Roller Bridge Vs. Standard Gibson Style

[John Abbett]

All,

I was looking at the roller bridges, I'm thinking about a bigsby in the future, this would be to plan ahead for it. Do the roller bridges have less sustain then the standard bridges? I would imagine that the standard bridge has a sharp angle and the strings don't possibly hit when vibrating, the roller bridge has a curved surface, so it would hit when it's vibrating. I realize that this is very small.

So is there a difference?

-John

[WezV]

the strings wont hit the roller so dont worry about that

a roller bridge will give you plenty of sustain, it might be a little less than a standard TOM but then a TOM is a little less than a 1-piece wraparound... all have more than enough for the majority of guitar playing and only slight differences between them ... the bigsby might rob a bit though.

[John Abbett]

Thanks.

-John

[j. pierce]

I had a schaller roller bridge on a Bigsby-equipped guitar, and I loved the sound of it, and it certainly sustained better than most of my instruments. (Although I'm one of those folks who feels that unless you're playing a Sitar hybrid, there's probably enough sustain in most guitars.) Changing out to a TOM didn't seem to effect tone too much - slightly changed the tonal qualities (a little brighter) but not the sustain. A guitar with a similar setup but a Jaguar trem sounded incredibly different. That guitar had enough differences that I couldn't lay the change squarely on the trem, but that was the biggest change between the two instruments. I'm thinking of gutting that guitar for parts and rebuilding, so maybe someday before I do that, I'll bolt the bigbsy on and see for real.

[westhemann]

Go with the roller bridge...you will save money on strings.

[John Abbett]

Does anyone recommend a roller bridge as better then another?

I was looking at this one and thinking about trying it out.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/gorobrfilesp.html

[j. pierce]

I know a guy who got one of those, and was very unhappy with it.

I really like the schaller roller bridges, but they're quite expensive. For experimentations sake, you can't beat the price on the one you showed.

[Mickguard]

Does anyone recommend a roller bridge as better then another?

I was looking at this one and thinking about trying it out.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/gorobrfilesp.html

I had the guitarfetish bridge....it rattled a lot (not a big deal when plugged in, but it made the guitar really annoying to play on the couch), and the rollers had a lot of side to side play that I didn't like. Don't know how much of an issue that might have been. And I sold the guitar I put the bridge on. Maybe he found a better supplier since then.

The Schaller bridge I put on a different guitar also had rollers, and these were much tighter. Different bridge though.

Another option is to use a bridge with String Saver saddles.

[Southpa]

I've used the Schaller roller bridge on a few guitars now. No trems on the guitars but I don't care. They are excellent when it comes to adjusting string spacing. They can hold a note as long as the rest of them.

Edited November 15, 2008 by Southpa