Cheaper far Eastern made bridges....thoughts please!!?

MisterKevster

Hi....

I'm aware of the ole wisdoms....'you get what you pay for' etc.....but need to experiment a bit with bridges!

Lots of cheap Asian made alternatives out there....all made in the same place for all I know!

Any thought appreciated...along with any sources that have worked for you??

t-bird

There are a number of threads on this forum discussing bridges.

In my experience, different bridges accentuate different tones in your guitar. Not better, not worse, just different.

I recently picked up an early 2000s Castelluccia/Giambattista and have tried the stock bridge (Castelluccia two piece), a Dupont bridge, and a bridge I picked up on auction in a 3 pack for cheap. Early tests have me leaning toward the stock bridge, but then again that bridge is perfectly fitted to the top.

For not too much money, you can experiment with Saga/Gitane and generic Asian bridges. Why not?

Have fun.

crookedpinky

I've bought loads from China and they've been fine. As the previous poster said different bridges work on better on some guitars than others. It cracks me up that there are some people on ebay selling the same bridges - and tailpieces - for 3 or more times the price from China. The only issue with the bridges is that they all come in the same height which is fine if you need to shim up to increase height but not so easy to reduce height.

MisterKevster

Think the height need to be around 21mm. Ready made Chinese varieties all seem to be 18mm max.

Are shims made from layers of veneer...glued together....or?

t-bird

There are some great threads on bridges, setups, shims etc. here at Djangobooks. Dig around. It will be worth the time.

MisterKevster

Thanks fellas! Will 'dig around' as suggested.

Seems that the cheaper bridges are all rosewood too....was hoping to give ebony (brighter?) a go!!

crookedpinky

Again bearing in mind that different guitars yield different results with different bridges I prefer the sound of the rosewood bridges on some guitars. I recently swapped the bridge on my Marejouls for one of the Chinese ones and it's a definite improvement. The Chinese bridges are incredibly light - both in weight and colour. I had to shim it up using half millimetre mahogany shims under the feet glued and then trimmed and filed. I over shimmed to take into account the string notches/slots. Finally I sanded off the hard edge at each end, stained it a darker colour and polished it, looks really good.

The bridge that was made by Godefroy Maruejouls was not, as I first thought, made from ebony but a lighter wood - possibly walnut - and stained in the same way that I treated the Chinese bridge.

crookedpinky

Mister Kevster, pm me your address and I'll send you one of the Chinese ones for free.

MisterKevster

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/98573#Comment_98573

Have done!

Thanks... :)

Bones

Light and stiff is best. Each new one will need to be custom fitted to the top. Check other posts to see discussions of how to fit to top I think it's been discussed before.