The Englund "Shenibu"

[TommyK]

You know, KSDADDY, I ain't looked at your page for the >>>Shenibu<<< since before you grafted the bridge on. That Yamahopper sure has an unusual bridge/saddle assembly. Would you mind telling us some details? It could be the lighting, but it appears each string's intonation is adjustable? How does it work? How well does it work?

 

Boy oh boy the mahogany back and sides shine like a Hereford steer slickered up with a bucket of Bryl Cream for the 4-H fair show. Gorgeous.

[ksdaddy]

It's an original Fender bridge but it's impossible to tell exactly what model it's from... they changed them sometimes (not that Gibson would ever do that!). Could be from a Palomino, as it's identical to the one on the old relic thing I have. The center section of the bridge is routed down to paper thin and the saddles sit in there. They are adjustable for intonation but not height. They are almost identical to Mustang saddles but I was told they won't interchange. The radius is provided by the fact that the saddles have three different diameters, therfore three different heights... the E saddles are smallest, the A and B are bigger, and the D and G are biggest. I suspect the whole assembly is a massive tone killer but they aren't known for tone anyway. The saddles are an extremely tight fit in the given space; no sideways wiggle at all, and quite an effort to install the last one.

 

The bridge on the old Palomino wasn't structurally stable and if had used my brains I would have just replaced that center section with a solid piece of rosewood and routed it for a regular saddle, but I had already used my brain that day to decide what kind of Chinese food to order, so I had used up my daily quota. Instead I rebuilt the floorboard with a thin piece. God knows we want to keep that classic as original as possible, don't want to alter it's collector value.....

 

The bridge on the Shenibu I believe was NOS, never installed, but there are a couple massive flaws by the dot inlays, so that's why it may have gotten thrown under the bench at Fender while LBJ was in office.

 

I haven't even bothered to set the intonation yet; it's not far off as-is and I have cheap strings on it that might not intonate anyway.

 

It actually turned out to be a pretty good guitar, I just don't even want to think about how many hours I put into it. Never a good idea.