Compound radius neck bridge radius ?

[jaberwock]

I have a Warmoth Tele, with a  10 inch to 16 inch compound radius fingerboard; I'm thinking of replacing the Schaller roller bridge, with either a Tonepro, or Wilkinson roller version, the Schaller has always sounded thin, and lacking sustain.

 With a roller bridge as far as I know there is no way to adjust the string radius, the Tonepro is 12 inch radius, and the Wilkinson 14 inch; from a quality point of view I'd prefer the Tonepro, but the Wilkinson seems a more suitable radius, any opinions or advice most welcome.

 An interesting, but expensive alternative would be the Babicz OEM tune-o-matic, not a roller bridge, but as I only use the Bigsby for a light shimmer on chords,  with some graphite on the saddles I could probably get away with it.

     Regards Jaberwock

[Bloozguy]

Also not a roller, but Mastery makes a bridge specifically for Bigsby-equipped Tele style guitars.

Great looking guitar by the way!

[veatch]

FWIW, if the radius is 10" at the nut and 16" at the 22nd fret,  you should end up at around 18" at the bridge. 

Great looking guitar. 

[jaberwock]

17 hours ago, veatch said:

FWIW, if the radius is 10" at the nut and 16" at the 22nd fret,  you should end up at around 18" at the bridge. 

Great looking guitar. 

 From my calculations the radius would be off by around 0.12mm  ( 4.7 thou ) if the string width at the bridge was 52mm; ie. the G and D string would be 0.12 mm higher than the ideal radius in comparison to the top, and bottom strings......does that sound workable ?

 And thanks for the compliments, just wish it sounded as good as it looks.

 

   Jaberwock

 

 

 

[jaberwock]

18 hours ago, Bloozguy said:

Also not a roller, but Mastery makes a bridge specifically for Bigsby-equipped Tele style guitars.

Great looking guitar by the way!

The Mastery offset bridge looks beautiful, but 175:00 $ is a bit beyond my means at present.

 

[JohnnyB]

On 7/9/2017 at 10:41 PM, jaberwock said:

I have a Warmoth Tele, with a  10 inch to 16 inch compound radius fingerboard;... 

 An interesting, but expensive alternative would be the Babicz OEM tune-o-matic, not a roller bridge, but as I only use the Bigsby for a light shimmer on chords,  with some graphite on the saddles I could probably get away with it.

     Regards Jaberwock

... the Schaller has always sounded thin, and lacking sustain.

I like ther Babicz (for a Squier fretless Jazz bass) so much I don't consider it too expensive. It not only allows individual saddle height adjustment, it is also the absolute easiest bridge in the world for saddle height and intonation. And if "the Schaller has always sounded thin, and lacking sustain," then you'd love the tonal balance of the Babicz. Its "full contact design" dishes up a massive-sounding tone with a rich bottom end. Replacing the stock sheet metal bridge of my Squier JB with the Babicz turned the bass into a powerful tone monster. 

HFC-er jwhitcomb3 has a Babicz on his Tele and evidently likes it a lot.

[jaberwock]

On 7/14/2017 at 6:58 AM, JohnnyB said:

I like ther Babicz (for a Squier fretless Jazz bass) so much I don't consider it too expensive. It not only allows individual saddle height adjustment, it is also the absolute easiest bridge in the world for saddle height and intonation. And if "the Schaller has always sounded thin, and lacking sustain," then you'd love the tonal balance of the Babicz. Its "full contact design" dishes up a massive-sounding tone with a rich bottom end. Replacing the stock sheet metal bridge of my Squier JB with the Babicz turned the bass into a powerful tone monster. 

HFC-er jwhitcomb3 has a Babicz on his Tele and evidently likes it a lot.

I have a Babicz trem on a Strat, made  a big difference to the fulness of the guitars tone; two  reasons for hesitating on it, first the cost, second I'd have to cut a hole in the bridge plate.

 I ordered the Wilkinson, I'll try it and see how it goes.

 

[JohnnyB]

11 hours ago, jaberwock said:

...Two  reasons for hesitating on [a Babicz], first the cost, second I'd have to cut a hole in the bridge plate.

 I ordered the Wilkinson, I'll try it and see how it goes.

"I'd have to cut a hole in the bridge plate."

Well, that makes a big difference. My J-bass Babicz was an exact drop-in replacement.

That's one stunning ash body on that Strat.

[jaberwock]

8 hours ago, JohnnyB said:

"I'd have to cut a hole in the bridge plate."

Well, that makes a big difference. My J-bass Babicz was an exact drop-in replacement.

That's one stunning ash body on that Strat.

That's sycamore, came from a tree in my uncles garden that blew down in a big storm.

[Bennyboy-UK]

You'll be needing a compound radius nut as well

[hamerhead]

On 7/11/2017 at 4:29 AM, jaberwock said:

 From my calculations the radius would be off by around 0.12mm  ( 4.7 thou )......

Not trying to be a dick - this is a serious question: Can you actually feel .0047 difference in the radius in your hands? If you can, that's awesome. People have some amazing abilities I'll never understand (as a hack player).

But....

If you can't, have someone else put it together and tell you it's dead-on. That way your head is OK with it and there's no way (short of maybe a CMM) you'll ever measure it accurately enough to know if it's literally a hair off or not.

[Bloozguy]

3 hours ago, hamerhead said:

Not trying to be a dick - this is a serious question: Can you actually feel .0047 difference in the radius in your hands? If you can, that's awesome. People have some amazing abilities I'll never understand (as a hack player).

But....

If you can't, have someone else put it together and tell you it's dead-on. That way your head is OK with it and there's no way (short of maybe a CMM) you'll ever measure it accurately enough to know if it's literally a hair off or not.

Spoken like a true machinist...

[JohnnyB]

On 7/17/2017 at 9:11 PM, jaberwock said:

That's sycamore, came from a tree in my uncles garden that blew down in a big storm.

Well, that explains why it doesn't look like any ash grain I'd ever seen.  Beautiful stain color too.

[Jakeboy]

Warmth made a body out of wood you provided?

If so, VERY cool.

[jaberwock]

4 hours ago, Jakeboy said:

Warmth made a body out of wood you provided?

If so, VERY cool.

 I made the body, over forty years ago; using yacht varnish to finish it, which has gradually mellowed to that glorious amber colour.

 Sycamore I believe is a European variant of maple, hard, dense, and acoustically bright; the Babicz bridge, and a one piece rosewood neck tamed the brightness, and has given it a particularly sweet, and full tone on the unwound strings.