I bought one of those bridges, mostly for the hell of it, figuring it would be a total piece of crap. Surprisingly, it doesn't appear to be too bad. My complaint is with the headpiece; next to none of my strings fit correctly in the grooves because of the core wire doubling back after going around the ball end underneath the wrapping, but a little filing could fix that. What it doesn't show you is that you need to route out a space for the bridge to sit properly on a body; but the knobs extend outward if you pull on them, which makes for easier tuning of individual strings. I haven't used my bridge yet so I can't comment on how well it stands up to use.
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DIY headless tuners.
- Thread starter Arx
- Start date
Ahh, good to know. One of the complaint i read was that it's too hard to turn the knobs under tension. There's no way to know though whether the OP and the person replying were talking about the same bass. The reply said that it was the same bass, under a different name, but who knows for sure without some closeup pictures.
A lot of that cheap "made in Taiwan" gear is like that. Various parts get reused, but it's possible that the two "manufacturers" could be buying their bodies from the same place, but using different bridges, etc.
The routing actually makes some sense, but is definitely enough reason for me to not want to use that bridge, until I've heard from someone who's used one, or I've got a junker bass to play with. I'd hate to route out a chunk of wood from a good bass, and then find out that it's not suitable.
If you've got the time, maybe just screw your bridge to a chunk of 2x4 with a moderately long scale length (maybe 36" or so) and see if you can bring it to pitch. If it works well, and doesn't get too stiff, or break I'm sure there's a lot of people who would like to know. It seems near impossible to find any kind of reasonably priced headless bridge, but those ones seem pretty common on ebay for around $50.
-Nick
I quickly nailed the bridge and string holder to a piece of (s)crap pine I found in my garage tonight and stuck a high C string into them for testing (I didn't have any other available strings). I tuned it up to about the correct pitch with little problem, though the tuning knobs did get stiffer as you went higher; this was at an approximate 36" scale. After it was at a C I tuned it as high as I could, and the tuners got pretty stiff at about a whole step higher (D) and the string broke around an E. The tuners were never so stiff you couldn't turn them, but they did get stiffer. I would say it's an alright system for a frankenbass (what I bought it for). Hope that helps. 
I quickly nailed the bridge and string holder to a piece of (s)crap pine I found in my garage tonight and stuck a high C string into them for testing (I didn't have any other available strings). I tuned it up to about the correct pitch with little problem, though the tuning knobs did get stiffer as you went higher; this was at an approximate 36" scale. After it was at a C I tuned it as high as I could, and the tuners got pretty stiff at about a whole step higher (D) and the string broke around an E. The tuners were never so stiff you couldn't turn them, but they did get stiffer. I would say it's an alright system for a frankenbass (what I bought it for). Hope that helps.
Cool, thanks for testing it. The high C is probably one of the more tense strings anyways, so is a good test. I'll have to keep it in mind.
I think I'm going to try and build my own first, but it's good to know that that'll work if mine doesn't.
No problem! I'll let you know how it holds up when I use that piece on an actual project if you're still interested.
I bought one of those headeless bass sets off Ebay and it's not bad, especially for the money. One feature I like is that the tuner holds the string just like a standard tuning key, no set screw to clamp the string. The way it's built, you could easily cut off the bridge portion and be left with a separate tuner section. This is what I am concidering doing, but my build on this is a few months out, so I'm still thinking about what's the best approach for my project. (I have 3 other projects in the queue ahead of that one.)
Okay, now the next question is what to use for a bridge.
scottyd: I noticed in one of your other threads you posted a link to some nice simple very cheap lock down type saddles. Unfortunately they appear to be out of stock. Do you know of anywhere else that has something similar? When I look for saddles, all I can find are conventional screw type ones, which won't work too well with the way I plan to do the tuners.
EDIT: Oh yeah, it's the thread you just linked..
Another thing I considered is just machining a free-floating saddle with a fairly large base on it so it wouldn't tip over. I'd probably just do a flat base plate to keep it from marking up the wood when I adjust it.
Like a single-string version of the old floating bridge.
Any thoughts? Anyone tried this?
-Nick
scottyd: I noticed in one of your other threads you posted a link to some nice simple very cheap lock down type saddles. Unfortunately they appear to be out of stock. Do you know of anywhere else that has something similar? When I look for saddles, all I can find are conventional screw type ones, which won't work too well with the way I plan to do the tuners.
EDIT: Oh yeah, it's the thread you just linked..
Another thing I considered is just machining a free-floating saddle with a fairly large base on it so it wouldn't tip over. I'd probably just do a flat base plate to keep it from marking up the wood when I adjust it.
Like a single-string version of the old floating bridge.
Any thoughts? Anyone tried this?
-Nick
They are indeed out of stock. I have not been able to find them anywhere else. The only solution I've found if you want those saddles is to buy a cheapo Ebay bridge that has them. They usually run about 20 bucks for a fiver. Not the best solution, at one time I was buying those saddles for about 2bucks each!
They are indeed out of stock. I have not been able to find them anywhere else. The only solution I've found if you want those saddles is to buy a cheapo Ebay bridge that has them. They usually run about 20 bucks for a fiver. Not the best solution, at one time I was buying those saddles for about 2bucks each!
Yeah. Bass #3's going to be a 12 string tapper, so that's starting to turn into real money (still not awful, I suppose)
I'll probably just make my own. it shouldn't be too hard to just do a dual set-screw saddle that sits in a block, same as those. Ideally I'd like a little closer spacing than the standard ebay bridge usually has.
I'm wondering how important the lock down screw is. I'm thinking not very. Hypothetically, if a guy just took a bunch of those saddes and tensioned them under the strings sitting directly on the body, would they stay put?
-Nick
ahh, that's a drag. So I'll either need a lock, or a fairly light break angle, and something to increase the friction. Probably I'll do the lock. Complicates the design a bit. I'll need to machine a proper bridge, rather than a really simple bass plate, maybe just with some grooves to keep things aligned. Makes just buying some cheap single string bridges just for the saddles seem a bit more attractive. I guess I'll give it a go myself, and fall back on that if my machining sucks too much.
-Nick
