Dupont Bigtone

Frans

Hello all,
I have a question concerning the Dupont/Bigtone bridge, is the Bigtone encased in epoxy and glued in into the route underneath the bridge or is the bridge cut in two and the Bigtone set in a separate routed channel
thanks for your time
kind regards
Frans

crookedpinky

Hi there

from what I've read the bridge is cut in two, a channel routed in the bottom part, the element installed and the two pieces of the bridge reassembled.

I wondered how it would be if the piezo element was glued to the underneath of an uncut bridge? Maybe less volume but certainly easier to build.
regards
Alan

Frans

Hi Alan,

thanks for your reply, the majority of bridges fitted with a piezo I've seen are done by glueing (gluing ?) the piezo with epoxy in the route in the base of the bridge, imho the results are wildly uneven, some sound ok and others are seriously unbalanced with one or several strings louder/softer, this might be due to the density of the wood.
I know of several achtop -type bridges where the piezo is glued in a separate route but I rarely see this in GJ guitars.
Maybe someone with enough piezo-fitting knowledge can give us more info on the pro's and cons of both ways of fitting
kind regards

Frans

crookedpinky

Hi Frans

I have fitted three of my normal acoustics with piezos and preamps - two steel string and one classical. I haven't glued any of them, they just sit at the bottom of the channle for the saddle. I've also adjusted two of my guitars which came with piezos -again neither of those were glued.

In all cases the crucial part is to have a perfectly fit between the bottom of the saddle and the top of the piezo element. This takes time and patience. I have to say that string to string balance on all of them has been really good.

I have been meaning to try and build a "bigtone" type bridge myself using a block of rosewood. If I find the time and actually do this I'll let you know how it works out

regards Alan

BluesBop Harry

I have a dupont BT that has the piezo element glued in... I think he does both kinds. Maybe Michael or Josh could shed more light on the issue.
Mine's actually pretty good, lots of gain and good balance and good sounding as far as BT go.

I've been thinking about building a selmac bridge with a Schertler Basik pu inside... would probably solve the feedback and low gain issues with the pu and sound better than piezos... Has anyone tried this??
I'll probably just glue the entire pu inside a Dupont bridge and route the cable inside the guitar attaching it to a jack at the end block...I'm just afraid the Basik might fall apart if I try to take the electrostatic element out