Bridge set-up for Les Paul

[Jack Diab]

Hey, I'm making a Les Paul style guitar and was wondering wether the bridge had to be at an angle ecspecially since I am using a Bigsby vibratame tailpiece?
Thanks.

[Michael Lewis]

I think you should post this in the SOLID BODY section. There seems to be a fairly common confusion regarding "archtop" as a descriptor. Carved solid body guitars (Les Paul, etc.) are SOLID BODY, though some confuse them with acoustic or acoustic/electric "archtop" like Gibson L5, Super 400, D'Angelico New Yorker, etc.

[Greg McKnight]

The bridge is on the small flat part of the top of an LP. Check out this build and others at MyLesPaul.com forum: http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/luthier ... ild-5.html

[Patrick Hanna]

Jack,

First, heed previous advice and re-direct this inquiry into the solid body forum.

Next: By "bridge set at an angle" do you mean the compensation angle of the bridge saddle? If so, then the answer is: Of course the bridge saddle needs to be set at a compensation angle! If you don't believe that, then set it any way you want and listen to the results. Shortly after that, you will be drilling new holes in your guitar top, re-setting bridge studs.

[Freeman Keller]

Jack, the simple theory is that as a string is fretted it goes sharp. The amount of sharpening depends on several things, including the core wire diameter - the larger the core the more it goes sharp. We "compensate" for that by moving the saddles a little farther away from the nut than the exact scale length. The larger the core, the more we need to move it - that means that the bridge ends up at a slight angle.

On the Tune-o-matic bridge used on Les Paul style guitars the saddles are individually adjustable to further allow you to compensate for the string sharpening. That is the same whether you have a stop tail piece or a vibrato style tail piece.

StewMac has a handy scale length calculator that as its final step helps you calculate where to position each of the bridges that they sell - it seems to agree pretty will with the plans for various Les Pauls that I have seen

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

[Rodger Knox]

In answer to your question: No, the bridge does not need to be at an angle with a normal tuneomatic type bridge, the adjustment of each individual saddle is adequate for compensation.

To clarify, the individual saddles DO need to be at an angle, but the bridge does not.

[Eric Baack]

but if you install the bridge at the appropriate angle then you have less risk of running into the end of the adjustment range on the bridge before you can get the intonation right.

[David King]

Wait, I thought the OP wanted to use a Bigsby? Why all this discussion of tune_o_matics?

OK, I see some info here that might be useful for choosing an appropriate bridge. A roller bridge would seem about right.
http://www.bigsby.com/vibe/resources/setup-tips/

Is the vibratame/tome the same as the B7?
http://www.bigsby.com/vibe/products/vibratos/bigsby-b7/

[Jack Diab]

Thanks, Ill take a look at the links.