Official Luthiers Forum!

New to the forum, though I have been a member for a while and have appreciated the information and expertise everyone provides. Began playing as a teenager (though always a work-in-progress), am an all-round handyman (I can fix most anything) with solid woodworking skills, and still building up the necessary tools for my current projects. I started off with the requisite cheap guitar renovation which was simple enough. I am now building 2 electric guitars - one each for me and my son - and will be actively soliciting advice as I (slowly) get these done. The bodies are built and ready for routing and finishing. I may tackle necks in the future but for now I relied on Warmoth. They arrived the other day and are well worth the additional investment.

At the moment I’m looking for quality bridges but don’t need anything over the top expensive, best bang for the buck.

1. I’ve always liked string-through bodies and need Tune-o-Matic bridges. With prices from $10 - $200+, at what point can I get a good quality model for the right price? I am familiar with the major brands though not necessarily the difference in quality between some. Any suggestions on what I should expect to spend, best brand to go with, or specific models would be appreciated.

2. Rookie question? I expected a bridge was a bridge, but occasionally see size information listed. Are there size considerations for a bridge? The necks I am using:
Nut: 43mm
Last fret: 54mm
Radius: Compound 10” - 16”

Thanks!

For High end bridges I like https://www.schroederguitarhardware.com/collections/all. For Mid level Ive used the Tone Pros products.

There are a few measurements that are important.

1. String spacing at saddle locations. The most poplular being Fender or Gibson String Spacing. There are quite a few others as well.
2. String Radius at saddle
3. If your utilizing a Stop Tail piece for your bridge then Centerline to Centerline Post measurement is very important and the Angling of these posts if it applies.
4. Neck angle which affects the bridge location/depth. It's important you have your neck angle figured out prior to drilling any new holes. A friend once put the posts int he wrong location.

Quality. At least start with a ABR-1 or Gotoh, the second level is the Tone Pros very popular. the third tier are brands like Schroeder

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Very helpful, thank you. I've been looking mainly at the Tone Pro's and will likely go that route, though the Schroeder may be worth upgrading to. I plan on skipping the tail stop and stringing through the body.

It sounds like spacing at the saddle is based on my preference, is that correct? I assumed the radius would be based on neck measurements, can you confirm or correct me on that?

Thanks for pointing out the neck angle. I'm aware of it as I'll be routing out the neck pocket soon, but every tip helps.

Spacing at the saddle is determined by the spacing of the strings at the neck from the First fret thru the 12 Fret to the saddle. Im going to assume you're using templates for your neck and body sizing. If you layout the string path from the first fret to the saddle based of the dimensions of you neck your can get an exact layout and measurement. I like to draw this out on paper in real size.

Just remember if you're utilizing a compound radius fretboard to continue the compound all the way to saddle. so you mentioned 10 at the first fret and 16 at the fretboard end then your saddle might be at 20. be sure and order the correct radius on the tone pros tunamatic

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Welcome Todd you are receiving lots of good advice from David so I'll stifle myself. Just wanted to welcome you to the OLF.

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Todd, I've been reading thru your first post and it raises a coupld of questions. There are basically two classes of bridges used on electric guitars (not including all the tremolo and vibrato stuff)- Fender (telecaster) plate style and Gibson tune-o-matic style. They have very different geometries and are not interchangeable.

Fender bridges are typically lower than ToM's, the strings anchor either to the back of the bridge plate or thru holes in the body. They are adjustable for each string so they cover almost any radius fretboard. String spacing varies but it typically around 2-1/8 inches.

ToM's are taller, usually mounted on studs or sometimes floating bridges, are fixed at 12 inch radius, often 2-1/16 spacing. The strings may be anchored to a stop bar or trapeze tailpiece or wrap around the bridge itself. Wrap around bridges often are not adjustable for individual intonation.

I have seen ToM bridges with thru body drilling and ferrules - some Flying Vees had that configuration. You will probably want ferrules on the top of the body where the strings exit.



