WHAT MATTERS IN A GUITAR BRIDGE?
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ADDRESSING T HE S WA M P OF M Y T HS
What’s the difference?
Differences between guitar bridges is one of
those topics that keeps conjuring up endless
debates among players. What are the best
materials? How does a trem affect to the sound?
Which bridge has the best sustain? Is a locking
trem from the devil…? An abysmal swamp of
THE BRIDGE OV ER T ROUBLED WAT ER
Bridge solutions that work
I’ll start from wraparound bridges for one
particular reason. This story describes perfectly
my approach to guitar design in general.
Practical solutions. Nuts and bolts. Things that
work. I was reluctant for a long time to offer
wraparound bridges in any of my guitars. There
were a couple of reasons why so. The traditional
wraparound models are mounted with studs that
need to have a pretty loose tolerance so there’s
Luthier collaboration
A few years back I started to design the Unicorn
Supersonic guitar. I wanted it to have a
wraparound bridge – if only those drawbacks
were solved somehow. The studs were an easy
one. Lari (one of my luthiers) and I were
drawing a locking stud that would be easy to use.
Then I stumbled upon the locking studs my
fellow luthier Jason Schroeder had designed. It
was just like my drawing. Jason had gotten there
first! I ordered a few of those studs to try them
out. The quality was excellent, and the studs did
exactly the job I wanted them for. We’ve
continued using the Schroeder locking studs
ever since, in all the guitars we make with
wraparound bridge. 
Lock-thru-body bushings
The bushings remained a major concern. I
couldn’t find any ready made solutions for the
problem, so Lari and I started brainstorming the
part. Lari is quite a wizard with not only
Why do some guitars have a “twangy” sound?
The sharp, bright, percussive, mid-rangy, in-
your-face type tone that works great to a wide
variety of music, most often connected to t-style
guitars. There are a number of factors
contributing to this special tonal character but
not many come to think that one of the key
reasons for the twangy sound is the traditional t-
style bridge baseplate made of steel, which
Out of the box thinking
When you think outside the box, you sometimes
stumble upon surprising ideas. Even if this little
story is not exactly about a guitar bridge, it is
bridge related, so here goes. Based on the
aforementioned phenomenon (steel changes the
shape of the magnetic field of a pickup), we have
developed a little custom part called the “twang
ring”. It is a pickup ring we first started using in
the Mojo King model. The idea was to find a
Sometimes vintage sucks
There is another common debate about t-style
bridges that I want to address. It has to do with
the saddles. Should there be three of them, like it
used to be back in the day? Or are six saddles
better? Stydying the history, I’m assuming the
original idea was just to make a very simple
bridge design. A combo that fixes the strings at
the body end, mounts one of the pickups and
allows to set the intonation somewhat correct.
The last of the features sucks, though. You just
can’t adjust intonation of six strings with three
saddles that move back and forth. In that regard
– yes – six saddles is indeed better. Or is it?
Functionality comes first
There is an endless debate going on also about
saddle materials of various bridge types.
Different materials all affect to the tone slightly,
but I’d like to look at this feature from the
practical point of view first. Why? Because the
tonal differences are so very subtle, that the
practical approach just makes more sense as a
starting point. First, the bridge has to function
well. Secondly, it needs to be durable. After
these points are in order, then it’s time to worry
about the slight tonal nuances.
Brass or steel?
Brass is a great saddle material for many types of
bridges. It is softer than the strings, but hard
enough so the strings won’t dig into it if the
angle of the string crossing the saddle is not too
steep. The relative softness of brass is good,
making the saddle slot edges “gentle” to the
The effect of vibrato springs
Let’s look at some vibrato bridges in more detail.
First the classics. Generally speaking, all s-style
vibrato bridges and its descendants require a
chunk of wood to be routed off from the back of
the body. This allows to mount the springs that
act as a counter-force to the string pull. This
construction affects the sound of the guitar for
several reasons. 1) Part of the wood is routed off.
2) Spring mechanism makes a “reverbish” sound
when hitting the strings. 3) The bridge trembles
slightly as with the strings vibrate. 4) The bridge
“gives in” when bending strings.
Is old school better because it’s old..?
