Posted by Mal Chilvers on March 30, 2011 at 2:13am
I have just been looking on e bay and found different parts from adjustable bridges of normal electric guitars.My question is as anyone made a adjustable bridge for there cbg using theses parts and how.Mal
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I've done a similar thing to John for a tele-style bridge on a 4-stringer. I made mine by bending a piece of steel sheet (not sure of the exact thickness but it's around 3/32" or just over 1mm). It seems to work very well.
One design issue I wrestled with was the relative fragility of a cigar box base or lid. The guitars on which this style of bridge originally appeared (telecasters and strats) do not have this problem because they're solidbodied. However, I was building a hollowbodied instrument. If the bridge plate was mounted only onto the soundboard then that would warp (and possibly fail) as the strings were brought up to tension. With a thru neck CBG the obvious answer is to ensure the neck takes the load. Having once studied engineering I like to incorporate fairly high safety factors into my designs so I used a hefty bolt that runs right through the neck. (see next pic) You can read this as caution or over engineering but it's what works for me. There are various other factors that went into the design decisions but I won't go into them here.
I've also built bridges which are just height adjustable, such as the following one fitted to one of my tin guitars. It was filed out of a piece of 10mm square aluminium bar. The height adjustment is done with the lower of the two nuts on each leg.
I have used several electric guitar bridges and find them excellent when you come to set up string height - individual moveable saddles are so much easier to set string height with.
You need to decide how many strings you want eg 6 as per electric. 4 and just remove the outer two saddles for 3 you would have to think about cutting part of the base plate or living with a saddle that looks unsymmetrical.
The ones I use have been hardtail ones like these http://www.axesrus.com/axeHardtailh.htm which come in two types - through guitar stringing (strings load from underneath so you have to open the box or add holes on the back to string it up or through bridge stringing where they load from the back of the bridge so the box is left untouched.
I wouldn't pay the prices from above though - you can usually find them cheaper on ebay.
Also the first type you show with two big fixing studs I have avoided for a CBG because to my mind it would be harder to fit but the hardtails (also telecaster bridges http://www.axesrus.com/axeteleh.htm#ModernTele - also come as top or through string loading) you just screw them through the lid into a wooden batten glued below and away you go.
Be aware some bridges like the Les Paul types are usually used on electrics which have an angled neck http://www.axesrus.com/axeSolidBodyh.htm and for these you need to either angle the neck or add a thick fingerboard otherwise the strings are too high and the height you can lower to is less then for a strat or tele bridge.
If you can wait for delivery from overseas these are cheap and cheerful for £4,48 from Hong Kong (including P&P)
I've used telecaster 'barrel' saddles, simply by making a base plate for the bridge from an offcut of aluminium extrusion or angle, using the long leg as the base and the short leg ground down to provide the 'stop' part of the bridge, drilled for the saddle screws and strings. If I get some Strat type saddles I may also try that as an option.
Replies
I've done a similar thing to John for a tele-style bridge on a 4-stringer. I made mine by bending a piece of steel sheet (not sure of the exact thickness but it's around 3/32" or just over 1mm). It seems to work very well.
Hi Mal,
I have used several electric guitar bridges and find them excellent when you come to set up string height - individual moveable saddles are so much easier to set string height with.
You need to decide how many strings you want eg 6 as per electric. 4 and just remove the outer two saddles for 3 you would have to think about cutting part of the base plate or living with a saddle that looks unsymmetrical.
The ones I use have been hardtail ones like these http://www.axesrus.com/axeHardtailh.htm which come in two types - through guitar stringing (strings load from underneath so you have to open the box or add holes on the back to string it up or through bridge stringing where they load from the back of the bridge so the box is left untouched.
I wouldn't pay the prices from above though - you can usually find them cheaper on ebay.
Also the first type you show with two big fixing studs I have avoided for a CBG because to my mind it would be harder to fit but the hardtails (also telecaster bridges http://www.axesrus.com/axeteleh.htm#ModernTele - also come as top or through string loading) you just screw them through the lid into a wooden batten glued below and away you go.
Be aware some bridges like the Les Paul types are usually used on electrics which have an angled neck http://www.axesrus.com/axeSolidBodyh.htm and for these you need to either angle the neck or add a thick fingerboard otherwise the strings are too high and the height you can lower to is less then for a strat or tele bridge.
If you can wait for delivery from overseas these are cheap and cheerful for £4,48 from Hong Kong (including P&P)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Chrome-Tremolo-Bridge-Kid-Children-Guitar-Kit....
Regards,
David
I've used telecaster 'barrel' saddles, simply by making a base plate for the bridge from an offcut of aluminium extrusion or angle, using the long leg as the base and the short leg ground down to provide the 'stop' part of the bridge, drilled for the saddle screws and strings. If I get some Strat type saddles I may also try that as an option.
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