Neck radius is a playing preference - F style guitars tend to be a little tighter radius (7-1/2, 9 or 10 inch) than Gibbies (12 inch) as I said ToM's are almost always fixed at 12. String spacing is also a player preference but again is often set by the bridge you choose. Most bridges have their saddles notched for a certain spacing and remember that you need to maintain a certain spacing to the edge of the fretboard.

Last is the height of the bridge over the top of the body. My rule of thumb is that I want the fret plane (a straight edge resting on the frets) to just touch the tops of the saddles when they are at their very lowest adjustment - that should result in enought range of adjustment to get good playable action and still be within the adjustment range of the saddles.

I hope this all makes sense - you can certainly mix geometries and construction styles but make sure you are within the working parameters of your bridge.


edit to add - I looked back and saw that you have compound radius fretboards. The idea of CR is that the board flatten out as it approaches the bridge. This means you still have a tight radius in the lower neck to help making barre chords, but there is less chance of strings fretting out when you bend them up the neck. In general you want the radius at the bridge to be a little flatter than it was at the 12th or 16th fret. I have only done CR fretboards with bridge with individually adjustable saddles (Fender). I set the saddles to give the action that I want at the 12th fret by measuring each string.

Thank you all for the detailed responses, I will definitely take them into account as I proceed.

I have wondered about the bridge height as well, seems like I should get the neck mounted first and check the height as it may determine if I stick with the ToM bridge. As always, re-checking my measurements before making any cuts is key!

I did my research and tried out a few different necks, found the CR fit well for both me and my son.

Todd, a couple more thoughts. When I start building a guitar there are a couple of decisions that I have to make. First is what is the basic geometry that I want to use - flat topped guitar with little or no neck angle but some overstand (Fender geometry) or arched topped guitar with an angled neck (and no overstand (Gibson style) or something in between. I also decide on the type of neck joint, scale length, neck width and profile, which fret it joins the body and all that sort of stuff. I might be building from plans or I might take a set of plans and modify them.

I choose a bridge for whatever reasons and I like to buy the bridge and have it in my hands before I start (you can get measurements off of most manufacturers web sites but I like to have the real thing.

I build the neck and body together and do the rough fit of the neck to the body as I'm making the pocket or mortise. Having the neck in the body lets me establish the true centerline (put straightedges on each side of the neck and extend that to the bridge location. With the neck in the pocket I can establish the exact scale length at the bridge location (either draw lines on the body or stick tape on and draw on that). Once I've established exactly where the bridge will go I can finalize the neck angle and overstand. With a Fender bridge just tape it on the top, with a ToM put it on little blocks of wood to emulate the studs and adjusters (remember that there are three different types of ToM studs and they are not interchangeable).

Here is a LP style guitar with a set neck and ToM. The neck clamped in the pocket, the bridge is sitting on little pieces of wood to duplicate its lowest adjustment and the straight edge is just touching the tops of the saddles



It doesn't matter what kind of neck joint or top profile or bridge or anything else, I know that if I have the above geometry I can set it up to be totally playable.

There is one more part of this whole geometry puzzle - where to locate the bridge relative to the neck. There are at least four different ways to do this - I like to use a combination. Once the neck is in the pocket I can draw the uncompensated scale on the top of the guitar - if you are using a F scale neck it will be 25.5 inches. If you are building from plans (and they are accurate) you can just copy them. A good rule of thumb is that if you adjust your bridge saddle all the way forward and put the high E break point on the scale or very slightly behind it you will be in the adjustment range of the intonation screws. This works for either F or G bridges, with ToM's you need to angle it slightly.

Another method which I likee to use as a check is to run the StewMac fret calculator for your neck. At the bottom of the page it gives you some measurements for every bridge that SM sells to be used with that scale. It will be a measurement to a stud or screw or something like that and includes compensation.

The fourth method is to actually calculate the break point for each saddle based on the strings and action you will be using. RM Mottola has a wonderful little wizard that will do this but you must know some string parameters

https://www.liutaiomottola.com/formulae ... sation.htm

I hope all of this is helpful. Most of the time its pretty easy when you just follow an established guitar but when you start blending features from a couple of designs it can get tricky. Good luck with your builds

as a note, Gotoh makes TOM bridges in 12, 14 & 16" radii