Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey All!
Finally getting close to installing the neck & bridge on the Silver Willow - just wanted to see what everyone's thoughts are on where the bridge stud holes REALLY go... I bought this bridge: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_bridges/Schaller_Bridge_Tailpiece.html?tab=Specs#details And I have a 25" scale guitar. What I'm trying to determine is the exact 25" center point - would it be the center of the saddles? Don't some of you actually put an angle on the bridge? When I installed the Schroeder bridge on the Dueling Dragons, I had a chance to speak with Jason Schroeder and he said to drill the bass side at 25 19/64 inches (25.2969) and the treble at 25 15/64" (25.2344) I was thinking of doing that on this, but obviously the saddles are landing in a slightly different position in relationship to the studs - any deep thoughts are appreciated!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

My .02? The bridge should be mounted so that the high e string just breaks over the saddle at your 25" scale point. You are not trying to set all of the strings at the 25" scale point, just the high e. All of the other strings will intonate slightly back from that. This is why a lot of builders put an angle on most wraparound bridges so that the bass side is farther away from the nut than the treble side(and why a majority of modern flat tops have an angled saddle). Same way you mount a tune-o-matic.
But most wraparounds have grub screws to the rear that allow you to fine tune the angle of the bridge, and thus the intonation, so i have seen many mount them equidistant from the nut.
Personally, if I were mounting it, I'd give it a little slant. MHO.

_________________
Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

So you are saying that the High E should NOT be able to be adjusted shy of the 25" mark? Or would it be safe to have it centered at the 25" mark?

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar

What i normally do is adjust the high e saddle almost all the way forward toward the nut, then place it at the scale length mark. I leave two or three screw turns shy of all the way forward. This gives me a little leeway.
A lot of builders leave a lot more room than that(saddle more toward the center of the adjustment range), but imho, you don't really need all that forward adjustment.I don't really know all the technical jargon, but, in general, it works like this.
Most of the intonation will occur further back from the scale length mark, especially on the thicker strings.The thicker the string, the higher it actually is relative to the thinner strings(larger diameter results in slightly greater height), thus effectively shortening the string length, and requiring you to lengthen the string to maintain intonation.
This is my limited understanding of how it works, and has worked well for me for 15 years doing tech work, and more recently with building.

_________________
Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

What I used to do, ( I sound like Chris Pile!),
is get the bridge in my hands,
see what the travel is on the saddles,
figure out rough compensation,
and set the bridge where I know I can dial in the compensation,
as squarely mounted as possible.
Haven't done a tune-a-matic though,
mainly because I like Fenders!

I've never installed one of these "wraparounds," but you have PLENTY of adjustment in this bridge. Not only can you adjust the individual saddles, but you can also adjust the whole bridge, so if you get your saddles "centered" at 25", you should be OK.

That said, I have done at least a half dozen builds with tune-o-matics and had no problem with intonation during setup. I always mount my bass side post about 1/8 inch further away from the nut than my treble side. I also generally follow the mounting deminsions on the Stewmac "fret position calculator" page:

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Frettin ... tcalc.html

If you put in your scale and number of frets, not only does the calculator provide fret position information, it gives the distance from nut to center of the mounting stud for most bridges that are sold by SM.

Thanks Alan - I knew you were a sick man, but since you compared yourself with Chris, that justifies my original thought - @ "E" - hehehe, I have used that from StewMac before, but seemed to miss the part about the bridge studs - the screws are REALLLLY long that adjusts the bridge to the posts - my guess is after I dial it in close enough, I may end up cutting some excess....Thanks guys!

_________________
"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
See the most insane first guitar build: http://www.virgilguitar.com
http://www.youtube.com/VirgilGuitar