Hardtail Bridge Set-up Tips for Cigar Box Guitar
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- A hardtail how-to for first-timers: tips for bridge placement & and adjusting intonation - I made the mistakes so you don't have to!
Sorry for being so chatty. Guess I forgot how my voice sounds out loud after being in lockdown all summer :-)
If you have any more detailed questions, shoot me a message or I'll make another version the next time around.
Thanks for watching!
roughcutguitars.com
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Contact: roughcutguitars@gmail.com
Holy cow this is why I keep measuring EXACT scale and then can't intonate the #$^^@ thing!! Thank you for saving my migraines from now on.
This is great information for someone just learning about intonation! Thanks for sharing!
Great video! Thank you very much.
Great thanks I have had trouble with these bridges on 3 stringers not setting it back far enough I work on about 1/8th or 3mm back further seems to work for me.
Excellent video, thanks. I have made over seventy 3 string CB guitars now and did experiment early on with fixed bridges. I gave up on them because of mixed results. I got a lot of chatter from the height adjustment screws which I solved by adding Locktite to the threads at the end of the set up. I was threading the strings through the bottom holes in the back plate. Do you think that threading the strings through the neck will, in addition to giving a better break angle, would increase the down pressure on the adjusting screws. I must admit the bridges themselves were cheap Chinese knock offs, and the screws were already a lose fit. Thanks in advance,Jim at Sentinel Guitars Bozeman MT.
CrackerJack To a large extent, that's the nature of the knock-off beast as you say, but I think the sharper angle thru the body / thru-neck puts more pressure on the saddles helping minimize that chatter. Moreover, you have to consider string gauge and tension too. Light strings still don't put enough tension regardless of break angle. Folks who like a slinky feel for bending or for newbie fingers might go through the back plate, but I always prefer thru the body/neck for the reason above and it gives a tighter feel on string tension, which holds up better in slide playing. I cover that topic specifically in another video. Thanks for the great comment/question!
When you say move the hardtail bridge back an extra 3/16 of an inch. For reference are you using the the front edge of the bridge plate or the front edge of the saddles.
Thanks for the question Roy. I mean from the edge of the bridge plate. The benefit here is this gives you a baseline for keeping all of the adjustable distance of the saddles for any string weight. Remember that the the saddles move further back as the weights/diameters increase across the string set and even further back if you go with heavier gauge strings, so it's easy to run out of real estate in a hurry.
Great information! Where to buy hardtail like this? Thank you!
I'm very glad it's useful for you. Cbgitty.com and mgbguitars.com are good suppliers but I'm not sure if they ship outside the U.S. Amazon also sells them but I'm not sure if there's a difference in quality - they're all made in China so far as I know. Hope that helps and have fun building!
@@roughcutguitars Thank you! I bought on Amazon :) Next week test. Please do more informative videos. for ex fretting :) Thank you!
Great Video, but couldn't see the 12th Fret string played.
How do you determine break angle amount as well as the height of the neck in its pocket in relation to the bridge?
Wish I could say engineering and physics are involved, but I let Gibson and Fender do the heavy lifting there and use those as inspiration depending on the style build I'm going for. For the headstock break angle no matter what I use 13 - 15 degrees (used by Gibson and National to name a few). The one in this tutorial based on a Les Paul is 15 - my preference for nice high tension that plays a bigg part in optimum intonation.
Again because it's based on a Gibbby LP I use 2 degree set back/neck angle. For the same benefit of intobation I like some back angle so while Fender tends to be neutral or minimal .5 to 1 degree I use at least that. You also want to think about clearing your strings to your bridge and pickup heights with proper distance from the pole pieces so make sure to measure those first. Absolute BEST advice I ever got and am passing along here is to start designing and ensuring any guitar you build from the strings - after all these are what make everything else happen. I draw plans for every build and ways draw the string first measuring everything out from there. Hope that helps.
Oh, and neck height: I want the fingerboard to sit above the top of course and mine are 3/16" thick. Other than that, I want at least 5/8 of neck material in the pocket. More is more secure of course but depends on the depth of the box and you want enough material at the floor of the pocket for strength too - I'd say 1/4 to 5/16 minum.
@@roughcutguitars thanks for your reply, very useful info 👍
11:07 ...For intonation purposes when you pull the saddle back the extra tension doesn't determine the intonation it's the lengthening of that string's scale length that determines the correct intonation ( in relation to the other strings scale length)...
Not tension so much as the compounding effect of diameter. Sorry if I didn't make that clearer.
@@roughcutguitars 👍 all in pursuit of perfect intonation 😄
I purchased a CBG with a hardtail and I've come to realize that the bridge was mounted incorrectly. Since I'm not the builder, I don't know what scale length he was going for, but it looks to be 25 1/2 in. Even when I move the saddles back all the way (which mutes the sound), all of the strings are wildly sharp. Trouble is, if I move the bridge 3/16ths to 1/4 in. back, I would have to drill very close to the existing holes to remount. Should I fill the holes or just leave the old screws in so the hole won't collapse? Thanks in advance.
Hi Geni, Sounds like kind of a hot mess. Sorry to hear about that. There are so many unknowns about your guitar and the issue that it's impossible to give you specific advice. First off I'd say if you paid for it in good faith expecting it to be built and work properly then the seller/builder should stand behind it. If that's not possible for some reason and you feel comfortable w DIY, the first thing I can tell you is if it has frets or is fretless but with fret reference marks, it's easy to get the scale even with the bridge/saddle on. Remember that the 12th fret is the exact halfway point from the nut to the bridge. All you have to do is measure from the fingerboard side of the nut to the middle of the crown of the 12th fret and multiply by two. Then position the bridge or in this case saddle if you have a hard tail bridge assembly like the one in my video using this multiplied measurement starting again from the inner side of the nut. You don't want to measure from the 12th fret to the bridge - just trust me, there are reasons for this. You're also going to want to fill those old holes with same diameter dowel - use a hard, dense grain wood like hard maple, NOT soft or open grain like poplar or oak - and use Titebond or epoxy, then trim off & sand down any excess sticking up from the top. As for drilling and mounting the new bridge position, I'd need to see a photo of your guitar to better advise. If you're still looking for advice, email me the photo - address is in the description under the video. Good luck!
Oh, and remember, moving the bridge forward makes notes flat. Moving it back makes em sharp.
@@roughcutguitars Thanks for the detailed info. After reading it, I think it's worse than I thought and actually the opposite direction. It's 12" from the nut to the 12th fret, so that would mean the scale length should be 24". Currently the saddles sit at 25", which accounts for the wild sharpness no matter where they're set. So that means the bridge needs to go forward, not back. I was going to tackle it myself but now I think I'll reach out to the seller since it's more complicated than I thought. Thanks again. I'll let you know how I make out.
Awesome, great , but! Can’t see your left hand 😵💫😫 better camera guy?
It looks like you raised or shimmed the bridge so the top edge is above the pickup covers. I haven’t found any good written or videos on mounting the hard tail bridge.
Yup. Technically you might not have to, but then you'll probably have to raise the saddle height near its limit to clear the pups and like I say in the vid, I don't like to be back-against-the wall in any direction. Just make sure to use a very dense material to transfer all that string resonance goodness. I use a piece of ebony with the grain vertical to the top surface as God intended :-) Cheers, best of luck & thanks for commenting.