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I am about to close up an OM with a lightly braced, spruce top.

I was going to use a standard Martin-style belly bridge and wondered what I would have to do differently to use a pyramid bridge and what would the implications be regarding bracing, sound, and so on?

Steve I know your not planning on buying pre built bridge but just incase there are newbies is following this thread

PRE_MADE Martin style pyramid bridges tend to follow this set up
2 5/16" string spacing and a 2 7/8” long saddle slot and are really designed to use with the retailers Martin's short scale (24.9"-12 fret) precarved necks

PRE_MADE Bellied Martin style bridges tend to follow this set up
2 1/8" string spacing and a 2 29/32” long saddle slot and are really designed to use with the retailers Martin's long scale (25.4-14 fret) precarved necks

That is a 3/16" variance in string spacing.

So newbies, make sure the string spacing works with your neck taper

My neck is 2 1/8" at the 12th. BTW, John Watkins makes pyramid bridges in both 2 1/4" and 2 1/8" spacing. Thanks for your reassurance, Todd. I am seriously thinking of going with the pyramid bridge, but have a bit of time to do more research/thinking about it. My reservation is centered around the fact that I have changed so much between my last OM and this one, that I won't have any idea what structural changes account for the inevitable differences in sound I am going to get. So it goes!

As far as sound goes, it's really hard to say. The first several Martin original OM's were all made with pyramid bridges, I've played one or two of them and they sounded great. However, the belly bridge OM's also sound very good. I would have no concerns trying an OM with a pyramid bridge, I think you might have a winner.

Some don't know that it was a common practice at Martin during the early 30's for them switch out pyramid bridges with belly bridges on guitars that came in for repairs. If they found that the owner was using steel strings, they felt it best to change to the belly bridge.
They obviously felt that the belly bridge was superior for the steel strings available at the time.

Today, many builders of OM size guitars use pyramid bridges with no problems. It's really difficult to make any broad statements about tonal changes though I'm sure there are some...

Best
Bruce

_________________
Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

There is probably a weight difference, but I'm not sure that it would affect tone in a negative way. I don't have a belly bridge to weigh, but here are some gram weights of what I have:

ebony pyramid -- 23.35
brz pyramid -- 15.75
ebony stauffer pyramid -- 31.35

I should add that I am a fan of the pyramid style bridge and really like the look.

_________________
Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Thanks for your kind input, guys.