Bridge plates

[Kyle Barbour]

I know usually bridge plates are maple. What other materials are acceptable? I'll probably use maple but curious. Also what cut should the wood be? I assume qs.

[ken cierp]

I use both Maple and Rosewood -- to me the Rosewood when tapped has a more musical, resonate tone. To keep the weight to a minimum the Rosewood is .090" vs .10" for the Maple. I se bridge plate at .125" and more I think that is too thick.

[TonyinNYC]

If you look at the bridge plate as purely a piece of wood that is there to stop the ball ends from pulling through the spruce, then any hardwood will work.
Ken mentioned rosewood and maple. Those are the two most popular choices, probably because that's what Martin has used. However, I have also seen people use osage orange, brazilian rosewood or any other hardwood. If you havea slice of hardwood you think is suitable, use it. There are no rules. Just don't expect to sell that guitar to a true bluegrass player!

[TonyinNYC]

I failed to touch on the other question you asked about grain orientation. Lots of folks prefer their bridge plates to be off quarter and to angle the grain so that the pin holes do not all cut across the same grain line so as to minimize the chance of splitting the bridge plate. I think this is sound advice and I also think a quarter sawn bridge is not the best idea for the same reason. Not only are you cutting 6 holes into it, but you have the saddle slot! Both the pins and the saddle can crack a perfectly quartered bridge much easier than they can a rift sawn bridge, especially when an overzealous owner tries forcing a pin down into the hole.

[Kyle Barbour]

Thanks. I have a peice of EIR that looks suitable then. I will give it a try.

[Kevin in California]

I used Macauaba on my last finished guitar for the plate and it made the guitar sound awesome!!! Really who know, but it is a rosewood, and the guitar body was made of the same wood.
On a current Walnut/Redwood OM I used Madagasscar rosewood for the plate. On the Santos Mahogany/Sitka dred I'm making I used Bloodwood for the plate. I agree with Tony, I think any hardwood that has the grain going the right way should work fine and probably almost no one would be able to tell you you used something other than the two standard woods.

Kevin

[ken cierp]

I would tend to agree -- I'd keep the weight down, as that can have an affect on sound quality. I will say however that there are more than a few repair shops that claim to "soup up" Martins that have Rosewood bridge plates by replacing them with Maple plates.