Bridges

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Nice architecture but not the sort of hardware I had in mind....

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Traditional ones....

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Fancy ones......

So many to choose from.......

Which are the ones most likely in need of an upgrade or replacement?

Sometimes we need to ponder the form over function concept as not all bridges have good mechanical design elements yet they may look super cool or become a must have thing to achieve that mock-up or retro look.

Together with Nut & Tuners the Bridge is next most vital piece of hardware that can make playing and tuning your guitar a pleasure or a source of frustration due to poor design or adjustment limitations.

The humble G style Tune-O-Matic has been around forever and I have never swapped one out or upgraded on any kit or store bought guitar. Usually there is just enough fore & aft travel to do string intonation but sometimes flipping the direction a saddle faces can provide a few extra mm's to play with. Biggest limitation is everything being held rigid in one plane where the only vertical adjustment is from outer posts at either side.

Tremolo equipped bridges come in many shapes and sizes. Last time I used a tremolo was on my Japanese Strat copy back in the late 70's so not even going to try and offer any meaningful dialogue on these detuning devices.

A lot of kit builders start out on a very simple kit such as Telecaster where there are only a couple of wires to solder up and it all looks fairly easy to complete. That is until you begin to locate proper bridge position and eventually start on the intonation. My 3rd build was a Tele and proved to be the most challenging to properly setup and intonate and shall do a separate review on the 3rd bridge used that solved all my problems.

Shouldn't forget Bass bridges as there are some good ones plus some rather dreadful ones too and will also do a couple of specific aftermarket parts reviews. Surprisingly the standard kit MM Style as found on MMB4 and RC4 is quite good but the F style plus standard kit 5 string F styles are not too good. Biggest issues I found were rather large diameter barrel shaped saddles that tended to sit too high making a low action difficult to achieve. On standard 4 string F style they are quite short on fore & aft travel due to small base plate foot print which makes placement extremely important in order to achieve good intonation. Plenty of expensive upgrades available and Badass still has a very good reputation for something that has been around for so long.

The price of some upgrade bridges is staggering and can easily set you back more than kit price alone. Best to do lots of homework before shelling out coin on something that may not do the intended job.

Hoping some other builders and forum members add to what has been started here.

I really like changing out the knife edge Gibson style bridge for the roller ones which are available very cheaply on eBay
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Locking-...8AAOSwC6haqc6K

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Originally Posted by Andyxlh

I really like changing out the knife edge Gibson style bridge for the roller ones which are available very cheaply on eBay
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Locking-...8AAOSwC6haqc6K

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Are they the same size posts and positioning or is dowel & re-drilling required?

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Are they the same size posts and positioning or is dowel & re-drilling required?

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The posts are smaller, but you can use the kit posts and use the threaded inserts from the bridge which have the same thread.
Here's a pic of it on my SG kit. I think it's a huge upgrade. The posts holes themselves have grub screws to locate on the pin, and gives some additional back and forward adjustment.
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I've replaced the bridges on a couple of basses with higher mass ebay bridges. Biggest downside is that at their lowest, they are still higher than the standard bridges. This has led to needing to shim the necks on two basses so far.

Yeah, know how you feel Brendan as the online measurements don't always cover every relevant bit and have also found this out the hard way. Hopefully they didn't cost too much?

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

About $20@ and have used them all - just need to be aware that you may need to do some extra work on the kit to get the action right.

I bought a cheap TOM style roller bridge of eBay. Won’t do that again. The rollers jammed pretty much immediately. If you are going to upgrade a bridge you may as well pay the bucks get something that you know isn’t made of mystery metal.....

Yup Fretty, the ebay roller bridges look the same as the better quality ones until you have it apart and find the saddles are either wedged in tight or overly sloppy. I think I spent the best part of a morning with small files and a dremel making 1 good one out of 2 on my last build. Also the post spacing on them can vary enough to make it an issue. You can be lucky, I have bought a couple which were fine, I guess there are a few companies out there making them.
Used Schaller bridges and tail pieces on a few and give them a thumbs up, bit pricier but nicely made.
I've had good experience with Wilkinson strat trems, the block is actually steel rather than chitanium and a definite step up.
I've used Bigsby's, licensed Bigsby and chinese bigsby and don't see any difference to speak of. Again, if you want to spend the $ ...Duesenburg, the Les Trem is the best trem system I've used bar none.

