A Duo Sonic II question

snushsnush

New member
i'm building a d-s II from scratch from a warmoth mustang body/neck. i can't find a duo sonic bridge anywhere and i'm thinking about using a toronado bridge. i'm wondering how difficult that'll be. i guess i have to use a drill press to drill the string holes through the body and buy ferrules for it. which'll be great. does anyone know if there's anything special i need to take into consideration doing that? also is there another type of bridge that's maybe easier? i hear the ds and the toronado bridges have the same footprint but there wouldn't happen to be another bridge i could use that maybe i wouldn't have to drill through the body for would there? maybe also with six saddles? nothing can ever be easy can it?
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

HELL YEAH on building one from scratch :D

There were a bunch of Duo bridges on ebay earlier this month...

The toronado bridge looks right, and probably intonates better... but how much easier are theyto find? Yes, it looks like the toro and duo bridges are interchangeable... aside from having to drill through the body :smack:

Anyways... I wonder how hard it would be to drill holes in the bridge, like an original duo bridge and not deal with the through body thing. Probably easier than drilling through the body :D

(Thanks for spelling toronado right by the way :laugh2:)

Slade
 
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Re: A Duo Sonic II question

Are you building the body from scratch too? Anyways... I wonder how hard it would be to drill holes in the bridge, like an original duo bridge and not deal with the through body thing. Probably easier than drilling through the body :D

(Thanks for spelling toronado right by the way :laugh2:)

Slade

he did say he was getting them from warmoth
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

i'm building a d-s II from scratch from a warmoth mustang body/neck. i can't find a duo sonic bridge anywhere and i'm thinking about using a toronado bridge. i'm wondering how difficult that'll be. i guess i have to use a drill press to drill the string holes through the body and buy ferrules for it. which'll be great. does anyone know if there's anything special i need to take into consideration doing that? also is there another type of bridge that's maybe easier? i hear the ds and the toronado bridges have the same footprint but there wouldn't happen to be another bridge i could use that maybe i wouldn't have to drill through the body for would there? maybe also with six saddles? nothing can ever be easy can it?
I have a Duosonic 22 inch scale and I use the Toronado bridge. It is a world of improvement over the three saddle type. Although you may want to get some heavy cast saddles to improve tone and sustain. With the Toronado bridge and 10 or higher guage strings you can get the intonation perfect. You could use just about any top loading hardtail bridge if you don't want ferules. But the ferules are an improvement in tone and sustain.
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

what size holes do i need? like which drill bit should i use? will it be really really bad if i use a normal hand-held electric drill to do this? i can't seem to find any top loading hard tail bridges that have the same bridge width or string distance or whatever.
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

i'm kinda liking the idea of this ferrule/toronado bridge thing. it's pretty cheap to do (warmoth charges $.89/ferrule + i found a toronado bridge for like $35) and would make kind of a fun project. the thing that would make it less fun is if i have to pay fifty bucks to my local luthier to wait a week while he drills six holes in the body because i don't have access to a drill press.
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

If you have the option to have Warmoth do the drilling I would go that route. Then look around for a cheap set of heavy saddles. What were you thinking of for pickups?

I made sure that I shielded the body and went with a set of ssl-5's. They work really well because they are powerful and a bit brighter than normal which balances out the darkness of the shorter scale. Also since they are a bit more powerful they handle distortion well.

This sight may give you some insights in their MOD's gallery.
http://www.marcelroy.com/index.html
 
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Re: A Duo Sonic II question

that was actually where i first heard about the toronado bridge idea. that's a great site. too many of the links are dead though (RIP).
i actually bought a set of antiquity duo pickups but then had to use one in my squire duo reissue. if i have a neck antiquity duo and this ssl-5 in the bridge will that sound ridiculous unbalanced?
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

that was actually where i first heard about the toronado bridge idea. that's a great site. too many of the links are dead though (RIP).
i actually bought a set of antiquity duo pickups but then had to use one in my squire duo reissue. if i have a neck antiquity duo and this ssl-5 in the bridge will that sound ridiculous unbalanced?
I really couldn't tell you? Tech support might be able to answer that question for you. I just figured I wanted a loud, bright and tight single coil since the nature of the 22 inch scale of my Duo made it a bit dark a flabby.
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

it appears that it's actually sort of recommended:
Many players use an SSL-5 in the bridge position with vintage output pickups, like SSL-1’s, in the neck and middle for tonal versatility.
i would assume that antiquity pickups would have "vintage output".
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

I suppose so you can get some drive from the bridge postion with distortion.
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

i also don't have the option of having warmoth drill it. with mustang bodies they either do stang tremolo route or none. anybody know what size drill bit i'd be using (for string ferrules in case you haven't read above)?
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

When I drilled mine I just screwed the bridge into place first and marked the holes with a sharpie. Then I removed the bridge and drilled through with a 9/64 bit. I put some masking tape on the back to try and stop the paint splintering. Where I did a poor job was countersinking the holes on the back to mount the ferules. You may want to ask TheOctaveDoctor about how to do it best. He is a luthier. I don't remember the diameter of the ferules.
 
Re: A Duo Sonic II question

as far as the the drill press: sears makes this.
it's a relatively cheap alternative to a drill press as long as you have a good set of bits and a drill
 
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