I have a small shop with a CNC mill and I'm slowly acquiring other equipment. Been picking up small jobs along the way and now I'm considering offering some products I can market on my own.
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If you could design a bass bridge...
- Thread starter Cap'n Redbeard
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I have a small shop with a CNC mill and I'm slowly acquiring other equipment. Been picking up small jobs along the way and now I'm considering offering some products I can market on my own.
Cool. I'm kind of imagining here a set of replacement saddles for the Hipshot Ric bridge that make it into a proper 8 string bridge, kind of like the ones on the Schaller.
somehow fit into this:
I have both, but of course the intonation screws are different in length, thread, and spacing, so I can't just take the saddles out of the Schaller and slap them in the Hipshot (or I already would have). Though I don't know how Hipshot would feel if you were to try to market it as an aftermarket add on - there is some demand, apparently, as I'm not the only one asking (see that Rick Resource link above).
Then mill in some additional holes for the mute compartment pickup, and my 4003s/8 dream would finally be realized! (All anodized black if possible, as long as I'm thinking wishfully)
And sorry for derailing your thread. 
But if you're interested in doing a custom one off prototype for this, I sure would be!
But if you're interested in doing a custom one off prototype for this, I sure would be!
Unique is not automatically good and to be honest I don't see how it would change anything.
Well, sure. If you grew a butt on your face, you'd sure be unique, but it wouldn't be good. But anyone that runs a small business knows that anything that is a positive and unique, and sets them apart from everyone else, is good.
Builders here that have built instruments for years and years (like Rodent and Hambone) have commented on this and like threaded inserts for bridges. I'll trust their judgement.
So what would you like to see on a custom bridge?
Hello, do you have a Machine shop? There is a bridge that is no longer made that I really need, could you make it for me? It's an old Tobias bridge that the company that did make it is now out of business. Same bridge as in the pic below but 4 string. I'm looking for an exact replica or original.
Cheers,
Ronnie
Cheers,
Ronnie
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I mean, threaded inserts are great when you plan on changing your bridge every month but I don't see how it could possibly change the way the instrument sounds. The machine screw and the threaded insert will (hopefully) act as a single metal piece, so in the end the whole contraption would not be different from a wood screw.
This is a good one:
I am actually trying to design something like that at the moment. Won't be able to manufacture anything, though.
- Dec 20, 2004
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- Player-Builder-Founder: Honey Badger Pickups & Regenerate Guitar Works
The inserts for the bridge assist in pulling it tight to the body beyond what a wood screw can muscle in softer woods like Swamp Ash and Alder.
If the mounting area to the body is properly flattened, there isn't much to be gained. But most basses have a less than a truly toleranced and planar area where the bridge mounts, so the added pull muscle that the inserts and machine screw enable allows the bridge to make a better, tighter, more uniform contact with the body IME.
Inserts do make a convenient joint for frequent breakdown. The builders that use them do so because they create a much stronger mechanical coupling. The breakdown thing is just a bonus.
That DiPiazza bridge is interesting!
That DiPiazza bridge is interesting!
The mechanical coupling between the screw and the threaded insert may be very strong (so that it's ideally acting as a single piece of metal) but how does that improve the coupling to the wood?
- Dec 20, 2004
- 4,267
- 2,481
- Disclosures
- Player-Builder-Founder: Honey Badger Pickups & Regenerate Guitar Works
By giving added muscle to pull more of the bridge tight and into direct contact against the body (which is not perfectly planar in the mounting area under the bridge) It's not that the bridge warps, but that the body wood and finish are compressed into submission.
Yea I'm looking for the identical look of the bridge in the picture, see the sattles are unique and the side walls of the bridge slope down. It's becoming impossible to find. There are tons that look like it, just missing those two key characteristics
man, i just ran into a ric with one of those pickups, and frankly i thought it was worthless! (and that was after i fixed up the wiring with a push-pull switch to get the most out of the extra pickup while keeping the original sounds)
that skinny, that low and that far back it was just too weak to be worth anything by itself, and it did little more than kinda muck up the sound of the regular bridge pickup or the regular dual-pickup settings. (i say "kinda" because you could barely tell a difference when it was switched in)
at least when run with just the neck pickup it did create a more discernible difference, a vaguely beatles-y hofner tone. neat, but not really worth it IMO.
just because you can jam a pickup in somewhere doesn't mean you should.
exactly. proper wood screws should be strong enough to fully mate the bridgeplate to the body, done right they're strong enough to deform the metal or shear the heads off if over-cranked.
same with neck screws, the only advantage is if they're being removed over and over.
the big gaping hole in off-the-shelf bass bridges is one that fits the classic fender 5-hole fender mount and does the wider 20mm string spacing to actually line up the strings with jazz bass pickup magnets, those are bizarrely hard to find.
you have the fender threaded-rod vintage, the allparts "omega" leo quan reissue (which has to be filed) or the hipshot "kickass" leo quan reissue with moveable saddle inserts.
all three are cool, but they involve "thinking" by the installer or the owner; either placing the strings right with every string change or by getting a tech to file notches in the saddles or adjust said saddles with a wrench.
True enough. The idea seems so enticing, and I bought the pickup already. Thanks for the heads up. I wondered if it was just too close to the saddles to be useful... well scratch that idea from my ideal solution, then.
