Back Mounted ETS MK III

[michaelwayneharwood]

After seeing a Jens Ritter "experimental" headless I thought to myself, "Self - that's a great idea!" I mocked up a quick drawing to see what it might look like from a string break angle perspective and the below is the result. The only concern I have is that the break angle may be too sharp.

Thoughts?

 

[manupulated]

Damn your idea is close of my 100$bass chalenge idea , anyway its take more time for tuning but the fromt of the body stays very clean and enough break angle there , I was planning 15 degrees break angle for my project , the problem im looking to fix is the strings ... localy extra long stringd cost 50+$ , may have to buy several set online

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

15 degrees is sharp! The string angle through the body in this design is 42ish degrees.

 

[Geoff St. Germaine]

I would try to reduce the break angle as I think you may have issues with the string binding at the bridge which may cause tuning issues at such a steep angle.

 

[Toban.Ivan]

This is an idea i've explored too.
Beside the break angle and the further +5/10 degrees for the tuning unit the bigger problem that stopped me was the carving/routing necessary tools to achieve this kind of rear pocket on a One/two glued pieces body.
Basically because of the aestetical reasons behind the idea of having the tuners rear mounted not considering a figured top installation.

I haven't yet figured out how to do something like this with my basic tools collection.

I will surely keep one eye in this

 

[Splods]

I did a quick modification in paint to help reduce the break angle. The only major concern with this design is that the bridge will be quite significantly away from the end of the body, which may cause problems with neck placement in regards to playing the F#. Maybe if you use a two part headless bridge you could remove the bridge part and just use the tuning section, which would help to reduce the space needed.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

This is an idea i've explored too.
Beside the break angle and the further +5/10 degrees for the tuning unit the bigger problem that stopped me was the carving/routing necessary tools to achieve this kind of rear pocket on a One/two glued pieces body.
Basically because of the aestetical reasons behind the idea of having the tuners rear mounted not considering a figured top installation.

I haven't yet figured out how to do something like this with my basic tools collection.

I will surely keep one eye in this

One possible solution would be to route out a level pocket and then glue in the angled "platform" for the bridge:

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I did a quick modification in paint to help reduce the break angle. The only major concern with this design is that the bridge will be quite significantly away from the end of the body, which may cause problems with neck placement in regards to playing the F#. Maybe if you use a two part headless bridge you could remove the bridge part and just use the tuning section, which would help to reduce the space needed.

The ETS Mk III does not include the bridge or saddles - just the tuners.

 

[Splods]

So can you give a rough estimate on lengths and distances then. How far would it be to the end of the body, and how thick do you plan the body to be?

 

[pilotjones]

String through bridged basses can have a nearly 90° break angle, so if your bridge saddle has an appropriately large radius at the back side of the saddle as is the case with the barrels of a Fender bridge, that in itself shouldn't cause a problem.

However, the double- (to triple-, once the tuner pulls backwards) break on the string as you show it is unnecessary, as is the break angle entering the tuner. Given the same position for the bridge and for the end of the tuner, you can draw a straight line from the top of the bridge to the back tip of the tuner. and then adjust the tuner seating surface to be a parallel offset from that line, at an appropriate distance so that the string follows that path. It will result in a much better, more smoothly acting mechanism.

Also, to see the beautiful Pagelli basses that Ritter took the idea from, you have to look in the Internet Archive since they're not on Pagelli's site any more save for one pic.