All mentioned in the previous chapter is
perceived by the player as a natural part of the
classic “s-style guitar sound”. Nothing wrong
DOES K NIFE EDGE S TA Y BET T ER I N T UNE?
The knife edge makes a bridge vibrate more
Some players prefer a non-locking vibrato with
two posts and knife edge movement. Even if it
would feel counterintuitive to some, this
approach actually requires even higher precision
from the rest of the guitar in order to maintain
the tuning in a satisfactory way. It is because the
knife edge makes the vibrato more sensitive, just
like a locking trem. In other words – when you
play, the bridge trembles back and forth even if
you don’t touch the vibrato arm. Another
A locking vibrato has a very specific role to play
in a guitar. No other vibrato keeps the tuning as
well under such heavy use as many shredders
need for their music. Floyd Rose is in this
category the benchmark product that others are
usually compared with. Unfortunately the
quality of Original Floyd Rose has spiralled
down over the years, and I prefer to use other
versions when possible. The only exception
would be 7-stringed guitars, as my favourite part
is only available 6-stringed.
Japanese engineering precision
Talking about favourites. My number one
choice among locking whammies has been for a
long time the Gotoh GE1996. We’ve installed it to
most of the Hellcat guitars ever built, and it is a
wonderful example of japanese design and
engineering precision. I’m totally on the same
page with how the Gotoh engineers think.
They’ve studied carefully the market leader part,
spotted the weak spots and designed a better
product.
In theory all good… and then life steps in
ECHOES FROM T HE BOWED I NS T RUM ENT FA MI LY
The roots of tune-o-matic
The roots of the tune-o-matic electric guitar
bridge lay deep in the history of acoustic archtop
guitars and the bowed instrument family. When
you look at the Duke or the Unicorn from side
perspective, you notice that the body, neck,
headstock, bridge and tailpiece form a similarly
angled shape as in a violin. The strings pull the
stop tailpiece forward and press the bridge
downwards, against the top of the instrument.
This construction contributes to the sound of
the guitar tremendously.
I’ve used many tune-o-matic variants over the
years. I’ve seen new products pop up with great
little improvements and become successful fast.
Then the production has been ramped up,
followed by the quality spiralling down. The
tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece may seem
like simple parts, but there are a number of
details that can go wrong if the design isn’t
THE HEIGHT OF T HE S T OP TA I LP I ECE
How to get the best sustain?
One aspect that many players seem to be
confused about is the height adjustment of the
stop tailpiece. The most common myth is that
the tailpiece must be screwed all the way down.
Otherwise the sustain of the guitar will be
compromised.
The stop tailpiece is adjustable, too
Another popular belief is that the best sound
comes from installing the strings to the tailpiece
in a “top wrap style”. Jimmy Page used to do like
this in order to make the string angle more
gradual – which helps not break strings and to
stay in tune. Well, guess what? Jimmy (or his
DOES BIGS BY A FFECT T O T HE S OUND OF MY G U I TA R ?
Let’s face it – Bigsby looks super cool
One of the most frequently asked questions I get
is this: “Does Bigsby affect to the sound of my
guitar?”. The answer is: “Yes – it affects the
sound and the feel of the guitar a lot”.
There’s no way around it – Bigsby is super cool.
It looks awesome in the same way as old
American cars and motorbikes do. For some,
this is the primary reason why they want Bigsby
in their guitar. And it’s perfectly ok! I can
THE LOW FREQUENCI ES OF A BA S S GUI TA R
Bass guitars vibrate a lot!
The low frequencies make a bass guitar vibrate a
lot. This vibration needs to be kept under wraps.
Otherwise there would be a lot of fret buzz and
tuning problems – even trouble keeping the
instrument in one piece!
It’s like the old Harley Davidson bikes: The
engine is bolted right onto the frame of the bike
without suspension of any kind. The motor
shakes the whole bike so much that one would
think a magnetic rear fender should be an
obligatory feature to collect all the fallen parts!
Cool bikes, none the less.
The perfect electric bass bridge?
