Malcontent Engineering
So...I've been trying to get the second prototype happening enough to send out to one of our fine Fools here who plays in an AC/DC cover band. He's got a casino gig later this month and has graciously offered to let me use some footage in the Kickstarter demo.
So I was originally just planning to use epoxy to hold the old bushings in place. Not a good fix, but workable in the short term. Then I saw these bridges, which aren't as tall as the Badass knockoff that came on the prototype.
You want the pull as straight as possible, which is why it's important for the top height to work with the neck angle. It's also problematic with the Badass design that the saddles ride so high over the tension line of the bridge. I call it the, "Mauser Effect," because I'm a nerd.
Heh...the "Broomhandle" Mauser that was used for Han Solo's blaster (you knew this was a sci-fi analogy before I even started, right?) is kind of famous for the grip being so low (Solo?) that, when fired, the recoil attempts to spin the firearm out of your hand. I mean, Winston Churchill carried one and they were apparently reliable German-engineered hardware, but the idea is for the force ("Use the Force!") to be transferred to the anchor point (meaty grip) in as straight a line as possible, so's it don't turn into a pinwheel and fly out of your hand.
Same thing with guitar bridges. You want all the loading to be as linear as possible for a whole variety of reasons and the Badass wraparound is like the Mauser of the guitar world in that respect.
So I got this flatter, better designed bridge...and it's a couple of millimeters too wide to ride the existing span of the anchor studs.
HOWEVER...the new studs and bushings are fatter than the ones that came with the prototypes. I could pull those out and push them in by hand. This pair of bushings required me to get out my Tiny Whacker...which sounds like a terrible thing to have...at least if you want to get dates. Heh...anyway, these may do the trick. They seem to be in there really tight now. Even tighter than with the shims.
This had a set of 9-46 strings on it. I think I'm going to go out tomorrow and get some 9-42s. Maybe a little less tension and the new hardware will make this work well enough for the demo.
BTW, I am super-psyched to get footage of the Malcontent being played by an AC/DC cover band. I mean, that's perfect, right? Thanks go out to our intrepid Fooligan!
Malcontent Engineering
So...I've been trying to get the second prototype happening enough to send out to one of our fine Fools here who plays in an AC/DC cover band. He's got a casino gig later this month and has graciously offered to let me use some footage in the Kickstarter demo.
So I was originally just planning to use epoxy to hold the old bushings in place. Not a good fix, but workable in the short term. Then I saw these bridges, which aren't as tall as the Badass knockoff that came on the prototype.
You want the pull as straight as possible, which is why it's important for the top height to work with the neck angle. It's also problematic with the Badass design that the saddles ride so high over the tension line of the bridge. I call it the, "Mauser Effect," because I'm a nerd.
Heh...the "Broomhandle" Mauser that was used for Han Solo's blaster (you knew this was a sci-fi analogy before I even started, right?) is kind of famous for the grip being so low (Solo?) that, when fired, the recoil attempts to spin the firearm out of your hand. I mean, Winston Churchill carried one and they were apparently reliable German-engineered hardware, but the idea is for the force ("Use the Force!") to be transferred to the anchor point (meaty grip) in as straight a line as possible, so's it don't turn into a pinwheel and fly out of your hand.
Same thing with guitar bridges. You want all the loading to be as linear as possible for a whole variety of reasons and the Badass wraparound is like the Mauser of the guitar world in that respect.
So I got this flatter, better designed bridge...and it's a couple of millimeters too wide to ride the existing span of the anchor studs.
HOWEVER...the new studs and bushings are fatter than the ones that came with the prototypes. I could pull those out and push them in by hand. This pair of bushings required me to get out my Tiny Whacker...which sounds like a terrible thing to have...at least if you want to get dates. Heh...anyway, these may do the trick. They seem to be in there really tight now. Even tighter than with the shims.
This had a set of 9-46 strings on it. I think I'm going to go out tomorrow and get some 9-42s. Maybe a little less tension and the new hardware will make this work well enough for the demo.
BTW, I am super-psyched to get footage of the Malcontent being played by an AC/DC cover band. I mean, that's perfect, right? Thanks go out to our intrepid Fooligan!