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On Steel string guitars, what do the bridges typically weigh? Of course this question to those that weigh them in the first place.

Also what weight for what type of wood (Bridge wood)

Last one... Does this vary with the size of the guitar? Dread vs. om vs. 00

Thnx

Those weights sound about right to me; say 32 grams for rosewood and 36 for ebony, more or less. Classical bridges are often around 24 grams or less, and I've seen them down to 18 on Flamencos.

Bridge weight is one of the variables you can use to get the sound you want. All else equal, a lighter bridge will tend to 'favor' the treble. High frequencies are partly about acceleration: and given the limited power in the strings you need to keep things light if you're going to get 'off the line' in a hurry.

There's no reason not to use the Mad rose bridge if it's strong enough. Is there enough 'meat' in front of the saddle? How deep is the slot? Also, make sure there's enough length along the line of the string pull (the bridge is wide enough): that's more important for keeping it down than the actual footprint area.

Thnx

I just weighed a classical bridge I made and sure enough about 24 grams. I don't have a SS bridge built to weigh but I'll keep these figures and check against them when I do. Actually I have a prototype built of meranti at 35 grams, but that doesn't count does it.

Thnx again

"I have a Mad Rose bridge that I made that weighs 19 grams and it is so light that I am not sure that I should use it........... "

I guess you could laminate another strip of material onto that there Mad Rose??
Cheers
Charliewood

This one (ebony) weighs 25.4 grams with the bottom side radiused out. Sounds a little light compared to the figures you offer, Al?

Pete Licis38859.5306365741

It does indeed look good, Pete! There are a lot of ways you can reduce the weight of a standard bridge without loosing strength, and it looks like you've hit most of them. How 'bright' is the guitar?

Pete, that is one cool looking rosette and I love the green herringbone purflings. The bridge ain't bad either!

My ebony bridges are also about 34-36 grams. It cam be pretty hard to remove a gram or two it seems to me. I try for 34 but sometimes just can't get there.
Pete, what do mean by "the bottom side radiused out"?
Is this bottom of the bridge I'm seeing in the photo, or the bottom thats agaist the top?
Thanks.Jim_W38859.8647337963

_________________
Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

[QUOTE=Alan Carruth] How 'bright' is the guitar?[/QUOTE]

Ask me in a few weeks!   

Unless of course the fishing stays hot ...

[QUOTE=Jim_W] My ebony bridges are also about 34-36 grams. It cam be pretty hard to remove a gram or two it seems to me. I try for 34 but sometimes just can't get there.
Pete, what do mean by "the bottom side radiused out"?
Is this bottom of the bridge I'm seeing in the photo, or the bottom thats agaist the top?
Thanks.[/QUOTE]

I was referring to the gluing surface against the top which was hollowed out to match the radius of the top.

After reading about some other ebony bridge weights in this thread, I'm wondering why mine is so light. It's 11/32" thick at the center and you can see the contour in the photo above.

It's footprint is a hair bigger than a "standard" belly bridge. I split the difference down the middle of the slant on the wings, so the wings are narrower on the north side than standard, and the tail end is wider. The belly extends about 1/16" (?) further than a "standard" belly for added "insurance".

I think I may have another blank from that ebony purchase - maybe I'll measure the density. Hmmmmm ... shouldn't I have done that with the actual bridge ?     

Pete, that guitar is looking good! Is this still #1 ?

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=Don Williams] Pete, that guitar is looking good! Is this still #1 ?[/QUOTE]


Shutup, Don.

[QUOTE=Pete Licis] This one (ebony) weighs 25.4 grams. Sounds a little light[/QUOTE]
You are correct, this guitar is ruined...send it to me for disposal!

Oh, and that feather-light bridge is one of the most elegant designs I've seen. Nice work!

Thanks for clearing that up for me Pete, That's what I thought, but at that weight I just wondered. Nice instrument by the way.Jim_W38860.8732986111

_________________
Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Very nice looking bridge, Pete. And good job getting the weight down to 25.4 with ebony. That's just a hair over what my last rosewood bridge weighed. Mine's pinless, though, and the bridge plate is spruce, so the total mass in that area is probably quite a bit less.

The guitar, btw, is not especially bright sounding at all, interestingly enough. It _roars_ in the lower mids. Goes to show there are so many factors that create the sound.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Just finished this li'l puppy today for SS #2. Weighs in at 33g.



Mike

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Pete, I wonder if you have some different type of ebony there, or even a dark rosewood or something. It looks like there are a lot of pores in that nice bridge, more than I have seen in some ebony.

_________________
Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

That's his secret! It's ebonized balsa!Todd Rose38861.2770023148

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

[QUOTE=Mark Swanson] Pete, I wonder if you have some different type of ebony there, or even a dark rosewood or something. It looks like there are a lot of pores in that nice bridge, more than I have seen in some ebony. [/QUOTE]

The bridge blank was purchased as an ebony blank from LMI - one would hope they got that right. I see what you mean about the pores, though. I wonder if the visual pore effect has something to do with the amount of polish (Micromesh 6000 (?)) on it.

And thanks to everyone on the kind compliments on that bridge. I hate copying things, and it took a while to figure out the shape so that while it's similar to several bridges I've seen, it's not identical. What you can't see in my previous photo is that the front end is slightly curved. I suppose that may have removed a small amount of weight too.

I think I may have an overhead shot. If so I'll post below.



Ignore the excessive redness in the photo - the different temperature fluorescents in combination with incandescent lights drive my camera's color correction nuts. It's really not so brown and more ebony-like than the photo looks, though there is a slight amount of color to it.Pete Licis38861.4497453704

Pete, that guitar is looking good! Is this.....oh nevermind.


You're going to bring it to work when it's done so I can go see it, right?
Hey...don't you live in the Portsmouth area? Hmmmm...must go see Pete's guitar after work...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

With all this talk about bridge weight going on (I like <25gm for my steel strings) I thought I'd weigh my latest bridge before I glued it on and it came out to 11.5gms, and I'm going to tie 15 strings to it that's less than a gram per string! You want to see it? OK



8-course Lute of course bridge in Rosewood and Cherry.

Colin

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

Very interesting, Colin. What's the total string tension on one of those axes?

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Yeah Colin, nylon strings right?