Newest bridge design

[thistle3585]

Thought I'd post a photo of my newest bridge design. Polished brass base with plated saddles. Still working on the clear coat for the base. Sorry about the poor photo.

[Kirby161]

looks nice. One thing i have found with the bridge on my mandobird is that the screws hurt my hand when i rest it on the bridge. Is this a problem with this?

[mandroid]

The ridged-barrel fender 8 string bridge setscrews are like that, and allen wrench so small you have to look thru a jewelers loupe to see if its just a round wire, or really a hex..
I would hope a set of a few extra adjusting setscrews in varying lengths would be considered.
once the actual height required is determined , substituting a shorter setscrew into the bridge would be simple.
actual setscrews are #made #in a number of lengths, for most sizes, so the effort to seek them out is the chore.
rare is the inclusion of a wrench.

a nice wooden hand rest adding to the thickness of of the flange is, i suggest, #a good addition.

So many good ideas i take meds to suppress them. #

[thistle3585]

I haven't heard any complaints on the screws. Mandroid is right, you can always get shorter screws if need be, but the action would need to be set extremely low for this to come into play. For the ones I have setup, the saddles are flush with the rear flange. I did give some thought to making a "Z" style that would act a little like a handrest and hide the screw heads, but just haven't done it yet. It wouldn't be any bid deal except I would need to make a new jig. I think the rectangle saddles are more comfortable than the barrel style, but both have their pro's and con's.
BTW, I misplace my allen wrench all the time, so I use a very, very small headed screw driver.

[mandroid]

got resources for double notch bridge pieces in the block /strat style ? could use a retrofit for above barrel jobs? # [top of barrel to baseplate surface 1/4"]
other Fender fm61se owners may form a replacement/upgrade market
steel baseplate on these is .125 [1/8"]thick ...a thinner one would allow for thicker bridge bits, a trifle.

If you're interested PM and i'll do a hole layout plan on the orignal in hand.

[Mastersound]

Nice work as always Andrew!

[Joel Glassman]

Yes--looks great.
What is the width between E and C strings
on the bridge? Also, if you're selling them,
what is the price? My email is mojo@tiac.net
thanks--Joel

[thistle3585]

Here are the specs.
4 String
Dimensions: 2"Wx1.375"Dx0.5"T
String Spacing(G to E): 1.3125
Individual String Spacing:0.4375

5 String Specifications
Dimensions: 2.5"Wx1.375"Dx0.5"T
String Spacing(C to E): 1.75
Individual String Spacing:0.4375

[Joel Glassman]

I received the bridge from Andrew--its well made & it looks good...
Now I'm thinking about building a 17" scale 5 string electric mandola...
On my 17" mini-guitar mock-up, the lower pitched strings sound so
much better than my electric mandolin. The mando took me
2 years to build, so I guess the mandola will be ready in 2007 :^(