I was working closely together with my friend
Markus Setzer on my bass design. I listened
carefully to his experiences and analysis on what
makes a great, transparent sounding bass. Our
talk shifted from tonewood through pickups to
hardware. Then it dawned to me – the vintage t-
style bridge design philosophy might offer us a
solution for the perfect bass bridge. I just had to
find a simple, lightweight bridge in which each
saddle would be shared by two strings. This way
the pressure of the strings would be massive,
eliminating the possibility that the bridge parts
would start moving around with the low
frequency vibration. Instead, the vibrations
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myths, assertions and opinions, often triggered
by tradition or a piece of (dis)information one
has heard from a friend or read online.
I’ll be stone cold pragmatic
The perspective I’m offering you is based on my
own experience, having made, repaired and
played a whole lotta guitars over the last decades.
any room to balance the height of the low and
high strings. This results usually that after
adjustments the bridge sits leaning forward, in
an angled position in the loose stud slots. Not
cool.
What if the wood gives in?
I’ve seen guitars where the bushings of the
wraparound bridge have given in and the whole
unit is leaning forward. Or, the bushings have
started to crawl up from their holes. This can
understanding mechanics, but he also has the
skills to do the metal work. We came up with
the idea to lock the bushings through the body.
A really simple fix to a nasty problem! One of
those moments when we thought that somebody
must have figured this out before us. But we
couldn’t find anything like it anywhere.
Lari made the first prototypes in our shop
basement with his 100 years old lathe, and they
turned out perfect. It wouldn’t work as an
aftermarket part for vintage guitars though.
Why? Because you need to drill a hole through
the body! But with my guitars, I’m free from the
vintage ghosts, so this was the perfect solution
for us.
Improving the improved
To complete our task we needed a great
wraparound bridge with the right feel. It would
need to also meet our strict quality
requirements. I contacted ABM and it turned
out they were right in the middle of developing
THE SECRET OF T WA NG
functions as a mounting ring for the bridge
pickup as well. The steel plate changes the shape
of the pickup magnetic field, contributing to the
characteristic edgy sound of the guitar.
The magnetic flux changes
When you change the bridge material to a non-
magnetic material – like brass or stainless steel –
the sound of the guitar changes. One would say
WHAT IS A T WA NG RI NG?
solution to not lose the twang even if we install a
vibrato bridge to a guitar. The twang ring works
very nicely for this purpose – even though the
vibrato does always alter the sound of a guitar as
well. More about that later!
The perfect guinea pig
After making quite a few Mojo Kings, I asked
myself: Since the twang ring works so well, why
don’t we try it in other types of guitars as well?
THREE OR SIX S A DDLES ?
Bridge saddles matter
Eliminating one problem may cause another!
Changing this particular bridge design to six
saddles, the sound changes as well – and not for
the better. The strings press the saddles
downwards, and with three saddles the pressure
is really strong as the saddles are pressed down
by two strings each. This way, the bridge is rock
solid. So is the sound. With six saddles,
however, the pressure on the saddles is weaker,
and the sound loses some of its solidity. So…
now we’re back to three saddles..!
A pragmatic solution to a pragmatic problem
THE DEVIL IS IN T HE DETA I LS
strings. This results in less string breakage at the
saddles. Too soft materials, however, will cause
trouble too. The strings may dig in to the saddles
causing tuning problems. The sound may be
compromised too – dampened high frequencies
or too soft attack.
Hardened or not?
In some applications, hardened steel works
better  than brass. The Gotoh/Wilkinson VSVG
that we use a lot in the Vsop and Aeon models is
a vibrato bridge evolved from a vintage s-style
vibrato. This bridge succeeds in eliminating
some of the vintage design problems without
compromising the sound. When the saddles are
made of hardened steel, it is essential that the
shaping of the saddle is precisely right.
Otherwise the hard saddle edges will snap off
your strings, or easily cause unwanted
resonances.
TREM OLO... OR V IBRAT O?
with that. Many prefer the vintage s-style
vibrato bridge in their guitar. Is there any
sensible reasons why it is so? Or is it the vintage
voodoo, you know, the common myth about the
old way being better because… well, it’s old?
The original s-style vibrato mounts to the guitar
body with six wood screws. You might think this
is old-fashioned and outdated, but I’m one of
those who like the six-screw mounting a lot.
