Have any of you lefties seen a bridge plate like this?

[Rick W]

I’m fortunate to have owned several pre CBS lefty Teles. It’s fairly common knowledge that prior to ‘72 (ish) lefty bridge plates had the corners cut out. I’ve had this bridge for over 20 years and have always wondered about the notches at the end of the bridge. Today I was installing a set of Rutters saddles and it finally dawned on me the notches were cut to allow strings to pass through the back of the bridge plate when using a Bigsby! You can tell the notches we’re cut at the factory because they’re done perfectly. Any other theories?

 

[El Tele Lobo]

Looks like a bridge designed to be used with a Bigsby vibrato.

 

[bender66]

Yep. Just put one together and am super stoked with it.

 

[Bob Womack]

I love it when I just steam through an analysis problem and find the answer independently. Congrats!

Bob

 

[BobbyMac]

That is really weird that the Pat.# stamping is on the underside of the plate. Never seen that before.

 

[Fretting out]

I’ve seen them made like that but usually they only have the notches on the corners for bending it backwards into a lefty and they don’t have the notches beside each saddle screw

Edit: duh! I should have read…..

 

[Matthias]

That is really weird that the Pat.# stamping is on the underside of the plate. Never seen that before.

Makes me think they stamped the details in the sheet metal and then just flipped the sheet for LH teles before they bent it to shape and countersunk the mounting holes. I wonder if that practice explains the cut corners somehow?