Bridges.

[Dustin Finlayson]

What is the best material for a bridge to maximize sound??

[Bob Webster]

What's the guitar?

[Ron Frazier]

I like to use some thing that holds the string.
Rose wood is softer and ebony is very hard . Each is good.

Ron

[Dustin Finlayson]

i a takamine g series

[Ned Knepp]

Dustin,
Are you looking for a bridge or a saddle?

[Dustin Finlayson]

i'm looking for the best material for a bridge to maximize sound

[GEOFFREY BARNARD]

hi Dustin.

how about this as a pointer.
types of wood.
well think about trees and there natural character. tone comes from grain formation, from within, the living wood., maple is bright and tight. rose wood softer and warmer. .ebony hard and unforgiven, etc.
cannot advise on which you might prefer but plenty to chose from . so think of the tree and its character and this wil give you your tone /sound.drection.
bye bye for now
GEOFFREY BARNARD.

[Bob Webster]

Sorry to be a butt, but a G series steel string or classical guitar?

Bob

[Mike Kolb]

I've always looked at the resonator guitar approach as a neat study on bridge materials. The reso players have tried every bridge material, some goofier than others.... (the material, not necessarily the the players, but who knows... ).

Anyway, they've use bone, solid ebony, solid maple, tusq, ivory, metal, etc... but their final choice has usually been a pair of maple bridge pieces with an ebony cap. Just resonant enough to transmit all the tone, but with a hard cap to keep the strings from digging-into the maple. Always seemed like a thought-out approach that works and an interesting look at bridge material choices. It suggests to me that a medium-hard tight grain wood does a good job of transmitting the range in question. Maybe the ebony cap serves as an unintentional "equalizer" of the string vibrations?.

More coffee, please

[Paul Hostetter]

I can't see any relevance of saddle materials in resophonic guitars to bridge materials in standard flattop acoustics like the OP was talking about.

[Paul Hostetter]

A bone saddle in a bridge of either rosewood or ebony. There are so many things that add up to the final sound of a guitar that obsessing one one such detail isn't productive. There are millions of great guitars with ebony bridges and there are millions of great guitars with rosewood bridges. Obviously both work. What's more important is the fit of the saddle and the rest of the setup.

[Mike Kolb]

"There are so many things that add up to the final sound of a guitar that obsessing one one such detail isn't productive".

Bingo, we have a winner... that was exactly my point. And highlighting the reso guitar was but one example of how many factors go into the final selection. I think the OP was generalizing about the individual components of the entire bridge system (saddles included) and how they all affect sound.

[Len Biglin]

Just for us old geesers what is an OP ? and I think he needs to be a bit more specific before we start arguing the finer points. Len