Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Thomas "Duck" Petry on January 3, 2019 at 7:19pm

Haven't used a hard tail bridge on any of my builds, but it seems as if by nature they spread the contact area of the bridge over a larger surface of the box and by doing so will dampen the vibrations passed to the top. I would think that they will work fine with an electric pickup, but not as well for sound transfer acoustically. The best sounding acoustic build I have done has a threaded rod for the bridge supported on the ends by nuts with the only contact to the lid of the box from the nuts. It sounds great through the pickup to, but sings beautifully unplugged.

Permalink Reply by Chuck Groves on January 4, 2019 at 4:37am

That’s how I did it.  Gluing wings on the neck under the bridge won’t affect tone.  The type of wood used in the neck and body and the style of attaching it does (neck through vs bolt on vs glue on).  Neck through tend to be brighter with better sustain.  Maple is the brightest of the commonly used wood for guitars.  The more resin in the wood, which usually also makes it darker, tends to dampen the sound and makes it more mellow.

Permalink Reply by Gus K on January 5, 2019 at 1:32am

'Brightness' can also be affected by the depth of the box.  A thinner box tends to sound brighter than a deeper one.

Permalink Reply by Arthur Payne on January 6, 2019 at 4:46pm

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions

Art.

Permalink Reply by Tim Pannabecker on February 25, 2019 at 4:20am

I use the hard tail for mag pickup amplification.  I have also used individual roller bridges, since they are not platformed with a single base, they offer more individual articulation, on an acoustic/piezo build

Permalink Reply by Arthur Payne on February 25, 2019 at 2:59pm

Thanks Tim, I'm building a couple more and still experimenting.

Permalink Reply by Tim Pannabecker on February 26, 2019 at 5:08am

I’m new and experimenting and having a blast.  Hope you are too