#157565  by tnt1234
 
I've been using mostly hardtail, string thru bridges, but I realize most jerry-esque guitars go for the stop bar bridges....

Just started laying out my next one, which will include a wood pickup ring ting, which I am designing now, so I have to decide on the bridge.

I like the hardtail because I do bolt on necks with flat fender-isn bodies so I don't have to fuss with the neck angle much. But is there a tonal advantage to the stop bar style?

I do like the look of a stop bar and bridge, and I could recess the areas they are mounted on....just wondering if there are other reasons beside look and tradition that they might be favored....
 #157566  by ac4468
 
I'd love to hear other peoples opinions on this as well. I've been using wraparound bridges on my Jerry builds. I am very happy with them. They are highy adjustable (if the have adjustable saddles). I've used Schaller Signum's, Schroeder's and Gotoh's and a host of lesser ones and love the Schaller's and Schroeder's. To me the one thing you lose with a wraparound or typical strat/tele bridge is the ability to adjust the break angle over the bridge by adjusting the height of the tail. I would think that's where the bulk of the difference is. That said, Irwin's tails were fixed and as such so was the break angle.
 #157569  by TeeJay
 
Typically the quality ABR/harmonica bridges have brass saddles while the strat style hardtail will have bent steel or cast metal saddles. Brass saddles with a brass nut seem to be a popular choice for jerry tone. Also I noticed when you start to float the strings/tailpiece above the body there is a difference. Having the strings coupled to the body via a screwed in/ screwed down tight tail piece is an ingredient in jerry tone.
 #157571  by tnt1234
 
I've used the wrap around with adjustable saddles as well. Ended up having to put a fair amount of angle in the neck joint to get it all to work, so if I use it again I would recess it to cut the angle down a bit.

Wolf is a flat top guitar, right? What about bolt and top hat?

Flat top bodies with a noticeable neck angle bug me a little bit.
 #157573  by ac4468
 
Wolf is a flat top however there is a shallow neck angle of about 1.6-7 degrees or so and there is enough room for different bridge options. Of course it's not just the neck angle that decides if you can use a wraparound. You can still have a relatively straight neck but just not set as deep into the body. Look closely at Tiger which was a set neck vs neck through with a very shallow neck angle. I've always mused that Irwin was actually correcting for that exact issue of the bridge not fitting when he inserted that dark lamination between the neck and body thus raising up the neck without increasing the angle. Maybe it's all by design but I can see how half way though the build he realized the math didn't quite work out :-x
 #157578  by gmchart
 
Just from a 'how it looks' point of view, I'm not a fan of the bridge pup totally jacked out of the body. If there's a reason ( tone wise or playability) to have the bridge that high above the plane of the body, I'm all ears. I'm just a neophite builder...is there a good reason for a 3/4in. high bridge?
 #157580  by tnt1234
 
gmchart wrote:Just from a 'how it looks' point of view, I'm not a fan of the bridge pup totally jacked out of the body. If there's a reason ( tone wise or playability) to have the bridge that high above the plane of the body, I'm all ears. I'm just a neophite builder...is there a good reason for a 3/4in. high bridge?
If you are referring to a bridge/stop bar, they sit higher off the body just by the nature of their design. This heigh then requires some neck angle to keep the strings a comfortable distance from the finger board all the way down the neck. So in a flat top guitar body, you then have to jack the bridge pup up to get it close to the strings. On a carved body, usually, the pickup section is angled to match the neck angle and therefor doesn't require as radical of a bridge pup adjustment. The bridge sits behind the angled section, and so is effectively a little lower on the side elevation.

I think.

The short answer to your question is, stop bar bridges are higher simply because of how they are designed.
 #157591  by TI4-1009
 
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