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Well, I finally have the new Driskill Adjustable Stop Tail bridge done. Here are some pictures of it. I put the first one on a flame maple tiger's eye Diablo that is going to Tokyo. That is this one. I have a lot more of them that I will be buffing and polishing soon. Then they are off to the plater. They are made from solid blocks of brass. I also made a few out of some aluminum from an F-16 fighter jet. That is some incredible aluminum. I will have to see how the aluminum sounds. I know that the brass will sound fantastic. I'll have some pictures up soon showing how they are made. I had to learn all kinds of new stuff to design and make these. This one is solid brass and has nickel plating and then 24 kt. gold plating on it. I then clearcoated it with Chromaclear auto urethane to prevent it from having any problems with wear. This is the coolest bridge ever! Look at how the saddles all ride in arched pockets and follow the arch of the fretboard. The saddles also have an angled slot that is has a radius instead of a groove. The saddles all have a radiused back edge so that your hand can rest on them without them cutting into your palm. Very slick. This thing just rocks! And it looks really cool too. Everything on it is a smooth curve. It's really sexy with its swoopy curves and sleek lines. Swoopy-from the Latin-swoopenorum curvacious. Even the string slots have radiused edges that go back into the body. This will make it almost impossible to break a string on this bad boy. |
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Look at the smooth arch on the back of the bridge. Also, look at how the saddles are nice and comfortable. |
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Nothing will stop it in its quest for total and complete world domination. |
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Not even you Mr. Bond. |
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Look at how the saddles are all arched the same as the fretboard. That is the coolest. I've never seen a bridge that does this. Some try to but then have lame 2 axis pockets in them so that the saddles sit crooked in the undesirable pockets. This bridge has saddles that fit in tight pockets for the ultimate in tone transfer. |
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Here we see the back side of the bridge. What is that? Oh cool! Look at how the string slots have radiuses on them that wrap around and extend all the way into the body of the bridge. Oh my, how will I ever break a string on this bridge? |
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Here is a picture of my new stop tail bridge! It is made of 6061 T-6 aluminum with 360 brass saddles and 303 stainless mounting and intonation screws. The mouning screws also have a socket in them instead of a slotted screw which makes them not only cool looking but very usefull. No slipping of a screwdriver and marring the bridge or your guitar. It iis cut so that it fits the bridge within a few thousandths of an inch. It is one single piece of stainless rod which is then precision cut to fit the bridge exactly. This means it is easily adjustable and there is no wobble. One of the great features is that because it is made from aircraft stainless steel, it is virtually indestructible. That means that not only is it incredibly strong and stiff, it also is highly resistant to marring from screwdriver mishaps. |
In this picture, you can see a lot of bridges have been cut. I finally ended up with 71 stoptails, 500 saddles, and 1632 intonation screws. |
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Here is the hideous cleaning of Slacker. This is quite an ordeal as it is akin to getting a sex change going from wood to metal. Big job but worth it when you end up with these bridges. |
Here are some pictures of the buffing jig that I made to buff 24 saddles at a time prior to plating. I took this picture with my iphone. |
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