Design and Engineering: Custom Guitar Bridge
The single plate design for this one-off, custom bridge allows for significantly easier and more accurate installation, which cuts down on set up time later in the process. The scale range of the guitar, 25.5 - 27 inches, was built into the bridge itself, which ensures inter-tonal accuracy. Additionally the bridge is designed for active piezo pickups, which other bridges on the market do not offer in the same capacity. The final product is 3D printed, which returns a final product both light and easy to manufacture.
All Photographs and Drawings by Alex Pfiffner
While this version of the custom bridge is solely for the 1.5 inch scale change of the S1, this design can be slightly altered to almost any string or scale layout, even single scale versions.
The custom S1 bridge performs a number of functions perfectly while remaining very affordable.
The individual piezo saddles function much differently than typical magnetic pickups, as each is wired directly to a control board in the electronics cavity. All seven cables must route through the bridge, under the removable wire cover, and through the body of the guitar. This custom bridge hides all evidence of these cables (for aesthetic purposes) and also grounds each saddle, which is necessary to remove passive noise from the system. The metal plate is integrated into the bridge floor and has the added benefit of hiding the wire channels. Incorporating these two aspects into the design allowed for a final product that not only appears sleek and minimalistic, but allows the bridge to perform with almost no maintenance or vulnerability after installation.
