Official Luthiers Forum!

I think from my understanding a bridge plate is designed to reinforce the area that is taking a lot of string tension as well as having the extra mass of the bridge and preventing the string end from tearing up the top, so my question is, why doesn't anyone use ebony for bridge plate? It seems like a really hard wood (like it takes me forever to sand a radius into an ebony fretboard where rosewood is so much easier to sand) and it sounds like something that takes abuse well... is it for tonal reason?

What about using non-wood like brass or something as bridge plate?

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I am new to this, but I intend to use African Blackwood. It's very hard & evidently has resonating qualities that ebony lacks. It is expensive & may be hard to find in the width required.
mike mcnerney

_________________
Mike McNerney

Ebony is heavy, has a lot of damping and its dust is really hard to clean on spruce. That being said I've used small and thin ebony patches to repair worn bridgeplates.
Sugar maple, Brazilian rosewood or Indian rosewood are the most common materials.
Alternatively you can cross-laminate a piece of maple and a thinner piece of whatever hardwood you choose to make a strong, string-ball resistant bridgeplate.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

IMHO you want a bridge plate to be able to resist the string ball ends AND be a very low dampening wood/material.

I have used BRW, EIRW, Maple, Honduran Rosewood (excellent material.....). I would consider any wood that is acoustically active and not prone to splitting as a decent material. The weight of the bridge plate is a concern for me too as is the bridge - I view the bridge and plate as not unlike a hotdog bun where they are both equally important.

Osage Orange has also been used with great results.

My friend Bob Connor has called Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle an acoustically "neutral" material in that it seems to add little if any color to the tone of a guitar but at the same time amplifies what the top naturally wants to do. This is when used as back and sides. Tiger Myrtle is a wood that I would like to try as a bridge plate too for this reason and would be a departure from the idea of using only acoustically active materials for bridge plates.

Although ebony makes a decent bridge the high dampening is a concern, so much so that I would not want to use it as a bridge plate but do use it for bridges depending on the tone that I am after and of course it's color.

It might be interesting when considering what one would use as a bridge plate to ask yourself if you would use the same material as a bridge. Would you use a brass bridge on an acoustic guitar? Probably and hopefully not and one of the reasons, at least to me, would be the weight. For this very same reason I would not use brass as a bridge plate.

Although solutions are available that employ brass to repair a worn plate a properly thought out and installed wooden bridge plate AND best practices for bridge pins, no slots, slotted bridge etc. should not need to repaired at least in many of our lifetimes.........

I always use a thin bone plate ontop of my bridge plate.

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Colin, where to you get a piece of bone large enough to cover the plate or are you using a piece just large enough to cover the pin hole area?

_________________
Aoibeann

As long as we're at it...how thin is "thin"?

I've heard of people using brass and haven't been interested (to be honest, I've never heard one to be able to make a truly objective decision), but bone intrigues me.

Thanks,
Joe

Still string bridge plate serves 2 main reinforcement functions. It reinforces the top against the rotational loading of the bridge by the strings and it provides a ball seat for the strings. Now it also helps transmit energy from the saddle/ bridge to the X-brace and top. So the lighter but denser the better that is two characteristics that do not normally go together (lighter and denser) Fro this reason I prefer Maple. Heard enough to take the string ball wear and light enough to efficient.

Lillian, Joe, I just use a strip of bone for the pins to go through and the ball ends to pull against, about 80mmx15mm and about 1mm thick. I like the fact that the strings are in contact with the same material at all of the pressure points, nut, saddle, pins and plate. I did it originally as a temporary repair on a '33 OOO about 10 years ago. The plate is put in when the strings are put on, rather than being glued to the bridge plate, so it's something that can be tried and reversed without damaging the guitar if you don't like it. I have done it now on 20+ guitars of mine and added it to quite a few of other peoples. It's basically the same as the Stew Mac brass one but in bone.

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Over here, African blackwood is quite popular among wood turners, and for some reason the the most common size turning blanks are about the perfect size for slicing into bridge plates and bridges. If you cut a block like that into bridge plates, they won't be very expensive.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

mmm... anyone experimented with composite materials like carbon fiber or kevlar or fiberglass? like just epoxying several layers of carbon fiber cloth or kevlar cloth or fiberglass cloth right on the back of the soundboard where the bridge plate would go. Probably opening a can of worm here (and I am using maple bridge plate on my first build...) but who knows...?

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com