bridge weight

[peter havriluk]

I'm curious if there's a rule-of-thumb weight for a belly bridge. As in if it weighs more than a certain amount it would be a good idea to put it on a diet before installing it. As in bare bridge, no pins or saddle, for the sake of consistency,

Thanks, folks.

[ken cierp]

The math says lighter is better -- added weight takes more energy to get the sound board to respond to the string vibration. I recommend dyed Rosewood or Walnut as opposed to Ebony. But think about it -- how many zillions of wonderful sounding guitars have Ebony bridges? Do you really think a "human" could hear the difference shaving a few slivers of material off the bridge would make? I suggest you move on to more important issues like action and intonation. An easy playing well tuned guitar really does sound better then the alternative. $.02

[peter havriluk]

Ken, thoroughly makes sense. I wasn't trying to be anal but I also wanted an idea of what's more-or-less normal. I can easily understand that if a light bridge elevated the performance of an instrument all by itself, we'd never see ebony bridges.

[Dave Bagwill]

I think it was Ken, sometime ago on this forum, that mentioned eir for bridge and bridgeplate was a great combination. I use that when I can, sometimes dying the rosewood. I try to keep my bridges around 25 grams.

[John Parchem]

I agree with Ken's point about where to focus. For those who find it fun to go a step further, a bridge is a major brace for a top and needs to be considered with all of the other braces and the top itself. To make the most efficient top, a light bridge is a major factor. Depending on the bracing scheme a balance of mass and stiffness of the brace can be important. There are some guitars that will sound better with a higher mass bridge. For example a top that is too stiff might have a high top resonance where the trebles overpower the bass response. A heavier bridge will lower the resonance and can make the guitar sound better. Maybe not as loud but better.

I can not really notice a difference between my larger x-braced steel strings with ebony or rosewood. I can notice it on my classical guitars.