Official Luthiers Forum!

How thin can an acoustic guitar bridge be ?

Thank you.

I hope that was just a shot while sanding off a bridge to replace it.

Well, the height of the center part where the saddle is, is somewhat determined by the string-height-at-bridge you've designed for. Most guitars, that's about 1/2". And most builders have the saddle extend 1/8" or a bit more above the bridge, so the bridge thickness is maybe 5/16" to 3/8". If you make the bridge thinner, then the saddle sticks up higher, and has more leverage to break off the front part of the bridge, or break the saddle itself. If you leave more wood in front of the saddle slot, and use a thicker saddle, you can make the bridge thinner and have more saddle sticking up... it will look funny if you go too extreme, though.

As for the wings, there are many factors. You have to look at the whole sandwich of bridge, soundboard, and bridge plate, as well as the location of the X brace legs relative to the bridge wings... and then decide whether you want the bridge to flex at all, or be a rigid beam running between the legs of the X. No hard rules, except that it needs to be stiff enough that it doesn't deform excessively in the next 20-30 years.

As with most things on guitars, the typical values are typical because they're well balanced. If you think up some idea that involves deviating, just ask yourself "what could go wrong?", and if you can't think of anything, build it and find out

That bridge was a result of participating in the latest diet craze. Adkins and South Beach ain't got nuthin' on this one.

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Always have plenty of sandpaper; it's rough out there!

Todd: Be good....................!!

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

If you go thinner than 6mm (1/4"), than you'll might have some trouble if you wish to introduce an undersaddle pîckup. The saddle won't have a tall enough portion of itself barried in the bridge and will want to seriously tip forward, causing all sorts of problem.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

is that really a bridge or just one painted on???????

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MK5acoustics.com