\/p>\n After Orangewood started selling its rubber bridge guitar, Cox never considered filing a lawsuit. As a small-business owner, he didn\u2019t have time to figure out how, for one, and he didn\u2019t feel like the rubber bridge was something he could really claim ownership of either. This is a key issue in determining just how much of Cox\u2019s design is \u201coriginal.\u201d There have been many attempts to create muting devices on guitars over the years, including some from major companies. The Gretsch Country Gentleman that George Harrison played on the Beatles\u2019 \u201cEd Sullivan\u201d appearance, for instance, featured a crude flip-up muting device<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the function and aesthetic of Cox\u2019s design<\/a> and Orangewood\u2019s Juniper<\/a> model are similar, Cox says \u2014 and Orangewood itself cites Cox on its website as \u201cdeveloping and popularizing\u201d<\/a> rubber bridge guitars. Cox remained silent as the Juniper began to show signs of widespread popularity \u2014 it\u2019s now available at Guitar Center \u2014 but some musicians insisted on coming to his defense on their own.<\/p>\n Meg Duffy, who makes music as Hand Habits, asked to be taken down from Orangewood\u2019s sponsored artists page, which currently includes Jensen McRae<\/a> and Billie Eilish<\/a>, due to what she says was the product\u2019s similarity to Cox\u2019s design (You can see Finneas using a Juniper on Eilish\u2019s NPR Tiny Desk Concert<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s definitely not the first person to ever put a mute on a guitar,\u201d Duffy told me on a video call. \u201cBut this specific rubber bridge \u2014 it\u2019s so Old Style. It\u2019s just so obvious where and how this happened.\u201d Mills noted that Cox is \u201creally sweet and supportive\u201d of Southland musicians, which is why he believes this touched a nerve: \u201cI think the idea that he\u2019s been disrespected is what makes this such an emotional thing for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n After the Juniper was released, and as the fallout started to trickle into public view, Orangewood reached out to Cox about some kind of settlement or agreement. But according to Cox, any deal would have had to include his sponsorship \u2014 something he didn\u2019t want to provide, given how he alleged they only offered once there was a smoldering PR fire to put out.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I was just kind of saddened by it,\u201d Cox said, referring to the whole saga, which he is speaking about publicly for the first time. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond my control, and it just happens to be relevant to my life, because it\u2019s something I\u2019m selling too. It\u2019s a bummer. There\u2019s nothing very sportsmanlike about it.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to interview requests, Orangewood co-founder Eddie Park asked that questions be emailed. In response to the questions, he provided a statement on behalf of the company.<\/p>\n There have been many attempts to create muting devices on guitars over the years, including some from major companies. <\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cSince Old Style\u2019s focus has always been on repurposing vintage guitars and selling locally, and there were other builders who were making rubber bridge guitars before our release, we moved forward with the project,\u201d the statement read in part. \u201cThe intention was to add an affordable option out there \u2014 and we hope players can see the value in both a vintage mod and modern built versions. \u2026 With that, we\u2019ve had some conversations with Old Style at a few different points over the years, and it\u2019s still our hope to find a path forward to serve the broader guitar community.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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