why isn't the bridge perpendicular and...

jankushka

hello everyone.

sorry if this is a naive question.

i'm not into this technical stuff much...

i'm a bit puzzled... :-/

i was looking at some hagstrom vikings and i noticed that the tune-o-matic

bridge is not mounted perpendicular to the pick-ups (and neck).

i also noticed that the angle varied quite a bit (so...same guitar model, bridge

mounted at different angles...).

so i looked at some gibsons (lp and es335) and found pretty much the same

thing.

i would like to understand what the rationale for this is...

and i also would like to understand (as there must be a limit to it) how

much off the 90 degrees you can go, before this becomes a problem.

thanks very much in advance!

nirvana23freak

its to make intonation easier. the angle is mostly how the saddles will be adjusted, so they make you have to adjust less by angling it.

phaeton

i always thought it was cause you can never adjust the low and high e saddles far enough apart from each other

AnotherTool

phaeton said: i always thought it was cause you can never adjust the low and high e saddles far enough apart from each other

Yeah that's the reason and exactly what the Freak said.

The standard tuneomatic is too skinny, if you put the high e as forward as it'll go and the low E as far back as it'll go, it won't intonate if the bridge is set straight like the freak said, so they angle it. Some tuneomatics are wider though, so maybe they can be set straight who knows, never looked into it.

It's kinda silly that the tuneomatics not wide enough though don't you think?

I mean, same bridges, same steel strings and same 440 concert pitch that we've had since the first Gibsons, whoever designed it was high.

tragictravisty

are you saying perpendicular to the body or parralell to the pickups?

nirvana23freak

i think he means parallel to the pick ups. the TOM's on my stang and jstang both have toms, there both straight, their both perfectly intonated

jankushka

thank you all for the explanation.

the intonation thing makes sense for the standard t-o-m.

it's also likely though that the wider t-o-m could probably be mounted straight.

thanks again.

cheers.