Why? Because this is the only type of non-
locking vibrato where the baseplate front edge
rests – and is pressed against – on top of the
guitar. This allows the energy transmit from a
wider, more solid area of the bridge to the body.
When a bridge with six-screw mount is made
with high precision of premium materials, the
guitar will also keep its tuning very well – as
example demonstrating the sensitivity is a
situation when you rest your picking hand on
the bridge. A knife edge type vibrato goes easier
out of tune (cause your hand presses the bridge)
than a vibrato mounted with six screws.
When the player acknowledges all this, learns to
deal with it, a non-locking knife edge vibrato is
certainly a great device that can add greatly to
the expressive range of the player. For example,
the Gotoh 510 series offers a few outstanding
DIVEBOM BING IN T UNE
The knife edges and their corresponding slots in
the studs are an important factor in a locking
vibrato. They have a crucial role in keeping the
guitar in tune. Floyd Rose (and many others)
have approached this detail in attempt to
eliminate friction at the knife edges. They’ve
chosen a hard material and shaped the knife edge
literally sharp as a knife. In theory, this would be
the best solution to the problem.  A brand new
Floyd vibrato does keep the tuning extremely
well – but then life steps in! The pressure at the
knife edges is very high, and after a while (how
long, depends on the player) of extensive vibrato
usage, the knife edges (and the corresponding
stud slots) will wear down, or the sharpest edges
will chip off. The tuning stability deteriorates,
and it keeps getting worse until you have to
replace the worn down parts.
A better approach
Gotoh has taken another approach. The GE1996
knife edge isn’t exactly a knife edge at all. It has a
tiny radius to it – matched with corresponding
radius in the studs. This means the Gotoh
vibrato has slightly more friction than a brand
new Floyd Rose vibrato would have – but at the
perfect and/or the build quality isn’t up to par
with the design.
Die-cast or milled?
Most cheaper (and some of the expensive ones)
tune-o-matic frames are die-cast zinc. This
metal alloy is not very strong, and the typical
problem is that the frame gives in under the
pressure of strings. When that happens, the
radius of the bridge doesn’t match the fretboard
radius anymore. This causes a problem to set up
the guitar right. A die-cast part can be good too,
though.  TonePros used to make a good die-cast
tune-o-matic, but then something happened.
The metal wasn’t anymore as strong as it used to
be, and other quality problems emerged as well.
We had no other option but to change brand.
Bell brass rings like… well, a bell!
Now we’re installing ABM 2054 tune-o-matic to
most Dukes and Unicorns we make. ABM is a
technician) was correct in setting the angle more
gradual. But he could’ve as well just raised the
tailpiece higher. I mean… it is adjustable. A
difference in tone, you say? Do a blindfold A/B
test. We did. Can’t spot any unambiguous
difference.
Jimmy Page did it!
If you adjust the tailpiece too high, the pressure
at the bridge will be too weak. If you adjust it too
low, the angle will be too steep and your strings
will bottom out at the back edge of the bridge.
This adds one more friction point to the strings
(bad for tuning stability) – and you’ll be breaking
more strings. The strings pull the tailpiece
understand that. In rock music, the appearances
matter a great deal.
Worth the trade-off?
Truth be said, other than the looks, Bigsby can
be a challenging piece of equipment. When
thought out and set up well, it will stay in tune
reasonably well and you won’t lose much of the
full potential of your guitar sound with it. See,
the tune-o-matic style bridge with stop tailpiece
is a kind of combo that really gives you the
Energy transference from strings to body
After a little sidestep, back to bass bridges! It is
essential in any musical instrument, that the
energy of the strings is not “wasted” in wrong
type of vibration – but in a bass guitar this is
even more serious business.
When I went shopping for the ideal bridge for
my Steam bass, my main priority was to find a
bridge that is capable of transferring as much
vibrations as possible from the strings to the
body of the instrument. Contrary to common
beliefs, heavy mass is not the solution. If the
bridge is too massive, it may be solid all right,
would transmit better from the strings to the
body.
I was certain we have to make such a bridge
ourselves, but to my great relief and amazement
I found the Gotoh WB2P, designed by none other
than Trev Wilkinson. Our paths had crossed
before and so they did again.
