7 String Archtop Bridge

[Ken Dangerfield]

Hello: I'm new to this forum, referred here by Stewmac. Tried a search but didn't find what I was looking for. Hope I'm in the right topic.

I'm looking for a referral to someone who can supply a new wooden bridge for my 7 string, semi-hollow archtop guitar. I think I know what I want but I'm definitely open to listening to knowledgeable advice.

Any and all assistance appreciated. Thanks.

Ken

[David King]

Ken, Welcome to the MIMF! For starters where a-bouts are you located? This sounds like a job for your local luthier.
Can you tell us more about the guitar?

[Ken Dangerfield]

Ken, Welcome to the MIMF! For starters where a-bouts are you located? This sounds like a job for your local luthier.
Can you tell us more about the guitar?

Thanks for the reply. I live on Vancouver Island. The closest "local luthier" is about a 2.5 hour drive away from me. Even at that, I'm not sure that person would be up to or interested in crafting from scratch what I think I want, although they could handle seating the bridge properly on the body. I was hoping to find someone who crafts and sells such bridges.

Photo attached. The guitar is a semi-hollow, 2" deep, 16.5" lower bout, 12.5" upper bout, metal trapeze style tailpiece. one neck humbucker pu. Currently has what appears to be a two piece rosewood bridge that sounds a bit "punky" on the second and third strings (B and G).

[Jason Rodgers]

Nice looking guitar. Is this a custom build?

There are some trouble-shooting tips and tricks folks around here might be able to suggest for the issue you describe. For example, issues with fast decay on a couple strings could be caused by the shape of the saddle at the point the string leaves the bridge.

[Ken Dangerfield]

Nice looking guitar. Is this a custom build?

There are some trouble-shooting tips and tricks folks around here might be able to suggest for the issue you describe. For example, issues with fast decay on a couple strings could be caused by the shape of the saddle at the point the string leaves the bridge.

Thanks. No, it's not a custom. It's from a fellow in Texas (Matt Raines) who has small runs (10-20 pieces) made in China to specs he and his partner set. It's not the best guitar in the world but it's more than satisfactory for where I'm currently at in my guitar journey, in terms of musical expression and technical proficiency. Nice tone, both acoustic and amped, and quite good sustain. Very comfortable to hold and play. I'm just an incorrigible tweaker so I'm looking to see if I can coax a bit more out of the instrument.

I'm looking to achieve a couple of things with a new bridge: one, to convert to a compensated bridge to handle flatwounds with a wound G; and two, to improve tone and sustain. With the current two-piece rosewood bridge, the only conduit by which string vibration can reach the base and then the body is via the two metal thumb wheel rods. If I had a solid ebony one-piece base (non-pedestal) with a bone or Tusq saddle insert, I'm thinking that more sting vibration will reach the body. String height could be set reasonably close to what I like (very low action) with the height of the one-piece base and then fine tuning of the height could be done by way of the saddle insert.

All of this from a non-luthier so I may have some lessons to be learned and I'm all ears.