pilotfish
November 6th, 2009, 03:11 PM
I have a tele-ish body that might be getting a Gotoh "buzz bridge," (http://www.allparts.com/Danelectro-Sitar-Bridge-p/sb-5810-010.htm) which is the same thing that's used on the Jerry Jones and other electric sitars.
It's supposed to be a direct replacement for the bridge on a 56 or 59 Danelectro, but of course I don't have one of those. So the question becomes--how do you know where to put it for proper intonation (as far as that goes with these things)?
The edge of the bridge is curved so that it looks like it's supposed to help intonation. But if you look at where the *regular* saddles fall on a Danelectro, they're tailpiece-ward of the two bridge mounting bolts. The curved edge of the sitar bridge would be nutward of those bolts.
I've tried estimating where the "intonation line" should fall by measuring the nut-to-12-fret distance on about a dozen different pictures of Jerry Jones and other sitars, and seeing where that equal distances falls from the 12th fret to the bridge. So far, the results are pretty inconsistent. Some fall just tailpieceward of the mounting bolts, some fall about halfway across the body of the bridge, and the rest are all over the map. I'm guessing this must be more because of lens distortion in the pictures.
Anyway--if anybody has any experience, knowledge, or hearsay about how to do this, I'd love to hear it. I'd hate to have to drill lots of unnecessary holes in the guitar body trying to get it right. :-/
It's supposed to be a direct replacement for the bridge on a 56 or 59 Danelectro, but of course I don't have one of those. So the question becomes--how do you know where to put it for proper intonation (as far as that goes with these things)?
The edge of the bridge is curved so that it looks like it's supposed to help intonation. But if you look at where the *regular* saddles fall on a Danelectro, they're tailpiece-ward of the two bridge mounting bolts. The curved edge of the sitar bridge would be nutward of those bolts.
I've tried estimating where the "intonation line" should fall by measuring the nut-to-12-fret distance on about a dozen different pictures of Jerry Jones and other sitars, and seeing where that equal distances falls from the 12th fret to the bridge. So far, the results are pretty inconsistent. Some fall just tailpieceward of the mounting bolts, some fall about halfway across the body of the bridge, and the rest are all over the map. I'm guessing this must be more because of lens distortion in the pictures.
Anyway--if anybody has any experience, knowledge, or hearsay about how to do this, I'd love to hear it. I'd hate to have to drill lots of unnecessary holes in the guitar body trying to get it right. :-/
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