What is a Bridgeplate Reinforcement?

March 26, 2011

Over time the ball end of a string starts to wear away the bridgeplate on your guitar. What then happens is the ball end starts to pull up and sit against or in the soundboard.

This is not good. You want the string to be sitting ON the bridgeplate, that way it can send vibrations to the soundboard. This is where a large part of the volume and tone of your acoustic guitar comes from.

If the soundboard is making direct contact with the string then it is ABSORBING the vibrations and not RESONATING them.

Solution? well you can have your bridgeplate replaced, much to the detriment of your wallet…..or you can get a bridgeplate reinforcement.

This is a small shim of either rosewood or maple glued to the underside of the bridgeplate. This now keeps the ball end of the string underneath the bridgeplate and not up in it. Thus restoring tone and volume to your guitar and making everyone happy.