For multi-scale guitars, how do angled bridges compare to individual string bridges?

[henrebotha]

I'm planning a multi-scale 7-string build. I'm trying to figure out what kind of bridge I want.

What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of angled bridges (such as the Hipshot 7-string multi-scale bridge) vs individual string bridges (such as Hipshot Solo)?

 

[Winspear]

Individual just gives you freedom of string spacing (which is almost always conventional anyway) and more importantly angling. They used to be the only way to do FF, then some baseplate style bridges came into existence to cater to some generic popular angles. Just make sure it supports your desired fan (don't forget intonation room) and (in my opinion) matching bridge pickup angle. Downside to single saddles = having to ground across all of them. Some builders seemed to struggle installing them with equal spacing and angles too, but it isn't exactly hard to make a perfect drilling jig.

 

[henrebotha]

Downside to single saddles = having to ground across all of them.

You mean electrical grounding? Why is that necessary?

 

[Winspear]

You mean electrical grounding? Why is that necessary?

As otherwise only one string would be grounded. Usually people run a wire across the bottom of all the saddles.

 

[KyleG]

Because your guitar will buzz if you are not touching the ungrounded bridge.

Also, if you have some kind of weird fault in your amp it will prevent you from getting shocked by having the path of least resistance go through the ground on your amp and not you.

 

[ElysianGuitars]

Individual saddles are more difficult since you have to drill many more holes, accurately, and have to screw in more screws. They give you a bit more freedom in placement and spacing, but something like an angled Hipshot works great for most builders, IMO.

 

[henrebotha]

As otherwise only one string would be grounded.

But why does this matter, is what I mean.

 

[IwantTacos]

But why does this matter, is what I mean.

your guitar will buzz.

 

[henrebotha]

your guitar will buzz.

That's really interesting. So to clarify, say only the lowest string is grounded, and I'm touching that but not the other strings. I'll still get buzz?

 

[IwantTacos]

That's really interesting. So to clarify, say only the lowest string is grounded, and I'm touching that but not the other strings. I'll still get buzz?

yes. you need to somehow ground all the strings. A conductive zero fret works as well

 

[ElysianGuitars]

That's really interesting. So to clarify, say only the lowest string is grounded, and I'm touching that but not the other strings. I'll still get buzz?

Any time you stop touching the lowest string you'll get buzz.

 

[henrebotha]

Well now y'all are disagreeing

 

[ElysianGuitars]

Well now y'all are disagreeing

Best practice is to ground all strings. We're not disagreeing.

 

[mastapimp]

Nobody is disagreeing. You need to make an electrically conductive connection to all the strings to eliminate noise that will be amplified when the guitar gets plugged in. In the case of having a bridge plate that's grounded, the saddles are all in contact with the grounded plate, so your strings are grounded. If you do not have a bridge plate and go with individual saddles, you must ground each saddle to get the same circuit. People sometimes don't realize this until they open up the back of their guitar and see a wire soldered to something like a trem-claw.

 

[bostjan]

Anything conductive that's floating (i.e. not grounded or part of the signal circuit) will act like an antenna and generate tons of electrical noise/hum. It doesn't matter if it's a string or an actual antenna bolted onto your guitar. If you ground the metal pieces that pick up the noise, the electrical noise all goes through the ground wire before it can work its way into your guitar's output.

If you have active pickups, this might not be necessary.

 

[CanserDYI]

You dont have to drill more holes, just strip the wire back and lay a long strip underneath all of the bridges.

 

[foreright]

You dont have to drill more holes, just strip the wire back and lay a long strip underneath all of the bridges.

I used a strip of copper tape on my last build to do the same thing. Or you can use a zero fret and just ground one of the strings

 

[MaxOfMetal]

If drilling an extra hole per string and running some grounds is "difficult" you're probably not ready to build a whole guitar just quite yet.

 

[jack_cat]

Back to the question of intonation, and leaving electrical grounding aside, I have a multiscale nylon-string with a straight bone saddle. I had to widen the saddle slot and put a fatter bone in to have enough room to intonate each string by filing slots in the bone. It plays pretty well in tune now, but filing notches in a bone saddle is the slow boat to China, and if it were easier I would most certainly be tweaking it a little bit more. I would love to have a system of individually adjustable saddles, but I haven't figured out how I would like to do it. I intend another build.

I have no idea whether this acoustic-build problem is relevant to you. But the bottom line is that my two multiscales, (one a failed prototype and the other my work axe for the last six years) played miserably out of tune until I had done a considerable amount of individual adjustment to both nut and saddle. On the prototype, various design flaws prevented ever getting it to play right. On the more recent 2016 build I have made at least four different saddles. An adjustable saddle system of some sort is a high priority for the next design iteration.

Feeling my way towards the next build, I am intending to have my luthier build me a fingerboard without frets, string it up, and figure out a way to test each and every fret location on every string with an electronic tuner, with the nut and saddle both dead straight. By this means I hope to exactly quantify the deviation from the calculated rule-of-18 (17 point... whatever the decimal is) for each string, and then I will have some better information to work with in the saddle and nut design.

 

[IwantTacos]

If drilling an extra hole per string and running some grounds is "difficult" you're probably not ready to build a whole guitar just quite yet.

why you gotta do strandberg like that.