I recently asked guitarist Henry Johnson (Joe Williams, Freddie Hubbard, Ramsey Lewis, Nancy Wilson, and others) about the sound difference between a wood bridge and a metal bridge such as the Tune-O-Matic. I was specifically interested to hear his opinion in connection with the Gibson L-5.

Here is his response (with his permission):

Yes Mark, it will affect the sound. The thing that I noticed about using wood bridges is that other than not being able to tune the guitar to itself by tuning your harmonics, it actually disrupts the natural sustain of your notes. Using a tune-o-matic bridge with metal saddles will give you the full sustain of each note and chord you play. Your notes will have a singing quality to them like Wes'. You may notice this especially on chord solos and when playing ballads in single notes. You can also hear that when using a wood bridge, it gives you a "thuddy" sound and the higher you play up the neck, the less the notes and chords sustain themselves plus they're out of tune. Metal strings + metal bridge =sustaining tone.

If the notes sound tinny to you, adjust the treble on the guitar and your amp. By the way, I hope that you got an L-5 that was made before 1985 because the original guitar luthiers for Gibson left in the fall of 1984 and the quality of the instruments fell to where they are now; really bad. They have college kids building guitars with no exprerience. Some of the L-5's are being made out of pressed wood, not hand carved. After 1985, if guitarists really want a Gibson, they have to get a Heritage guitar. I hate to sound like a commercial, but when Gibson approached me to endorse them, I found out about Heritage and turned them down flat. The Heritage guys built Wes', Kenny Burrell's, Johnny Smith's, Tal Farlow's, George Benson's, BB King's, Joe Pass', and Grant Green's guitar. They're the oldest luthiers in the United States. My Signature model for Heritage is really a 1965 L-5.

I hope this helps,

Henry