[RJVB]

Hi,

I've been wondering about the bridges (saddles?) used on archtops. They look HEAVY, either because of the use of metal hardware or else because they're tall and wide chunks of dense wood that typically seem to lack "feet".

Coming from the violin that never ceases to surprise me; in that universe bridges can be impressive too but they're always carved out in such a way that they retain sufficient structural strength but lose a lot of "dead" weight. In addition, the contact points with the top are kept small - despite string tensions that AFAIK can far exceed the tension guitar tops are subjected to. They're also made of a light wood, maple - and not the densest kind either (my violin originally had a flame-maple bridge which made it sound shrill).

The latter is undoubtedly possible only because of the presence of a bass bar on one side and a soundpost on the other. I know the latter can't be used in a plucked instrument but the bass bar is basically just a brace - and my own old German archtop has its single brace sitting right under the bridge (which incidentally has two rather heavy feet, and appears to be maple).
NB: I have no idea if the design of the carving has a lot of importance.

So why are archtop bridges not carved out to make them lighter, and why do they contact the top over their entire width? I could imagine that this might affect the frequency response, but that would also apply to adjustable-height bridges where all those frequencies have to pass through the two bolts of the adjustment mechanism.

As related elsewhere, I'm toying with nylon strings on that old German archtop because it's in bad shape (a heritage that only has some sentimental value but sounds kind of cute). I could of course just experiment with drilling some holes through it (no need for fancy carving) - would I go for fewer, larger holes or rather a larger number of smaller holes?

PS: I suppose acoustic archtops can be muted with the same kind of mute used on bowed instruments, for late night or hotel room practice?