1954 Gibson Southerner Jumbo - bridge thickness/height (shaved)

[Daniel Griffin]

New to the forum and looking for information from those more knowledgable about vintage Gibson flat tops.  Currently restoring a 1954 Gibson Southerner Jumbo in Natural finish which I acquired in a trade.  Unfortunately, the bridge had been shaved at some point in the past.  I am performing a neck reset and while the guitar is apart, I would like to deal with the issue of the shaved bridge.  More than likely, I will have to make a replacement bridge from scratch.  I have a stockpile of Brazilian Rosewood for bridge blanks, so no worries there.

The problem is that I am not sure how much material was removed from the original bridge.  The shaved original bridge measures 5/32" at its thickest point.  Does anyone know the original factory bridge thickness for a 1954-55 Gibson SJ?

I want to keep the guitar as vintage correct as possible, so I need to know the original factory bridge thickness in order to determine the correct thickness for the replacement bridge I will be making.  I have searched high and low for this information, but I have not had any luck in finding a definitive answer. Thanks in advance for the help guys.

[Frank Ford]

I'd say you can't go  wrong with 5/16" as an ideal, although I'd bet there are examples of different heights.  Such things tended to vary.

For example, when I first started with Martin warranty work 40+ years ago, there were three basic bridge heights used in new construction,  1/4, 5/16, 3/8.  Later they added 11/32 to the mix, and basically dropped the 1/4.