Pardon My Ignorance But...

[Billybob Dylan]

I've only owned Fenders up til now, so I'm new to the world of Epi's, semi-hollows, Nashville bridges & stop tailpieces.

 

I bought a Dot the other day, and I remember reading somewhere about upgrading the bridge & stopbar to lightweight (aluminum?) ones. OK, so I get the concept of upgrading pick-ups, pots & switches for better sound, and I kinda get the idea of upgrading the bridge and/or saddles, but what difference does the stopbar make?

 

Is it really a worthwhile upgrade? And if so, if anyone's done it, can you post the part numbers and tell me where you bought them?

 

Thanks.

[Lerxst1281733995]

I've only owned Fenders up til now' date=' so I'm new to the world of Epi's, semi-hollows, Nashville bridges & stop tailpieces.

 

I bought a Dot the other day, and I remember reading somewhere about upgrading the bridge & stopbar to lightweight (aluminum?) ones. OK, so I get the concept of upgrading pick-ups, pots & switches for better sound, and I kinda get the idea of upgrading the bridge and/or saddles, but what difference does the stopbar make?

 

Is it really a worthwhile upgrade? And if so, if anyone's done it, can you post the part numbers and tell me where you bought them?

 

Thanks.[/quote']

 

Aluminum is considered an upgrade for its rigidity.. It's said to increase sustain as it doesn't absorb or rob the string of as much energy.. It's also said that aluminum is better for resonance, as it passes more of the vibrational energy into the wood.. There's an ongoing debate whether mass or rigidity enhances sustain better.. I'm on the fence about it myself.. When I was coming up, I was always told that the heavier a bridge is, the better for sustain... I started off as a bass player, and heavy bridges made of brass and other high density metals (like a Badass bridge) always worked well, so I never questioned it... One of these days, I'll try an aluminum bridge/tailpiece arrangement and see for myself..

[TWANG]

Aluminum is light, and you'll notice something about it compared to steel.

It doesn't ring. You can't make a bell out of it.

It's still metal, more dense than any wood.

But it adds no color. So that's another thing that draws people to it.

You can hear the difference. You can use an aluminum nut and hear a difference, too.

On the fence is a good way to put it. I've used brass nuts, brass bridge saddles, steel saddles and bridges, aluminum, bone nuts... on and on.

For me, choosing is not a question of getting the best piece.. but getting the right piece.

You can mod your guitar right into hell, if you get my drift, and with all the 'best' pieces.

 

You can certainly find varying opinions, and that's why. Good on mine, maybe, but wrong on yours, or vice versa.

I try to tell people to decide what they like and dont' like is the first thing that's important. You could build it right away from your ears with nothing but lots of money and name brands and manufacturers, as well as guitarists, claims.

Dots are sweet.. epis done a great job.

For me, the changes I'd look at are

1. caps.

cap quality and values can make a dramatic change. more signal, brighter, warmer, thinner thicker.. centered at different frequencys.

So it's the relationship of the guitar to the pickup that decides the cap. that will include any other part, of course, but for me, it's easiest to tune that cap, pot, pickup relationship first, and then consider other options if you don't hit perfect enough for you.

2. pickups

from the pots wiring shielding. these things all make a difference in varying degrees. But the grossest tonal change comes from here.. single coils, big-small, humbucks.. split coils.. series parallel..pot value and quality.. all can make a difference.

3. other

this is the nut, the tuners, the saddles, bridge, tailpiece. all more incremental, typically, than the other changes, more fine tuning.

 

 

in short.. don't just go for change.. change can be anything. mod to your ears. to what you think is the best sound. It's all very subjective, you know. so why not take advantage of having your own tastes? Noone can prove you wrong!

But don't overpay, don't overmod, don't move yourself into some position where you justify what you've done just because you've done it.

 

A better quality bridge or stoptail is going to be that.. better quality.. no doubt about it.. but that doesn't explain why Leo did such good work with less than top brag quality stuff now and then.. classics.. instruments that defined, so well that they are called vintage and classics.

 

It's only worthwhile if it produces what you need.

'More sustain and tone' sounds remarkably universal. But it really doesn't work out that way.. as it's all dependent on which guitar gets the parts.

And then.. there's the fence.. it's so hard to say you have to go back to being subjective.. honestly saying to yourself, sometimes without delicate and expensive instruments to measure under clinical conditions my own ears are the judge.

 

I was thinking once of building a tele with three bridge saddles.. old style? but one bone, one brass and one aluminum.

of course, I'd have to put six of the same strings on to really judge it.. but I'm sure anyone would get a good idea of the differences from that.

I wonder which would win after fifty years of testing on customers..

 

no I don't. they all would!

(geez.. real help, aint i?)

TWANG

[Lerxst1281733995]

Heheh... Yeah, that's the thing about discussing such matters of minutiae in regards to tone.. It's so subjective, you can end up chasing your tail... I used to agonize over mod choices like that.. ("So and so says this... And that makes sense... On the other hand, Whatsisname said this is better... That kinda makes sense too!") Nowadays, I don't worry too much about it, unless I really don't like the results at all...

[Billybob Dylan]

(geez.. real help' date=' aint i?)

TWANG[/quote']

No, that was a great post!

 

I'm looking at it more like fine tuning the guitar rather than trying to change it drastically. I've never worked on a hollow body before. Modding Strats & Teles is easy, but this seems a bit more involved.

 

I've had experience of Graph Tech nuts & saddles, and I always planned to make that change. I'll let you know how I get on.

[tulsaslim]

Well said there, Twang.

[Red 333]

Great question, and one that can rsult in considerable debate.

 

String vibation is theoretically terminated at the bridge, so what the stop bar is made of probably has nothing to do with how string vibration is conducted into the body. Play your Dot and damp the strings between the bridge and stop bar and listen for any change in tone or sustain. You won't hear any. That said, in my experience, aluminum stop bars do change the tone. My guess is because they reduce the mass of the guitar slightly. Whether that change is better or worse is subjective.

 

The Dot was originally introduced in the late '50s to make the then-new electric guitar appeal to tradiitonal archtop players. The acoustic wings and f-holes really have more to do with echoing decades-old tradiitonal guitar design, and less to do with its sound (except at very high volumes, when they can be harnessed for feedback, which the original designers proabaly never considered). The maple block (length, weight, and density) is the major factor (along with the neck length and material) that makes a Dot sound different from a Les Paul or SG or something, given the same pickups and strings. The stop bar adds to the mass of the block, which changes how string energy is transmitted through it.

 

The Stewart MacDonald website has aluminum stop bar and stud sets in gold, nickel, and chrome that will fit your Dot. Chose metric spacing.

 

Red 333