DIY aluminium TOM-style bridge

[Michiel Wildenberg]

Anybody ever made his own aluminium one pieze bridge, like for example a Compton style bridge? If so, how did you do it and how did it work out for you?

I want to put a one piece bridge on my new self build, but am worried about intonation when ordering a compton. It would be nice to intonate with a standard TOM bridge and use those settings to build the one piece bridge out of a block of aluminium. But how do you shape aluminium in the desired forms?

[Dan Smith]

I used one of these on a LP build.
I used light gauge strings and the intonation was spot on. I was suprised.
http://www.guitarfetish.com/Wilkinson-L ... p_892.html

[David King]

You can form aluminum in a number of ways. The cheapest is with sharp files designed for filing non-ferrous metals. You can also mill it on a milling machine or cast your part from a wood, clay or wax model using the lost wax or sand cast method.

[Brian Evans]

I made a one piece wrap-around bridge for my 1962 Melody Maker. My guitar is an early 1962, right in around the time that they were switching from the early style bridge with the mounting posts angled at around 8 degrees to the centerline of the guitar, and the later "Z" or lightning bolt style bridge with the mounting posts mounted square to the guitar, and the compensation in the staggered saddle pieces cast into the bridge. My guitar got the early mounting posts and the later bridge, so was doubly compensated and never played in tune from new, you couldn't adjust the bridge far enough. I milled a new bridge from billet aluminium on my Bridgeport mill, and made a staggered break-line saddle with one line for the unwound strings and another line for the wound strings. I placed the two edge lines base on the actual string/scale length of a SG that I also own that has the 24 5/8" scale. Worked a right treat, guitar plays in tune up and down the neck, and the mass and accuracy of the bridge saddle break really woke the tone up a great deal. It's like getting a new guitar!

Brian

[David King]

A bridgeport is what you want, lucky are we that have them.