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Michael Manring's Bridge?

#26
Angus said:
Because nobody else makes one, so they can. Simple as that. There are a fair number of parts to make that take a bit of time, but the main reason is simply because they can. Nothing wrong with that either, technically.
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no, i wasnt having a go at the price of the bridge. i was wondering what purpose the bridge serves that makes it so special (with regards to tuning)? i mean, i thought thats what tuning keys were for :confused:
 
#29
Angus said:
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!
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You should design your own and sell it for cheaper. I am sure that they wouldn't be all that hard to make.

lowsound
 
#30
That's definitely not true at all. I can bust out a normal brass bridge- including the saddles- in about 30 minutes on a mill, but there are so many other parts in this that it takes a LOT more time. Things like the cams take a while to set up to cut accurately. I'm not going to say how long it took me to make, but it was a while.

There are a few things I would change (and did, but haven't tried out yet), but to say that it's easy to make OR design and ensure functionality (smooth and accurate) AND durability is completely incorrect.

I don't see any reason to sell one. I'm not out to make money at this at the moment as there really isn't a market for it, and if I really wanted it to be worth my time I'd CNC everything. But, I live about 3 miles from Zon and like the guys a lot, and don't have any desire to compete with them, especially since I use their basses!

Normal bridges, though, I'd make those.
 
#35
katri said:
how far do they change the pitch. i know a hpshot d-tuner can change from a semitone to a tone and a half.
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I haven't tested the limits, but easily the range of the Hipshot tuners on the top of the bass, if not more. If you set it up correctly you get three different tunings, high-medium-low. I can go from a high Bb to a low G with room to spare ...
 
#36
ehque said:
it changes tunings in pairs of strings, between 2 positions each, if i am not wrong.
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actually, the bridge is flexible. The lever switch between three different settings, and you can set each string individually. Setting one could be the "home" setting, while setting two drops the two top strings a whole step while setting three drops all strings two steps ... or you could set one of the settings to drop only one of the strings, or all of the strings, or three of the strings, etc.
 
#38
I think Steinberger made a similar bridge in the 80s. I saw a completely detunable Steinberger Design bridge retrofitted on an older Yamaha BB model at GC a year ago, and it had a level that would detune the entire bass. It detuned it out of tune and I did not know how to adjust it so I couldn't tell you if it was a good idea or not.
 

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