why do acoustic guitars have a fixed bridge?

[chukra]

Just wondering why all acoustic guitars have a fixed bridge and the intonation is fixed no moving the bridge back and forth. but all electrics have an adjustible bridge. acoustics have the intonation built in but electrics u have to fine tune?

[Bigduggieface]

Stringed instruments have a rich evolutionary history.

Harp-like instruments relied on drone strings and a fixed bridge.

Fretless instruments like violins have a fixed bridge, but no frets. Intonation is determined by the players finger position.

Acoustic guitars, zithers and balalaikas came even later. The evolution of frets allowed a player to exactly determine the length (and thus the pitch) of the stimulated string.

Electric guitars are the newest animals on the musical, and evolutionary scene. The development of the adjustable intonation bridge allows players to precisely tune the intonation for each string individually.

This begs the obvious questions... Does one create better music using the adjustable bridge as compared to a fixed bridge? Are there any sonic drawbacks?

These are valid questions. However, I think there are about fifty-thousand other variables that are more important than whether your guitar's bridge is fixed or adjustable.

[fortyseven]

...because if they had broken bridges they'd sound shit...

[Tony Ramone]

and fortyseven wins the thread

[bradzoot]

Originally Posted by chukra

Just wondering why all acoustic guitars have a fixed bridge and the intonation is fixed no moving the bridge back and forth. but all electrics have an adjustible bridge. acoustics have the intonation built in but electrics u have to fine tune?

I do believe there are certain types of acoustic guitars with movable bridges. Like a metal plate which is fixed over the bottom of the instrument to hold the strings and a movable wooden bridge on the body. It also had F holes instead of the round soundhole. A bit like a violin sort of thing. I think it is called the Trapeze tailpiece. Not sure if guitars like this are still made.
I used to have one when i was a young un. No idea what kind it was but i think it was mostly done on much older guitars.

[brandondrury]

...because if they had broken bridges they'd sound shit...

HA HA H AH AHA AH HA HAH!!!!

It's 6am. I've been up all night trying to catch up on all threads. I need this! That's the stupidest, funniest thing I've heard in a while. AWESOME!!

[fortyseven]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

HA HA H AH AHA AH HA HAH!!!!

It's 6am. I've been up all night trying to catch up on all threads. I need this! That's the stupidest, funniest thing I've heard in a while. AWESOME!!

I aim to please!

[crash]

Originally Posted by chukra

Just wondering why all acoustic guitars have a fixed bridge and the intonation is fixed no moving the bridge back and forth. but all electrics have an adjustible bridge. acoustics have the intonation built in but electrics u have to fine tune?

Excellent question!

It's mostly a question of tone. For acoustic sound, strings just sound better vibrating against a chunk of bone instead of little chunks of metal.

It's mainly because electrics generally use lighter strings. Those require more individual string adjustment to keep things in tune when playing chords

With a wider variety of string guages a greater degree of adjustability is required. With acoustics, most players just think "It's an acoustic, I will not be stringing it up with Super-Slinky's and doing 2 and a half step bends"

Very light guages really don't sound very good on acoustic guitars. They don't generate enough energy. A larger string is required to send the tone into wood then than to send a magnetic signal into an amplifier. And larger guages don't need as much adjustment.

I have thought for years about mounting a Gibson tune-o-matic bridge on an acoustic and using bone or tusq saddles underneath. Might be cool. I noticed awhile back that Bryan Adams had a Bigsby trem bridge mounted to the top of a Guild Jumbo. That gave me ideas.

But I digress. I just read 47's answer. It's the right one.

[Meelo]

I'm looking for this:
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1233949171

Anybody see one?
I'm a country/western singer who likes dive-bombing. I think i need me one-ow-these.

[scooterlow]

Originally Posted by Meelo

I'm looking for this:
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...g?t=1233949171

Anybody see one?
I'm a country/western singer who likes dive-bombing. I think i need me one-ow-these.

Dude photoshop.... theres no mounting studs there... haaaaaaaaa