How exact does bridge placement have to be..
- Thread starter arealken
- Start date
stratamania
Mythical Status
- Messages
- 11,022
Bridge placement needs to be fairly exact. Yes each saddle will adjust to a degree but there is a limit to what it will do.
But does the part you have fitted intonate ?
Edit, just as a general note, if you don't know the answers to these questions or find them out ahead of time, it is not a good idea just to swap things around without knowing what you are doing.
But does the part you have fitted intonate ?
Edit, just as a general note, if you don't know the answers to these questions or find them out ahead of time, it is not a good idea just to swap things around without knowing what you are doing.
Cagey
Mythical Status
- Messages
- 24,425
It is as stratamania says - the position is pretty critical. That said, some bridges are more forgiving of placement than others when it comes to proper intonation. For instance, an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic...
...like you see on many hardtail electrics has saddles that are adjustable to compensate for intonation, but the range of adjustment is fairly small, to the point where the bridge is often mounted at a slight angle to sort of "pre-adjust" the thing. With that design, you need to place the thing pretty much right where it has to be.
Some other bridges, such as the Schaller wide-travel...
...are more forgiving of placement, as the saddles can clearly move quite a ways.
Vibrato bridges have the same considerations. For instance, the range of adjustment on a Floyd Rose design is shorter than it is on a Wilkinson, although they're both pretty long relative to most hardtail bridges as vibrato bridge-equipped guitars often use lighter strings which require more compensation than the guy wires some folks install.
What you have to watch when changing from one vibrato bridge design to another is where the saddles are relative to where the fulcrum posts are mounted. Easiest way to check that is to measure from the edge of the nut closest to the heel to the center of the 12th fret. Whatever that distance is, twice that is the scale length. When everything is adjusted properly, the high E string will be closest to the design scale length. So, on a 25 1/2" scale guitar, the high E will be very close to 25 1/2" from nut to saddle. The rest of the strings will be varying amounts of longer.
...like you see on many hardtail electrics has saddles that are adjustable to compensate for intonation, but the range of adjustment is fairly small, to the point where the bridge is often mounted at a slight angle to sort of "pre-adjust" the thing. With that design, you need to place the thing pretty much right where it has to be.
Some other bridges, such as the Schaller wide-travel...
...are more forgiving of placement, as the saddles can clearly move quite a ways.
Vibrato bridges have the same considerations. For instance, the range of adjustment on a Floyd Rose design is shorter than it is on a Wilkinson, although they're both pretty long relative to most hardtail bridges as vibrato bridge-equipped guitars often use lighter strings which require more compensation than the guy wires some folks install.
What you have to watch when changing from one vibrato bridge design to another is where the saddles are relative to where the fulcrum posts are mounted. Easiest way to check that is to measure from the edge of the nut closest to the heel to the center of the 12th fret. Whatever that distance is, twice that is the scale length. When everything is adjusted properly, the high E string will be closest to the design scale length. So, on a 25 1/2" scale guitar, the high E will be very close to 25 1/2" from nut to saddle. The rest of the strings will be varying amounts of longer.
