Schaller Roller Bridges...Any Good?

[Kelly Lee]

I was looking at the Stewart-MacDonald catalog and found the Schaller roller bridge. Well, the saddles on my old BC are getting pretty worn and I don't know where to find the original saddles. So, I was thinking of replacing the entire bridge. The roller idea sounds like it would be good to the strings. Does anyone have any experience with this bridge? Does it change your tone, good or bad? Anything else? Thanks.

 

[keb]

Well, I have the guitar version on my guitar. By far better than the stock bridge, MUCH better tone and sustain, but admittedly the stock bridge on this guitar left, well, a lot to be desired. (It was a MIM Fender Duo-Sonic guitar, but nothing original is left on the guitar but the body; everything else has been replaced.)

This probably doesn't help much.

 

[By-Tor]

I put one on my Squier Bullet Bass. Works pretty good.
Adjustable string spacing is a plus.

 

[GrooveWarrior]

I have one on my Pedulla Buzz, and I put one on my '79 Ibanez Roadster. They are terrific bridges. They are specifically good if you like to adjust string spacing a little beyond what you can normally do. The sustain is great, and they are high quality units. I highly recommend one.

 

[embellisher]

Bridge? Hardware? Let's try Setup.

 

[Kelly Lee]

Thanks everyone. Thats the info I was looking for.

 

[brianrost]

While the Badass seems to get all the hype these days, around 1980 when the Schaller came out many companies switched to using it: Pedulla, Hamer, Kramer, Gibson, Guild, Sadowsky all used it on their basses.

 

[Atshen]

The thing I hated about that bridge is that everytime I would change strings, I had to readjust the friggin' string spacing. Grrr!

 

[Philbiker]

This is a very high quality bridge. I've had it on 3 basses over the years. Best bridge I've ever experienced.

 

[JMX]

The thing I hated about that bridge is that everytime I would change strings, I had to readjust the friggin' string spacing. Grrr!

I never had that problem with my Schaller bridge, but you can always use a tiny bit of nail polish to fixate the rollers.

 

[WildeStarr]

I prefer the SCHALLER roller bass bridge. That is what I use on all of my 4 and 8 string basses. Best bass bridge out there!

Link Removed

 

[bazzanderson]

had a 5 string version on a Warmoth 5 Pbass. Loved it. Loved the sustain and tone as well as the adjustable spacing.
-Bazz-

 

[Kelly Lee]

Thanks again! Its funny, other than one somewhat negative response eveybody seems to love these bridges. Sounds like I will definately go this way.

 

[Tsal]

I don't have any experience with the roller bridge, but I did replace the bridge on one of my former basses with a more regular Schaller one and was happy with the unit. Lovely bridges they make.

 

[Hambone]

I've used them on 4 of my 6 builds and they are the easiest to install and adjust of any I've seen. The also have a particularly low profile and that makes the entire bass feel thinner.

 

[um... yeah]

I installed one years ago on a jazz bass. Absolutely hated it. It just didn't seem to make any difference to the sound.
I also noticed that the vertical saddle screws were tapered to a sharp point at the end where they meet the base plate. Maybe that had something to do with the crap tone and sustain.

 

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

I put one on a '92 Precision Plus.
worked fine (the original bridge was a heavy cast Fender type (actually might have been made by Schaller too) but had pointless fine tuners and was tricky to restring as a result, and hadn't been centered properly)

I superglued the rollers to stop them moving when changing strings- bad move, as now I want to reduce the spacing slightly (it's at 20mm) they won't budge at all- even with heating them with a soldering iron and using superglue remover-arrgghh.
the threaded rods rotate in the saddles when i turn the rollers.

ah well, another go with needlenose pliers might do it....

 

[Brendan]

It just didn't seem to make any difference to the sound.

You do realize putting a few more ounces of metal isn't gonna effect the tone in a noticable manner right? Pickups, strings, amp, cab, fingers, pick, left and right hand technique... if you can tell the difference in sound, you're lying.

It's a quality bridge. I have one on my Ibanez, and am pleases with it to no end. I'm rather anal about bridges, and it is still one of my first choices.

 

[Hambone]

I installed one years ago on a jazz bass. Absolutely hated it. It just didn't seem to make any difference to the sound.
I also noticed that the vertical saddle screws were tapered to a sharp point at the end where they meet the base plate. Maybe that had something to do with the crap tone and sustain.

So what we can take from your post is that, IYO, the Schaller bridge didn't alter your tone or sustain at all from the original Fender bridge because that's why you installed it in the first place - to change the tone and sustain from the original bent tin bridge.

Fair enough. I can imagine that a bass with a crap tone before a Schaller is installed on it, would surely have a crap tone after it was installed. These are fine, well engineered bass bridges but they won't take the place of a good ear for tone when purchasing an instrument. They aren't magical.

 

[Don Sibley]

How much can string spacing be adjusted before you start altering the tonal response of the pickups. I thought the strings need to be centered over the poles of the pickups.