Metal or Wood Bridge for Acoustic Archtop

[Mark Lee]

What are your oppinion on a rosewood bridge versus a compensated aluminium bridge (not the adjustable Tuneomatic style) for an Emperor Regent? I've heard various opinions about them on acoustic archtops ranging from "they kill the acoustic tone"to "they make it sound like an orchestra". My Emperor Regent is my workhorse guitar, and I play it acoustically about as often as I play it plugged in. It has a very pleasing archtopesque acoustic tone, but I play a lot of rockabilly and the rosewood bridge dosnt help achieve that jangly tone, it seems more suited to jazz.

Now for some physics. In my understanding, metal should be a better transmitter of sound (denser, less elastic equals a better energy transmitter) while wood should be inferior (softer, and hence more elastic, and less dense, like a shock absorber).

[ksdaddy]

Metal may be a better transmitter of energy but that isn't necessarly good. The high frequencies are transferred with less loss in the metal bridge so what you will end up with is an unbalanced screechy tinny tone. Trust me, I know this firsthand. Efficiency isn't always the most desirable. If you don't want to believe it, I encourage you to buy or make a metal bridge and find out for yourself.

[Riffster]

A metal bridge would have to bring out the jangle but too much of it is not good.

 

You should consider other woods as well, like ebony or maple. They are harder than Rosewood.

[Mark Lee]

soudnt the neck mounted floating pickup counterbalance the tone? do metal bridges have more harmonics?

[L5Larry]

This is a tough question, There are so many varibles involved. I've never had both a wooden brodge and a metal one on the same guitar, but I do have one each that's fit's this topic perfectly.

 

My L-5CES has the Tune-O-Matic with the pickups cut into the top of of the guitar, and my L-7 has a rosewood bridge with a pickguard mounted floating pickup.

 

 

 

The construction and design of the L-5 & L-7 are basically identical, same woods, same dimensions, etc. Although my two guitars were built 43 years apart, the L-5 is 20 years old, so I'd say it's wood has aged and mellowed also. I use the same strings on both, and play both through the same amp. As you might imagine they sound very different. The L-7 has a much more "woody" sound, the very traditional acoustic big-body archtop sound, even through the pickup. The L-5 sounds like, well, an L-5, much brighter and a little more "boomy".

 

I would think the different pickups and mounting has a lot more to do with it than the bridges, and with these two guitars I have both ends of the scale, Tune-O-Matic with top mounted pickups, and rosewood bridge with a floating pickup. I wonder what the difference would be if I swapped bridges. These both are "working" guitars and are set-up the the "T", so I can't really go screwing around with swapping bridges. Sorry, I could make some sort of scientific experiment out of this bridge question, BUT...