Adapted from guitars to basses
This particular bridge has the exact features I
had listed earlier: 1) Lightweight construction.
2) Each saddle shared by two strings. 3) Precise
intonation adjusting possibility. Trev had solved
the intonation problem by adapting the
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I’m not relying on what I’ve heard from
someone or what I’ve read from books. My
approach could be described stone cold
pragmatic. I’ll go through in this article a few
common situations in the hope that reading this
piece won’t at least leave you more confused than
you were before.
happen if the fit of the bushings is too loose – or
if the body wood is soft (like mahogany or
spanish cedar) and the wood compresses over
time, making the holes oval shaped. There is a
constant force of about 60 kilograms pulling the
wraparound bridge forward, so it’s no wonder
that sometimes the wood gives in. To me, this
has been a turnoff. I’ve felt it’s not designed
right, and so I’ve steered clear of it.
a new wraparound bridge. They sent me a
prototype, which seemed absolutely great. They
had milled it from a billet of aircraft grade
aluminium, and the bridge sounded and felt
phenomenal. I pointed out a little shortcoming
about the total height of the unit, and to my
amazement the guys at ABM were thankful for
my feedback and improved the design before
launching it.
Rock solid wraparound bridge solution
So now I had the ABM 3024 wraparound bridge
locked in place with the Schroeder studs, and the
whole unit anchored to the body with our own
Lock-Thru-Body bushings. The most rock solid
wraparound bridge solution ever!
We were so excited about this new bridge
concept that we decided to started offering it as
an option for all the Unicorn and the Duke
guitars. Download the Guitar Creator app and
there you’ll have it!
the sound improves – while another hears the
alteration in a negative way. So there are no
rights or wrongs here. It’s all a matter of
personal preference. But – it is certainly useful to
be aware of the fact that a steel plate
surrounding a pickup affects the pickup sound
due to the change of the magnetic flux.
Since it adds “twang” to a Mojo King, how
would it work for example in a humbucker
equipped guitar? I was developing the Unicorn
Supersonic model at the time, and that felt like
the perfect guinea pig for the purpose. The
twang ring worked beautifully in it, adding a
slight edge to the humbucker sound. As a nice
side effect, we have now humbucker size twang
rings available also for the Mojo model.
One way to fix the intonation is to file the
saddles individually. This works fine, but if you
change string gauge or brand, you might want to
readjust. Not good. Trevor Wilkinson has come
up with an ingenious solution to this problem by
developing his WT3 saddle that swivels around
its axis. The design allows precise intonation
adjustment without compromising the string
pressure at the saddles. To me, Trev’s solution is
spot on the same wavelength with my thinking.
A pragmatic solution to a pragmatic problem,
without compromising the tone. That is why we
like to use the Gotoh/Wilkinson WT3 bridge in
our Mojo guitars.
Even the bridge saddle plating matters!
An important, yet often overlooked factor
concerning saddles is the plating. Chrome-
plating is super hard, and this can cause severe
string breakage problems to a guitar. If the
saddles are made of a soft material (brass, or die-
cast zinc), the strings may sink in to the soft
metal, but the hard chrome plating won’t flex
one bit. Instead, the chrome breaks and leaves a
razor sharp edge right under the strings. And
then you’ll break strings over and over again…
This is why I prefer in most cases saddles that
are either non-plated – or if plated, then the
plating sould be done with a softer metal such as
nickel or gold. Chrome plating works in a saddle
in my experience only when it’s applied on very
hard metal and when the string passes the saddle
in a very gradual angle – such as the Gotoh
GE1996 locking vibrato has.
long as the rest of the guitar is set up to par with
the bridge, of course.
The problems of old school s-style bridges
There are a couple of other details I’m not so
much in favour regarding the vintage style
vibrato, though. I don’t like slack in the vibrato
arm. That’s one of the many reasons we use
mostly the VSVG model by Gotoh/Wilkinson.
Also, the string spacing of the vintage bridge is
unnecessarily wide, resulting that the strings are
too close to the fretboard edges. Another great
reason for me to use the VSVG (or other bridges
with improved string spacing).
