Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

[loudriver23]

I am going between making a P98/Phatcat tele and a SSH Strat, I am actually leaning more towards the strat project right now.
Warmoth sells and pre-drills for their Vintage Strat Hardtail bridge, and the
Shaller 475 flat mount bridge.
I was thinking of putting QP's in the neck and mid with a C5 or JB in the bridge.
Does anyone have a better "Hardtail" bridge suggestion?
Thanks a million.
Lou Driver

[mrid]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

The Hipshot Hardtail is a great bridge.

[TattooedCarrot]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

I'm using the Hipshot on my Warmoths. If you get the hole spacing narrow for humbucker it works. I have my tech install it so I can't comment on how hard or easy it is, but it works.

[mrfjones]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

try callahams vintage bridge.

[fusion101]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

gotta say i havent tryed the hipshot hartail but i have tryed there tremelo and it was a great construction, plus its american made(which is a breath of fresh air from those damn korean guitar bridges that are ****.
-fusion

[MattPete]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

I bought the vintage bridge that Warmoth sells and swapped the saddles for some of these:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_bridge_parts/Saddles_For_Strat_Non-Tremolo_Bridge.html

Interestingly, I had to swap the saddle height screws from the old saddles to the new saddles, otherwise I ran out of height and they got wobbly.

I think for my next (last? Can I finally stop the madness?), I'm either going to use the Hipshot or one of these:

http://guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/product/GBST2

Anyone have any experience with the last one?

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

The Hipshot Hardtail looks great and is string through the body. That means a greater break angle over the saddles and (theoretically) more resonance from the body.

The Schaller 475 isn't as pretty, but it's top loading and that cam that locks all the saddles together after adjustment makes a lot of sense. The adjustable string spacing might be helpful with those pickups - then again the QP pole pieces are so big it's hard to miss them completely.

Hard choice for me in this case between the two...

Chip

[Stratoplayer]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

I bought the vintage bridge that Warmoth sells and swapped the saddles for some of these:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_bridge_parts/Saddles_For_Strat_Non-Tremolo_Bridge.html

Interestingly, I had to swap the saddle height screws from the old saddles to the new saddles, otherwise I ran out of height and they got wobbly.

I think for my next (last? Can I finally stop the madness?), I'm either going to use the Hipshot or one of these:

http://guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/product/GBST2

Anyone have any experience with the last one?

Wow that ABM bridge looks solid! Kind of like the G&L Saddle-Lock.

[loudriver23]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see that Warmoth will drill/route for the hipshot bridge. I guess I could just have a local luthier install the bridge for me during setup time.

Also, do you really think the Hipshot bridge would cause substantial problems with single coil alignment?

[TattooedCarrot]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

Warmoth srills for the narrow spaced hardtail bridge of theirs. That is the same spread as the hipshot.

[MattPete]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

I'm not sure that the Warmoth spacing is exactly the same as the hipshot. Looking at their diagrams, it looked like it might be a little off--maybe 1mm (I don't know why they wouldn't use standard spacing):

http://www.hipshotproducts.com/images/my%20photos/fixdia1.gif

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Hardware/images/NarrowSpecsBIG.gif

Having said that, it would probably be safe to have them drill the middle hole. The other two should be a piece of cake.

[TattooedCarrot]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

I'm not sure that the Warmoth spacing is exactly the same as the hipshot. Looking at their diagrams, it looked like it might be a little off--maybe 1mm (I don't know why they wouldn't use standard spacing):

http://www.hipshotproducts.com/images/my%20photos/fixdia1.gif

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Hardware/images/NarrowSpecsBIG.gif

Having said that, it would probably be safe to have them drill the middle hole. The other two should be a piece of cake.

The string-thru screws line up, not sure about the mounting screws and bridge placement. My tech installed it fine, but I'm not sure what all he did.

[loudriver23]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

I suppose as long as the string through holes line up and I have a decent center line I can either drill or have the mounting holes drilled.

[Stratoplayer]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

Hey I just noticed, and PLEASE do NOT think I am dissing you guys, but did MattPete and Fresh Start hang out and design a guitar together? Look at the avatars! They both look great though so who cares. Just struck me as funny

[MattPete]

Re: Best Hardtail bridge for Warmoth strat

Yeah, I think that's kinda cool that we both ended up with nearly identical looking guitars!