I'm a big user of Tonepros bridges and tailpeces. I believe they are made for TP by Gotoh. I like the grub screw locking mechanism that helps stop them moving around. I do try and get all my posts as tightly fitting as possible using PTFE/plumbers tape or copper shielding tape (though that can be a very tight fit at times). More rigidity = something less to move and put strings out of tune.

Another thumbs up for the Wilkinson Strat bridges. Getting a steel block at that price is a real bargain. It's just a shame that Wilkinson use a staggered string hole arrangement, as you can't then use them as a cheap steel block source to retrofit to existing Fender bridges.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Another thumbs up for the Wilkinson Strat bridges. Getting a steel block at that price is a real bargain. It's just a shame that Wilkinson use a staggered string hole arrangement, as you can't then use them as a cheap steel block source to retrofit to existing Fender bridges.

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Good to hear, my Wilkinson bridge just arrived from Northwest Guitars UK, realsparts were out of stock for too long.
Its going on my white strat -- one of these days, still saving for pups so no hurry
Attachment 28249
hope its a winner
cheers
Guvna

I used the Wilkinson tele bridge on the Sonicaster, mostly because I thought I wanted the cover, but I don't like playing with it on. I have no complaints. It allows for string through, which I'll get around to eventually. It is the regular 3 screw adjustment for intonation. I have been really lucky with both TL-1 kits I've built. They seems to intone without much trouble or compromise. Brass saddles seem to help with that tele 'jangle' as well.

I used the Babicz Narrow Strat on my Washburn referb and it is awesome. Beautiful to work with, with very fine tuning of adjustment available with locking screws to make sure it stays where you put it. Just a really quality piece of gear.

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Originally Posted by Brendan

I've replaced the bridges on a couple of basses with higher mass ebay bridges. Biggest downside is that at their lowest, they are still higher than the standard bridges. This has led to needing to shim the necks on two basses so far.

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I have grown very skeptical about high mass bridges. My G&L with it's high mass bridge has a bit better sustain than my P-bass with it's stamped metal bridge. But I have come to the conclusion that the reason is a set screw on the side of the bridge that completely immobilizes the saddles. Leo designed both bridges, and the P-bass bridge was already ingenious for its time--and even for now its a pretty good bridge. Leo combined bridge and tail piece into one compact unit that could be cheaply produced, but could also adjust height and intonation for each string individually. Most bridges at the time were much more expensive to make and were not as adjustable. I think there were very few substantive improvements to this design until the G&L Saddle-Lock Bridge. String tension immobilizes most saddles from vibrating vertically. The set screw in the side of the G&L SLB is a very simple way of immobilizing the saddles laterally. I have only seen one or two other bridges--even fancy high mass ones--that do this, even though it probably makes virtually all the difference.

Don't believe me? Here's an experiment that I tried with my p-bass that you can try with any p or j and most mm basses. I took a C-clamp and clamped the saddles together so that they could not move. I started getting the same kind of sustain out of my p-bass that I was getting out of the G&L.

This will make me rich! I thought. I could design something cheap and easy to install on any fender or MM bass that would improve sustain without going to the trouble of getting a high-mass bridge...surely everyone would want one!

...and then I noticed something...

Although my p-bass did not have quite the sustain of the G&L, it actually had pretty good sustain. So did my PBG bass with a tun-o-matic and home-made trapeze.

In fact, they all have so much sustain that a lot of left and right hand technique is needed to kill the sustain. James Jamerson and Carol Kaye both used foam under the strings of their p-bass's because they had too much sustain.

...which is when I realized that even if anyone believed me about the benefits of my c-clamp-derived in invention, it was really not necessary, and was not going to make me wealthy.

That's why I play the blues.

...although I have to admit that I keep thinking about replacing the bridge on my because the high mass ones look way cooler...

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Originally Posted by fender3x

...which is when I realized that even if anyone believed me about the benefits of my c-clamp-derived in invention, it was really not necessary, and was not going to make me wealthy.

That's why I play the blues.

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hmmmmmmmmmmmm

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That's dead on.