What are the manufacturers using for bridge plate material?

[D41Fan]

Just curious if all the major manufacturers are using Maple for bridge plate material? I know Martin does, wondering about Gibson and Taylor.

Thanks,
Dan

[D41Fan]

Bump to the top/

[charles Tauber]

Just curious. What will you do with the information, once you have it?

Suppose Martin, Gibson and Taylor all use maple. Then what?

Suppose Martin uses maple, Gibson spruce - as they have in the past - and Taylor uses purple heart. Then what?

To what is that relevant?

[lfarhadi]

Many boutique builders (such as Froggy) use Rosewood

[Scotso]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Just curious. What will you do with the information, once you have it?

Suppose Martin, Gibson and Taylor all use maple. Then what?

Suppose Martin uses maple, Gibson spruce - as they have in the past - and Taylor uses purple heart. Then what?

To what is that relevant?

Why to you care about someone's quest for knowledge? Why the condescension??

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by Scotso

Why the condescension??

No condescension was intended. As I stated, I'm just curious.

As an aside, data and knowledge aren't necessarily the same thing.

[Scotso]

Now I am interested in the knowledge of what factory builders use. I have seen rosewood and black locust used by various luthiers. But I looked inside my gibson, Martin and Eastman and they all look like maple. The Guilds I used to have were maple. I had a Martin from the 70s and I think that one was rosewood. I have a custom on order from a single luthier and he uses madagascar rosewood.

My bet is most factory guitars are standardized around maple but I would not know for sure. And I wonder what builders think happens to the tone with different material.

[takamineGD93]

Not any stranger question then treads about guitar smell.

Im thinking of building a 12-fret jumbo....I will use this information in that build

[Dyson Guitars]

Huss and Dalton uses Honduran Rosewood

[D41Fan]

I;m sorry if I upset someone.
I am just curious as to that builders use to build guitars. I like to learn new things and to hear back from others in the know. People say that this guitar sounds like this or that and I;m trying to understand how all the pieces come into play.
Thats all!

[printer2]

Originally Posted by D41Fan

I;m sorry if I upset someone.
I am just curious as to that builders use to build guitars. I like to learn new things and to hear back from others in the know. People say that this guitar sounds like this or that and I;m trying to understand how all the pieces come into play.
Thats all!

Hey fellow prairie boy, Charles takes much more to upset, even for an easterner. With all the interest in what makes a guitar sound as it does a lot of people dig around for the details. It is a fair thing to go down a rabbit hole over, but if there is much debate over back and sides contribution the bridge plate material is really diving down. A debate over how hard the bridge plate material is when discussing erosion of the string holes might be of interest to some. Harder materials would last longer.

As builders we try to judge a material for its properties and select one we think might be more suited than others. So one builder may use maple, one rosewood. But peeking under the hood of the guitar and seeing one or the other does not tell you why it was selected. Even I would not know why the builder selected the wood over another. I would guess most are maple as it is hard enough to last multiple string changes over the life of the guitar. It is inexpensive and common. I did buy some hickory as bridge plate material.

[Lillis]

I find info like this interesting as well. I’m willing to take an educated guess and say my new to me Seagull uses maple. I don’t know about my Taylor or Breedlove. Of course the Breedlove uses a pinless bridge so not sure how it even factors in exactly other than general support.