Extremely narrow spaced bridge?

[swarfrat]

In my semiregular perusal of Rondo's site, a B-stock 1/2 scale lefty strat came up. It's a 23" scale, I was wishing for more like 20" , but I'll take it, as lefty half size instruments aren't exactly easy to find.  My boy has a thing for les pauls and teles, neither or which I've been able to find in about 3 years of looking. 3 more years and he wont need half size. But a mini lefty tele is cool no matter what, especially if dad had a hand in it.

I really wanted to do an LP for him (or at least a flat top jr), but this came up and since its an inline headstock, a tele it will be. But I'd like to scale the string spacing down a bit, so I'm looking for the tightest spaced hardtail I can find. Bonus points if its a tele plate, maybe i'll do it to match mine.

Any hardware suggestions?

 

[Cagey]

I can't think of what might work for you. Maybe get ahold of one of those "lightning bolt" combination bridge/tailpiece units...

... and cut the slots in the saddles where you'd like them to be.

 

[swarfrat]

Hmm - I wonder if I can get a tighter spacing out of a 3-saddle Tele bridge.

 

[Cagey]

Probably a better idea than mine. Considering that you really can't narrow things too much, I would think you'd have room. Plus, Tele saddle blocks are rarely notched out of the box unless you buy higher-end "compensated" saddles, so nothing's in your way. If you have one, a nut slot spacing ruler would probably come in handy for locating the slots.

 

[swarfrat]

The saddles themselves on a 3-saddle can't really be shortened much if any - as the height screws are in the way.  I thought about welding up the thru-holes and re-drilling so it's not trying to pull itself out of the slot, but then I realized I'd need to grind on the top side and it'd be ugly.  I do have a sheet metal brake that'll bend 16ga steel in Tele-bridge plate widths. Might be nice to actually use it for something while I've owned it.  No lip might be better anyway given the intended owner.  As extra bonus... I can just give him a right handed bridge and use my left handed saddles from my build and it'll match dad's.

The more I think about it, I like the idea of a Tele matching the one I'm building for myself. Given his love of Don Francisco and 70's-80's non-whiney country and 70's - 80's rock. Especialy 70's - it seems perfect anyway.

 

[Cagey]

If you've got a brake to make the base plate, I'm sure 1/4" brass rod is easy enough to get. Make your own saddles.

Lotta win in this project. Get to exercise the mind, justify a tool, keep you off the streets, make the kid happy... what's not to love?  :laughing7:

 

[Logrinn]

These should do the trick

 

[Sovereign_13]

You could use Mustang saddles - still barrel-style, but no height-adjustment screws to worry about.  Of course, a lack of height-adjustment screws has its own drawbacks, but still.

Schaller also makes a TOM-style bridge with adjustable string spacing down to 47.5mm (1 7/8"), but then you're not really using a Tele bridge.

 

[swarfrat]

I might try that one if I had/find/build a 3x3 headstock for a LPJr. I did think about the single string bridges but they seem to be 10.5mm which is narrow but normal narrow. I guess, with a narrow nut (1.5"), and being a Tele ... I could perhaps make it a 5-string. A 5 string tele would allow me to shave the neck down for perhaps a 1.25" nut at similar spacing. Or just leave it as is and flop around for fun until he's big enough to get serious about learning.

Which makes me think, perhaps we should tune this sucker to an open chord and introduce him to slide. I think I REALLY like that idea. Maybe I should've been looking for a lap steel. Despite his love of music and doing stuff with dad - he's got some fine motor delay. Pencil grip, scissors, stuff.. Nothing dad is worried about. Mommy of course think's he's going to flunk kindergarten and be set on a trajectory for a life of crime as a result. He's scary smart though - the other day he told me "Daddy - I figured out that pee is an acid, because it kills the grass." (He's 5 now. Yeah) His curiosity is insatiable. He'll be fine.

 

[fdesalvo]

An expensive proposition, but one that could be transferred to another guitar and grow with your son - how about one of those Schaller roller bridges with the adjustable string spread?

 

[swarfrat]

After looking around at a few more ideas I like Cagey's idea, with a twist. I crunched a 23" scale through here: http://www.liutaiomottola.com/formulae/compensation.htm
and I think the best route would be to make a 2 saddle bridge out of brass rod. It'd have 4 screws instead of 3, but it would let me move the height screws where I want them.  Definitely liking the idea of the slide guitar setup too. Who knows maybe he'll turn out to be the next Ry Cooder, and I'll switch over to bass.


Here we go - stolen from another thread:

Maybe even make it a single saddle, two screw. I like this design (Telecaster bass bridge). Me and the angle grinder can probably work something out for a one piece compensated bridge.