- Understand the role your guitar bridge plays
- Match your guitar to a specific type of guitar bridge
- Gain insight into the potential upgrade paths for your guitar
What Does A Guitar Bridge Do?
A guitar bridge anchors the strings to the body of the guitar. Positioned near the lower end of your guitar’s body, a bridge maintains proper string tension, allowing for tuning stability.
In the case of an acoustic guitar, it also transmits the strings’ vibrations to the guitar’s soundboard, amplifying the sound.
Electric guitar bridges come in various designs, including fixed (Hardtail), or floating and locked tremolo designs.
Electric and acoustic guitar bridges are critical components as they directly influence the tone and playability of your guitar. Let’s look at Acoustic and electric guitar bridges in turn.
The main types of Guitar Bridges
Acoustic guitars generally have a fixed, wooden bridge. Popular choices are ebony for high-end guitars and rosewood for the majority of the remaining classes. Extremely cheap acoustic guitars may have a plastic bridge, but this level of instrument is little more than a toy.
Electric and semi-acoustic guitars have a broad range of choices. These include hardtail (fixed) variations, which include Wraparound, Tun-O-Matic, and Evertune.
Alternatively, there are tremolo bridges.
Acoustic Guitar Bridges
The acoustic guitar bridge is a carved wooden piece that is glued directly to your guitar’s soundboard. On a steel string guitar, the bridge is used with a saddle and bridge pins, which keep the strings in place.
The only reasons for changing the bridge on an acoustic guitar are if your bridge has sustained any damage or if you are refurbishing and want to experiment with the tonality of different wood.
Removing and replacing a bridge on an acoustic guitar is a tricky process. It is easy to damage the soundboard if you are not skilled with woodwork, so seek advice from a luthier or guitar technician before attempting to replace your acoustic guitar’s bridge.
Replacement bridges for acoustic guitars
If you have to replace your bridge, you must choose the wood you want to use. Steel-string acoustic bridges come in various hardwoods, but rosewood and ebony are the most popular.
Ebony Acoustic Bridge
Choose Ebony for its bright tone, pleasing aesthetics, and hard-wearing nature. Ebony is considered the best wood for high-end acoustic guitars with steel strings.
Avoid Ebony for your nylon string guitar, which is considered too bright.
Rosewood Acoustic Bridge
Rosewood is the most popular material for acoustic guitar bridges. It has a reasonable tone and looks great.
Choose rosewood for all classical guitars and budget/mid-range acoustics.
Avoid rosewood for high-end guitars; experts recommend ebony for its superior tone.
Electric Guitar Bridges
Fixed Bridges
Fixed bridges are screwed flush to your electric guitars body. The bridge you choose is primarily driven by the style of guitar that you play. For example, If you play a Stratocaster, it is doubtful that you can use a Gibson-style bridge with any degree of success. A Bigsby unit would be out of the question.
The reasons for the limitation of bridge types available are geometry and set-up. It would be near impossible to get your standard Strat to play well, with a Gibson wraparound or Tun-O-Matic. The bridge heights, intonation, and pickup settings would all be out of tolerance, making a decent set-up virtually impossible.
If you are looking for a replacement Strat bridge, consider Strat bridges and their derivatives only. In other words, achieve the tone and sound you want by picking the right guitar rather than trying to retrofit incompatible components.
Of course, a custom guitar builder could make you a strat-shaped guitar with Gibson geometry and hardware. However, while your guitar may look like a Gibson/Strat hybrid, it will not be a Stratocaster in tone or playability.
With the critical matched components of neck, bridge, pickups, and electrics, your Strat-looking guitar would play and sound like a Gibson.
Hardtail (Fixed) Bridge Options by Guitar Type
The Telecaster Ashtray
The Telecaster ashtray bridge, commonly found on Fender Telecaster guitars, is a distinctive design featuring a metal plate resembling an ashtray.
It houses the bridge pickup and offers a choice of two string-saddle designs for precise intonation. While the three-saddle version is the most authentic, many modern players prefer the six-saddle option for more accurate tuning and action.
