Many of my Westerly Guild bridges are thicker on the bass side, so this was standard -- at least for a while.
Anyone know why Guild did this? Could it just have been for appearance sake?
All 3 of mine are that way, thought it was SOP.
Because the bass side of the saddle on any guitar is always a hair taller than the treble side (to compensate for the thicker gauge strings on the bass side), making the bridge thicker means that the saddle appears uniform in height above the bridge.
Just a wild guess!
I suspect you're correct.. Thickness = stability for the higher tension..
Tension's really not all that much higher of bass side than treble (77.9 lbs combined on treble side vs 83.7 on bass for GHS Bright Bronze lights:
http://www.ghsrep.net/uploads/2/2/2/5/22258814/ghs_acoustic_guitar_string_guide.pdf), but it might be a
part of it.
Thought it was due to the 12" fretboard radius and saddle profile should match fretboard radius, as well as allow for the approx. 64th lower action spec on the treble side of the board:
5-6/64th on bass side and 4-5/64ths on treble shown in Guild Gallery #1, late '97.
Means combined bridge/saddle height has to be about a 32nd lower at edge of treble side, so treble side of bridge has to be a bit lower to allow for "good" height all the way across the saddle.
And in fact the saddles themselves are all very slightly lower on that side than the bass side on mine, too.
Also in fact on all of mine there's a slight crown at the center, again I assume because that also follows fretboard radius, it
is higher in the center than the sides.
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