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I'm currently building a dreadnaught and I have two sets of plans - one that came with a Stew-Mac kit and one that came with an LMI kit. One significant(?) difference between the two plans is the size of the bridge plate with the bridge plate in the plans from Stew-Mac being about half the size of the bridge plate in the plans from LMI. I'm interested in opinions on optimum bridge plate size and, more specifically, if those with more experience can advise me to go with a larger or smaller bridge plate.

Thanks,
Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

Pat how big is the bridge that you are planning on using? Bridge size will to a large degree dictate bridge plate size if you are building in a traditional manner. Most folks and designs want the bridge plate to extend at least 1/8" in front of and behind the actual bridge when properly located.

When you see some of the builders who use over sized bridge plates - like me - we are often also building with other things in mind. For example Somogyi who uses big bridge plates also uses very thin tops and is looking to further spread the rotational stresses on the top over a greater area - again because of the thinner tops.

If it were me and I was building a traditional design to plan I would make my bridge plate 1/8" in front of and behind the actual bridge that I was planning on using.

Thanks Hesh.

I was planning on putting on a standard Martin type bridge. The plans from Stew-Mac show a bridge plate size pretty much as you describe it, i.e. wide enough that about an eighth of an inch would be on either side of the bridge. The LMI plans call for a bridge plate three inches wide which would result in almost three quarters of an inch on either side of the bridge. Seems like a lot to me. Based on what you said, I will trim it down some.

Pat

_________________
There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I've come to believe that relatively small changes to bridge plates have relatively profound effects on tone. Like Hesh said, it's part of a system and the rest of the system helps determine what that change will be. In my guitars, Ive found that decreasing the size of the plate can lead to more clarity and more sparkle on the mids and highs. Past a certain point though and I start to hear more transparency than I like, more left hand string noise and a slight metalic edge in the overall tone. But there are a lot of factors that play into the effect such as bridge size and mass, top thickness, plate material and nearby bracing.

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