Fender used to supply a cover for the ashtray design (now optional). Most players seemed to prefer to play without it, and many used it as an ashtray, hence the name.
The Telecaster Ashtray is available in chrome and nickel plated steel from Fender and dozens of other manufacturers who have copied the design. Our favorite non-standard design is the beautifully engineered Wilkinson version.
Use the Ashtray for:
- Fender Telecasters and Telecaster copies
- Fender Stratocaster (Ashtray cover for standard Strat Bridge)
- Custom build guitars
The Stratocaster Hardtail
The Stratocaster hardtail bridge is a variation of Fender’s iconic design, eliminating the vibrato system for improved tuning. The Hardtail bridge features a fixed bridge plate.
Famous for its simplicity and solid tone, the hardtail is preferred for players seeking that authentic strat sound without the tuning hassles.
For guitarists who regularly play in various tunings, having two Strats, one with a hardtail and one with the Fender tremolo system, is not uncommon.
The Hardtail is popular in chrome, nickel, and black anodized finishes. There are dozens of Non-Fender alternatives, including the cream of the crop, The Hipshot Hardtail.
Use the Fender Hardtail for:
- Fender Stratocasters and Strat copies
- Custom build guitars
The Gibson Wraparound
Gibson President Ted McCarty developed the Wraparound for the Gibson 400, but it is probably best known for its place on the Gibson Les Paul. This innovative bridge is more than just an aesthetic design.
Most guitar bridges attach to the guitar’s body in four or more places. The Wraparound fixes to the body in just two places, transferring less string vibration into the body. This design delivers more sustain and is part of why the Les Paul sounds like it does.
The success of the wraparound bridge has spawned many high-end imitations, including manufacturers such as Paul Reed Smith.
Use the Wraparound Bridge for:
- Gibson Guitars plus their copies (Les Paul, SG, 335, etc.)
- Fender Stratomatic
- Custom Guitars
The Tun-o-matic Fixed Bridge
The Tune-o-matic bridge system, often called the “Tune-o-matic” or “TOM” bridge, is another design by Ted McCarty in collaboration with the Gibson guitar company in the early 1950s.
The Tuneomatic introduced individual saddles for each string, allowing for precise intonation adjustment. It became so popular that it was soon a standard option for many Gibson electric guitars, such as the Les Paul and SG. It remains popular for its accurate tuning, intonation, and adjustable action.
Use the Tun-O-Matic Bridge for:
- Gibson Guitars plus their copies (Les Paul, SG, 335, etc)
- Fender Stratomatic
- Custom Guitars
The Evertune
With so many bridge variations available for your electric guitar, it is not surprising that one company opted to design the ultimate in fixed bridge technology. That company is Evertune, which claims its patented design will never go out of tune.
The bridge itself is an engineering masterpiece. However, retro-fitting requires serious routing and cosmetic work on your guitar body. If you like the idea of an Evertune Bridge, buying a guitar with one fitted is probably preferable. If you love a challenge or have a guitar built to your spec, the Evertune is a solid choice.
While not cheap, the Evertune system has made its mark in the retro and manufacturer-fitted marketplace. It is worth considering if you want the ultimate fixed bridge (hardtail) system.
Because the Evertune is not a retrofit product based on a specific guitar, you can fit their bridge to a much wider range of guitars.
Use the Evertune Bridge for:
- Custom Guitars
- Strat-style Guitars (The F-Model)
- Gibson Style Guitars (The G-Model)
- Telecaster Style Guitars (The T Model)
Wrapping Up
The guitar bridge is an integral part of the tone and characteristics of your guitar. When replacing bridges, you should consider the style of guitar you play.
Acoustic bridges are inherently resonant, so you must match the wood to the type and price point of your guitar. Classical (nylon string) guitarists should avoid ebony and go for rosewood or other hardwood derivatives.
Steel-string Acoustics work well with rosewood, too, but ebony is the choice for those who want the best tone and durability.
Electric guitars have two bridge variants: fixed and tremolo. The number of retrofit upgrades is vast. If you prefer a fixed bridge, you can replace it with a standard item or one of its derivatives. It is possible to fit the unique Evertune system to most types of guitar.
