Inner bridge plates on guitars

Subject: Inner bridge plates on guitars
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 07:45 AM

There are sites selling (if you look hard enough) little brass plates with holes for the bridgepins, and slots for the strings, so that the ball ends of strings sit on the metal plate and do not chew up the wooden innner bridge plate.

Since pretty well all older guitars have got chewed up inner bridge plates and the replacement of an inner bridge plate is a standard and expensive luthier problem, why don't all guitar manufacturers put a little metal plate like that in there anyway?

Subject: RE: Inner bridge plates on guitars
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 08:35 AM

Wouldn't it interrupt the flow of vibrations through the wood of the guitar, by divorcing the string from contact with the wood?
It would need to be bonded to the wood for it to have some sort of sympathetic vibrations with the surrounding wood. If the wood is chewed up, I would suggest the application of a little wood hardener, or super glue to the wood around the bit where ball end of the string sits.
Different materials vibrate at different frequencies, so even if you substitute a piece of harder wood for the piece of brass, you would still have the same problem
Giok

Subject: RE: Inner bridge plates on guitars
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 08:48 AM

The ready made ones I think often are self-adhesive (like aftermarket scratchplates often are), and the instructions mention filling bad damage on the inner bridge plate with eg an epoxy before fitting (or repairing th plate).

Claims for the ready made ones include a better, less soft, contact and therefore better energy transfer - a bit like those endless arguments about brass bridge pins, and I am utterly convinced I can hear extra brightness from brass bridge pins.

Next time you change strings Giok, I suggest you have a feel around where the ball ends sit, or get a mirror and torch in there, and I think you will probably be horrified at the state of the inner plate. It wouldn't happen so much if the inner bridge plate was say ebony, but it usually isn't. There's a page at the Stew-mac site talking one throught he repair, and to me it looks like an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure.

Subject: RE: Inner bridge plates on guitars
From: Grab
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 08:35 PM

Why don't all places do like George Lowden, and get rid of bridge pins altogether? ;-)

Subject: RE: Inner bridge plates on guitars
From: M.Ted
Date: 28 Oct 07 - 11:23 PM

Probably because they've heard how Lowden's guitars sound--

Subject: RE: Inner bridge plates on guitars
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Oct 07 - 04:06 AM

The thread-through bridge can be a problem in terms of security of attachment to the top, and I believe even some Lowdens (which mostly sound grand) have illustrated this.

Also they can pose a problem for saddle breakover-angle particularly if action is lowered.

This should not be so if everything is made perfectly, but not everything is always made perfectly.