Making an archtop bridge

Self built and self assembly ;)

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Jay
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Making an archtop bridge

Post by Jay »

Rainy day's work!

The old Yamaha SA5, SA20, SA30 and SA50 have a rosewood or ebony bridge base. The bridge base is quite a nice piece of workmanship and is not easily made from scratch. The bottom of the bridge is angled in two dimensions so that it follows the contours of the arched top it is resting on. It is screwed onto the guitar body while the posts are screwed into the bridge base to allow the metal Tune-o-matic to sit on top.

You can buy generic timber bridge bases at Stewmac or so for about $20, but they look different and their post spacing does not allow for an original Yamaha SA30 tune-o-matic.

I recently bought an old busted up SA30 with something that really could not be called an archtop bridge. It needed something better...

So I pulled the orginal bridge base from one of my SA30s and decided to copy it and make my own. Blimey, 3.5 hours later and I do have a rather nice (if I say so myself), brand new bridge base. Just need to source the screws and the posts but trying it with the original bits...

All fits perfectly on the old Superaxe and looks rather 'original'. Here some photos.

Top one is the original rosewood base.

Image

Bottom view:

Image

Fitted onto the SA-30 body:

Image

With tune-o-matic fitted:

Image
When faced with quality, I recognise it every time.

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kdawg2a
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Re: Making and archtop bridge

Post by kdawg2a »

That is some excellent work.
1935 Martin D-45, 1942 Gibson Southern Jumbo,1950 Fender Broadcaster, 1954 Fender Strat, 1958 Gibson Moderne prototype, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.
1958 Fender twin, 1965 Vox AC30, 1966 Marshall JTM 45, 1977 Dumble OD Special.
Big black garbage bag full of original Klon Centaurs and TS808s.

Jehu
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Re: Making and archtop bridge

Post by Jehu »

Nicely done. Looks very close! Does the bridge actually need to be screwed to the top? I wouldn't see any harm in keeping it floating.

Thumbwheels and posts are cheap through Stewmac. I'll likely be making an order sometime in the next few weeks; I could add a set in for you to save on shipping if you want.
Jay

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Jay
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Re: Making and archtop bridge

Post by Jay »

Jehu wrote:Nicely done. Looks very close! Does the bridge actually need to be screwed to the top? I wouldn't see any harm in keeping it floating.

Thumbwheels and posts are cheap through Stewmac. I'll likely be making an order sometime in the next few weeks; I could add a set in for you to save on shipping if you want.
That is very kind of you. On these models the bridge is screwed on, but yes it doesn't need to be. The post are special and screwed in from behind. I'll check Stewmac to see what they have got.
When faced with quality, I recognise it every time.

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