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Should the top of the bridge, where the saddle slot is, curve to match the finger board radius?

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

There's not many "shoulds" at all in guitar building! However, one approach is to curve the top of the bridge so that the saddle protrusion is constant across. (i.e. approx [but often tighter than] fretbopard radius, on a tilt to match the higher action of the bass side). So the bridge is thinner on the treble side. This also give you an excuse to talk about impedance matched bridges, should you so desire, .

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Martin and several other makers do. I see no reason not to do it.

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John

I do it, as mentioned, to keep a more constant saddle height from bass to treble.

Yes. Cumpiano/Natelson has a great outline on how to make a Martin style bridge (which is radiused). I use 16" radius for the fretboard but that seems like too much radius for the bridge which is wider, so I use a 20" radius block. I hold the 20" block with some sandpaper in a vise and rub the top of the bridge on it until the radius is achieved. You want to take down the treble side a little bit more than the bass side. Takes about 2 minutes.

At some point in the future when a repairman gets the guitar in to lower the action he's gonna plane a curve into it anyway, so ya may as well do it now. Unless of course you don't want too

That's great, thanks for replies. Issue cleared in my mind.

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.