bridge plate

[Dave Bagwill]

The only material I have in the shop is wenge, mahogany, and some BRW I was hoping to use for a bridge someday.
Thought I had some maple or EIR but no.
Your opinion on hog or Wenge for a bridge plate?

[John Parchem]

I think the wenge will hold up better to the balls, it is a much harder wood.

[Dave Bagwill]

Thanks John, that was my thought.
Been reading a lot about bridge plates since I posted the question. As with almost anything to do with acoustic guitars, answers are all over the place. Mario Proulx uses locust! Some Martins used hog, big discussions over size of bridge plates and effect on tone and whatever.
My thought on wenge is that it is a very 'ringy' and 'chimey' wood, and hard enough. I think it's worth a try.
One noticeable trend is to NOT use quarter-sawn wood; 45 degree grain is getting some support, and Maton uses a laminated bridge plate. Edwinson uses rosewood laminated with carbon fiber, and also shapes the plate to a 25' radius - same as the top.
Does anyone here radius their bridge plate?
It's all up for grabs, as usual.

[Dave Bagwill]

And then there is this: what are your thoughts?

pmte.JPG (71.86 KiB) Viewed 1887 times

pmte.JPG (71.86 KiB) Viewed 1887 times

[John Parchem]

With regards to the PMTEA, a little extra mass will drop the tops resonance frequency, so on an over built top so it can help the sound. I would rather lower the resonance frequency to a target by removing stiffness rather than adding mass to the top. The bridge area already has cross stiffness because the bridge is a massive brace. That is a small addition compared to the bridge itself. So I would leave it out of an X brace design. I have seen some classical builders put a lateral brace across the bridge area, and I have been interested in trying that.

Thanks John, that was my thought.
Been reading a lot about bridge plates since I posted the question. As with almost anything to do with acoustic guitars, answers are all over the place. Mario Proulx uses locust! Some Martins used hog, big discussions over size of bridge plates and effect on tone and whatever.
My thought on wenge is that it is a very 'ringy' and 'chimey' wood, and hard enough. I think it's worth a try.
One noticeable trend is to NOT use quarter-sawn wood; 45 degree grain is getting some support, and Maton uses a laminated bridge plate. Edwinson uses rosewood laminated with carbon fiber, and also shapes the plate to a 25' radius - same as the top.
Does anyone here radius their bridge plate?
It's all up for grabs, as usual.

I think mahogany would be fine, I was making a choice. I have always used quarter sawn (that is what I have for tone wood), I often have the grain between vertical and horizontal, I have one guitar with a laminate bridge and I use carbon fiber cloth under the bridge plate with a thinner bridge plate. Radiusing the bridge plate shape would not hurt but why? it is radiused by the braces when glued to the top. Also a radiused bridge has so much more stiffness than the bridge plate that I can not see putting a radius on the bridge plate making any difference at all.

[Dave Bagwill]

These are my choices unless I want to wait for stewmac delivery.
At the bottom is the original bridge and bridge plate from Hank Mauel's guitar. The bridgeplate is what I'm replacing.
Above them is a nice piece of birdseye maple, but the grain is vertical!!
I found some small pieces of EIR above the maple in the pic. I would have to laminate the two pieces.
Above that is wenge.
Above that is mahogany.

What do you think, fellers?

DSC00597.JPG (127.23 KiB) Viewed 1878 times

[John Parchem]

Maple makes a great bridge plate.