By the way – it’s a vibrato. Not a tremolo. Ok?
pieces of equipment that work well and sound
fantastic.
No slack in the vibrato arm, please!
One detail worth mentioning is the way Gotoh
has solved the vibrato arm mounting – none of
their VSVG, 510 or locking vibrato arms have
slack, and they’re easy to adjust to any player’s
taste. Might feel like a small detail but from the
practical point of view this makes a world of
difference as compared to most other vibratos.
same time, the Gotoh part is extremely durable.
The Gotoh knife edges won’t wear down at all in
the way Floyd parts will. The new Gotoh
GE1996 keeps the tuning with 99,9% precision –
and the situation won’t get worse in time. It is
the best locking vibrato available. A part you and
I can both rely on.
Details, details, details
Another point worth mentioning is the way the
vibrato arm mounts to the body of the vibrato.
In a Floyd Rose vibrato the  arm can feel wobbly
even when brand new. And if not, eventually it
will. Another word of critic about the nut that
fastens the arm to the plate – when you use the
arm, the nut keeps loosening by itself. In the
GE1996, Gotoh has used their proprietary
mechanism to fix the arm. The same one they
use in the 510 non-locking vibratos. You push
the arm in to a snug nylon bushing in the body
of the vibrato, and the arm has an inner
threading that acts as a height adjustment for the
arm. You can adjust the tightness of the arm by a
little set-screw. A well designed and excellently
manufactured part, that can take heavy dives up
and down for years and years.
small factory in Germany, that doesn’t offer any
die-cast parts. Every frame and saddle is milled
from billets of metal. The tune-o-matic we use is
milled from bell brass. The bridge sounds great,
and the construction is  super rigid. The saddles
sit in the bridge frame nice and tight without
slack to any direction. A nice touch in the ABM
tune-o-matic is the fact that the saddle inserts
have been rounded off so they feel comfortable
when resting your palm on the bridge. This is a
detail I haven’t seen in other bridges made by
milling.
Stop tailpiece milled from aluminium
The ABM stop tailpiece we use is milled from
aluminium. It is lightweight, and contributes
beautifully to the tonal character of our guitars.
The build quality of the ABM parts is second to
none.
forward with about 60 kg force (with 10-46
gauge strings). That is enough pressure to make
the tailpiece construction rock solid without any
lock screws or other snake oil upgrades. With
this force pulling the tailpiece forward, it’s
meaningless if the tailpiece studs are screwed all
the way down or adjusted high enough to clear
the strings from the bridge edge. They’re solid
either way! So I would simply adjust the tailpiece
as it was meant to be adjusted. The only sensible
reason to screw the studs down and top wrap
the strings over the tailpiece is that Jimmy Page
did it like that! I can buy that. I’m a big fan. Hats
off to Jimmy.
maximum potential of that particular guitar
tone. When you replace the stop tailpiece with a
Bigsby, the construction changes. It is inevitable
that some of that solidity of sound will be gone.
In exchange you get the vibrato and a slightly
different sounding guitar. Once again – there is
no right or wrong here – it is all about personal
preference. And don’t get me wrong – I love old
American cars and motorbikes too!
but it doesn’t transfer the sound to the body.
The musically inspiring and responsive solutions
are not typically the most heavyweight and
sturdy ones.
Sensitivity versus durability
If one seeks sensitivity, the same laws apply to
any musical instrument. A great classical guitar
top and bracing, for example, are made so
delicate that they just about hold together
without collapsing. The result is a sensitive
guitar – and the skill of the luthier determines
how well can he/she find the optimal balance
between musicality and durability.
swivelling axis design from his WT3 bridge to
his bass bridge design. Ingenious! 
Too unconventional for most
At the time of its launch, this bridge was perhaps
too unconventional for most. Maybe the bass
makers didn’t realise how great it was. Whatever
the reason, Gotoh discontinued the product
soon after its launch. But I’m the obstinate type.
I went to Gotoh and asked if they would be
willing to make the part for me. They did, as
long as I would buy enough so it made sense to
them. And so we have ended up at this point of
time as the exclusive bass maker using the
WB2P bridge – even if Trev Wilkinson didn’t
perhaps plan it that way!
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