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John Myung Bongo 4

Question Floating bridge setup question

mikeller

mikeller

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
2,805
Location
Central Ohio
My MM guitar bridges are all set to float - accomplished by loosening the claw springs and tuning etc to get to the desired float - where as the bridge leans forward towards the pickups and is raised at the back of the bridge.

I took one my guitars into one of the best local tech's for a setup etc who asked me the normal questions and if I wanted bridge decked or floating.

When I got it back the bridge is indeed floating (I can raise and lower pitch) however it is parallel to the front of the guitar. In other words - he raised the bridge plate height at the posts so it is flat from front to back and is floating off the body.

Have any of you ever done that or heard of that? It works fine, but i am honestly not sure I like it - the trem feels stiffer and I have to remove the bar to close the case lid without detuning.

Thank you for your time! Keep well friends.
 
A lot of Ibanez bridges do that. Logically, it's no different to any floating bridge that has been routed under the bridge, e.g. the Petrucci models! Fender used to recommend it that way but no longer do and their spec is now the same as the Luke spec - angled with 1/8 inch gap at the back. Do however you like it.

By the way, in the absence of a dedicated Music Man setup guide, the Fender Strat setup guide is an *excellent* resource...

How do I set up my Stratocaster(R) guitar properly? – Fender
 
Thank you DrKev !!! Back in the pre-MM days when I played strats I kept them decked. I had never seen that before - but I also trust the tech. I think I like the leaning approach better and may change it at some point, but it does work equally well.
 
Did that end up raising the action, or did the tech lower the saddles to compensate?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
Hmmmm. EBMM guitars with tremolos usually have fixed bridge posts, screwed directly into the wood. They don't have posts in bushings. I'm not sure that the bridge posts were really designed to be adjusted that way.
 
tbonesullivan said:
Hmmmm. EBMM guitars with tremolos usually have fixed bridge posts, screwed directly into the wood. They don't have posts in bushings. I'm not sure that the bridge posts were really designed to be adjusted that way.
Click to expand...

I will need to look at that - I thought they were adjustable? The guitar in questions is a 2001 Silo Spec
 
Well, I know that the Luke III trem doesn't have adjustable posts. Why would they tilt the bridge upward if they could just raise the bridge plate a little to get some "up" bend room?
 
I saw that, and both the vintage and Luke III setup pretty much start out with the bridge pivot screws being as low as possible while still allowing the tremolo a full range of motion. To get floating, they want the bridge plate to angle upwards.
 
DrKev said:
Correction: looking at my Silo and Cutlass just now, there are NO bushings.

The posts are absolutely adjustable, if you so wish.

I don't see bushings on my Luke either. Just out of curiosity, what do the post thread into
Click to expand...
 
Don’t know if this is a universal thing, but on my mates strat, If the bridge was floated parallel, when he played a chord and did a bend whilst it was ringing out, the ringing strings went out of tune. When it was floating with an angle instead, this did not happen. I don’t know why. Is it just a fluke?
 
If it floats, it'll go out of tune when you bend a string. How much depends on the tension. But there's no magic there :)
 
mikeller said:
My MM guitar bridges are all set to float - accomplished by loosening the claw springs and tuning etc to get to the desired float - where as the bridge leans forward towards the pickups and is raised at the back of the bridge.

I took one my guitars into one of the best local tech's for a setup etc who asked me the normal questions and if I wanted bridge decked or floating.

When I got it back the bridge is indeed floating (I can raise and lower pitch) however it is parallel to the front of the guitar. In other words - he raised the bridge plate height at the posts so it is flat from front to back and is floating off the body.

Have any of you ever done that or heard of that? It works fine, but i am honestly not sure I like it - the trem feels stiffer and I have to remove the bar to close the case lid without detuning.

Thank you for your time! Keep well friends.
Click to expand...

Mike, can you post a pic so that we can see how drastic the bridge plate height is?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
GoKart Mozart said:
Mike, can you post a pic so that we can see how drastic the bridge plate height is?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Here it is. Functionally it is perfectly fine - the only thing I don't like is that it has made the trem arm sit higher and leaving it on in the case de-tunes the guitar. Sorry its a fuzzy picture - but you can see how the front of the bridge is raised above the pickguard - whereas I am used to it be closer to the body.

ss-bridge.jpg
.
 
I set up my Albert Lee SSS to float like that, though a little more extremely. I've come to love the amount of expressiveness that the setup provides, oblique bends don't work exactly the same way but I've come to make it work when I need it (plus I have a stingray that I keep decked for just this reason!). It's not super normal but if you wanna see the potential of this setup, just listen to Nadia by Jeff Beck, he's the reason I set up the Al like this.
 
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