Stop tailpiece

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Chris Richards
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Location: London, England
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Stop tailpiece

Post by Chris Richards »

Hi

Just wanted to ask you experts for some advice!.... I'm building a fun guitar for my daughter, I have a spare Tele type neck but because the body is thin I wanted to use a wrap around stop tailpiece/bridge with built in compensating saddles. Do you think it will work with the longer Fender scale?... The guitar is just for her to learn and a bit of fun but I don't want it to sound seriously out-of-tune when playing up the neck. Also would the bridge have to be mounted perpndicular or at a slant like the old smooth LP Junior bridges.. I hope perpendicular! any ideas what string/saddle should the 25.5 scale be exact to? I like simple neat guitars so would prefer not to use a bridge with adjusting grub screws etc but if you think it's too much of a risk not to use then I guess that would be the safe option.

Thank you
Chris
Rodger Knox
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Re: Stop tailpiece

Post by Rodger Knox »

Yes, the wraparound will work with the longer scale, but you do need to put it in the right place. You said you have a tele neck, which is 25.5" scale length. Are you building the body? The bridge will need to be about 12 7/8" from the 12th fret, depending on the particular bridge you are using. Angled or straight will also depend on the particular bridge.
Here's the deal. The scale length is the distance from the nut to the saddle, plus a little compensation. Compensation is added because the vibrating length of the string is slightly less than the actual length, and the string is stretched slightly when it is fretted. These factors make the frets up the neck play a little sharp, so a little length is added at the saddle to compensate. This length depends on several factors, the main ones being the size, mass, and stiffness of the string. Since all the strings are different, each one needs a different amount of compensation. Larger strings need more, that's why some wraparounds are set at an angle. Usually the high e requires a little less than 1/8", and the low e a little more than 3/16".
A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon
Gordon Bellerose
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Re: Stop tailpiece

Post by Gordon Bellerose »

Roger is correct in all he said. The only thing I might add is that the bridge may be a bit high for the low profile Tele neck and body.
A Tele bridge is usually about 1/2 inch off the body to the top of the saddles. Some guitars that have a T.O.M. or wraparound bridge, also have a bit of a neck/body angle to compensate for the higher bridge.
You may want to check that out before buying or installing the bridge.
I need your help. I can't possibly make all the mistakes myself!
Henrique Schneiter
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Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:59 am

Re: Stop tailpiece

Post by Henrique Schneiter »

I double what Rodger and Gordon said.

The compensated JR bridge is intended to be installed perpendicular to the strings. The particular bridge sold by stewmac won't intonate right on the G string unless you use a very heavy string set, with a wounded G string. The one sold by guitarfetish will work on modern, lighter gauge strings.

I did not understand the relationship between the body being thin and the choice of a LP JR bridge.
Chris Richards
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Re: Stop tailpiece

Post by Chris Richards »

Thanks for all your really useful replies....To be honest I'm building the guitar out of scraps that I have laying around and the bit for the body is about SG thickness so I intend to have a shallower neck pocket and I guess I could route this with the template spaced at the back to give a little neck angle... It's just with such a thin body I can't get the neck deep enough and therefore would have to mount a Fender type (Tele or Strat hardtail) on a block which I think would look far uglier than a wrap around.... So I guess it's going to be a cross between a Tele and an SG but these "hybrids" are rearly straight forward... As you guys have pointed out. Thanks again ....Chris
Warren May
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Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:00 pm

Re: Stop tailpiece

Post by Warren May »

You will just need to carefully measure to get the correct neck pocket depth for the wraparound you choose but it sounds like what you are thinking of doing is something like some Rickenbackers. The body is thin and the neck is set very high with a bridge similar to the t.o.m. If you do set the neck in a shallow pocket, you will need to consider what pickups to use so you can get them close enough to the strings. Surface mounted, maybe. Also consider whether set neck or screw on. The screw on for your first one can give you the opportunity to alter the neck pocket. Another approach is to drop the neck pocket as with a Strat or Tele bolt on and recess the bridge into the body. Draw your plan out carefully with a side view but if you leave the neck high you won't need much of a neck angle (like SG's) and maybe none at all. You may want to do a mock up with something really cheap to get the intonation correct but you should be just fine. StewMac's fret calculator tool will give you very close to the correct hole locations for wraparound bridges.
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