Classical Width Bridge With Ghost?

[ToddW]

I'm only 60% done with the project I'm working on, but am already thinking about the next one, and had a couple of questions. I wanted to try to build a very wide neck semi hollow body for classical style playing. I plan to use a zero fret, but am not sure how I'd do the bridge to allow the saddles to move for intonation.

One thought was to build a wide fixed tailpiece style bridge from bubinga, since it's very hard, and put graphtec ghost saddles on it? I thought it might require some spacers between the saddles, but couldn't see any problems other than that. If that's possible, I figured I'd mount one rail style PUP inside the body from the back, and be able to mix the ghost system with the passive PUP.

The bridge is the only part that worries me. Are there any problems you would anticipate?

Thanks,

Todd

[ToddW]

21 views and nobody has any thoughts? Nothing turned up in my searches here either, so maybe this will be new ground.

Gonna start sketching it out and see how it goes.

[Mattia]

What do you need adjustability for? Acoustics and classicals don't have it, and they play and intonate just fine. Then either get RMC units, or just a traditional acoustic guitar undersaddle transducer and go to town.

[ToddW]

I thought about that, and don't honestly know why solid bodies have adjustable saddles and acoutics don't. My assumption has been because the string tensions change more on an electric and you might want to re-adjust the intonation after changing string guages.

Since I was planning to string this like an electric and have a passive neck pickup, I thought adjustable saddles would be a good idea. The ghost pre-amp allows for blending of the two pickup systems if you run them both down one cable, and is designed for a solidbody. And I thought that putting a sensor designed for an acoutic guitar onto what is essentially a solid body guitar wouldn't sound as good because the top vibrates less.

Todd

[Mattia]

The sensor types are fairly identical, and there are tons of folks out there buidling 'solidbodies' with acoustic saddle type pickups, like Gibson's SST and Rick Turner's entire line of Rennaisance acoustic-electrics - and Rick Turner knows his pickup systems! Even argues that piezo-style pickups sound better in solidbodies, and yes, he also blends with magnetics from time to time.

You can't use contact piezo films (like the K&K Pure system, LR Baggs I-beam, etc.), but an undersaddle piezo is an undersaddle piezo.

Also: string tensions do not 'change more' on any guitar. They are what they are for a given string guage and given tuning. Most sets will be decent over a range of tunings, but if you're making a metal eletric bridge, for players who will use a large variety of (thin guage, therefore pickier about intonation adjustment) string sets, best to pop in an adjustable bridge. Also allows dialing in the action very precisely, something that's all too often not done well on (budget) acoustics.

[ToddW]

Hey Mattia,

Thanks for clearing up why the bridges on my electrics are adjustable. I want an adjustable bridge partly because I don't trust myself to get the guitar intonated and the saddle height set up perfectly without one.

I am pretty good with woodworking, and since I haven't found any adjustable bridges in a classical width, I thought that simply making a custom holder for the individual piezo saddles was the best option.

The Ghost system seems to get similar reviews to the RMC, and costs less, especially the pre-amp. If I don't need the pre-amp to mix the piezo with a magnetic pickup, then the price difference is not that much, do you know if that is the case? I haven't found any good info on this yet.

Thanks again,

Todd

[Mattia]

You want a preamp of some sort with pretty much any acoustic pickup system.

You can always go with Wilkinson trem-style saddles screwed into a drilled and tapped steel baseplate, which makes adjusting spacing easy.