Michael Manring's Bridge?

Sounds like a one off of the Hipshot Triology bridge that's made for guitar. I know of nothing commercially available for bass like this.

 

IIRC that bridge is ONLY available as standard issue on the Zon Hyperbass . . . it's not available ANYWHERE by itself . . .

I'd be interested in one, too!

 

its not even available that way. AFAIK It's a very rare bridge, only 3 exist in the world, and the upcharge on it as a option is very very expensive.

 

I stand corrected . . . thanks for the info.

But I'd STILL be interested in one (the bridge, that is. On one - or more- of MY basses)!

 

As crazy as his tunings are, you'd probably only be able to do it on a bass like his with a graphite neck without the neck losing the right relief.

 

Zon will not sell it on anything but a Hyperbass II, so that is the only way you can get your hands on one (and their supplier will not sell it to you directly either, I'm sure!). It's a $2500 option, for what it's worth.

Ehque, there are more than 3 in the world, obviously, as there are quite a few more than 3 Hyperbass II's.

The Hipshot Trilogy is a very different item, and is only available in guitar form because they have not been able to make a bass version that actuates smoothly, consistently or accurately.

 

As owner of one of these basses with the detunable bridge, I can give you some info.

While they are rare, there are definitely more than 3 in the world. There have been several production runs on this bass with the bridge, and the bass itself is generally available without the special bridge. It's expensive, but it's pretty slick the way it works though, opens up a lot of possibilities.

I bought mine on eBay a few months ago. There was another one on eBay just last week, it went for $3,500, but it was an older model - only a 2-band EQ, and it was 32" scale instead of 34" like mine. Atlanta Bass Gallery has/had a brand new one, and they are asking ~$7,500 for it.

I don't think the bridge will work without the bass. First, I would think you would NEED a graphite neck due to all of the different tunings. I couldn't imagine it without one. Second, there is a considerable amount of routing and customization with the bridge - it is definitely not something that you can just drop in.

Michael Manring has a forum on TB that you can check out, just do a search on hyperbass and you should find plenty of info.

 

Do you have any pictures of the bridge (and the bass), jmondick?

 

Sure ... the bass and the bridge ..

 

How often do you need to make adjustments to keep everything changing to the different tunings?

 

Not real often, as long as the strings aren't very new or very old. You pretty much set it and the strings will stay in tune throughout the interval changes. It works really well, I find that i need to adjust the Hipshot tuners on the bass more than the bridge.

 

Seeing that beautiful bass has damn near made my day.

 

Yeah, superb looking instruments.

He's probably my favourite fretless player.

 

Gotcha. Sounds fairly reasonable. Even with flatwound strings (should slide more evenly in the nut, in theory) I find that I don't get more 10 flicks before I start noticing that I need to fine tune the Hipshot tuners again. Although some dudes say that they never adjust their Hipshot tuners and they always stay in tune. Somehow I don't think their ears are as accurate as ours.

I like his bridge idea, though I'd wanna mess with one before dropping that kind of coin....which probably means it won't happen any time soon.

I really dig the Hyperbass. It shows how much of a visionary musician that Manring is.

 

Certainly made mine!!!

 

I can reproduce them- I made a "spare" last week that is 100% functional and machined to the same tolerance and design as Zons. I won't ever sell them or give them to people though, as that is in no way fair, legal, nor in the spirit of my appreciation of what the guys at Zon do!