crusty philtrum
Vintageologist
Back in the 1980s I bought this Washburn Bantam headless guitar (all-wood body/ set-neck) and played the hell out of it for about seven years, it went everywhere with me. The neck was fabulous, but I knew the wood was rubbish.
In 1993, I designed a new body and (set) neck for it, and a luthier friend built the new chasis from Honduras Mahogany, and it was fitted with all the hardware from the Bantam. Because of the small body, the neck was created from wood cut from the side of the body blank. The fretboard is New Guinea Ebony. Completed in 1994, she looked like this ...
Again, this was my number one instrument and I played her constantly. (The scale length was, and remained, 25" ... the tuner and bridge sections is brass, and despite it's small size, the instrument is deceptively heavy, plays and sounds just like a LP). I also ended up with another body blank from the same plank of Honduras Mahogany which I ended up using, seventeen years later, to build the LP-based instrument that is featured in 'The Vault' here at the SDUGF. Here they are together about four years ago when the 'younger but bigger sister' was completed ...
(here's a not-so-good pic but it gives an idea of the size ...)
The headless guitar's bridge and tuning mechanism had always been rock solid and extremely reliable, but after years of intense use on both the original instrument and the rebuilt version, there was wear in the roller saddles that was affecting the tone, where I once had good solid notes, I now had loose, buzzy rattles and compromised response. Behind the bridge, a tension bar runs across all six strings, so I wound that down for more tension over the saddles ... that didn't help much, and also made the guitar very different to play, too much tension.
A primitive attempt at a home remedy by fitting rollers from a Schaller roller bridge only made matters worse.
I was heartbroken. I knew I wasn't likely to find any replacement parts, the only ways I would be able to save the old girl would be to either try to find another s/h Bantam guitar to source (hopefully) better parts, or find someone with fine engineering skills and equipment who could restore or re-create the saddles. I spent three years looking at various headless tuning/ bridge systems for something I might have been able to adapt or modify.
Finally I recently saw something I thought might possibly be something I could adapt, so i took a $70 chance and ordered the part. This is what unfolded ....
In 1993, I designed a new body and (set) neck for it, and a luthier friend built the new chasis from Honduras Mahogany, and it was fitted with all the hardware from the Bantam. Because of the small body, the neck was created from wood cut from the side of the body blank. The fretboard is New Guinea Ebony. Completed in 1994, she looked like this ...
Again, this was my number one instrument and I played her constantly. (The scale length was, and remained, 25" ... the tuner and bridge sections is brass, and despite it's small size, the instrument is deceptively heavy, plays and sounds just like a LP). I also ended up with another body blank from the same plank of Honduras Mahogany which I ended up using, seventeen years later, to build the LP-based instrument that is featured in 'The Vault' here at the SDUGF. Here they are together about four years ago when the 'younger but bigger sister' was completed ...
(here's a not-so-good pic but it gives an idea of the size ...)
The headless guitar's bridge and tuning mechanism had always been rock solid and extremely reliable, but after years of intense use on both the original instrument and the rebuilt version, there was wear in the roller saddles that was affecting the tone, where I once had good solid notes, I now had loose, buzzy rattles and compromised response. Behind the bridge, a tension bar runs across all six strings, so I wound that down for more tension over the saddles ... that didn't help much, and also made the guitar very different to play, too much tension.
A primitive attempt at a home remedy by fitting rollers from a Schaller roller bridge only made matters worse.
I was heartbroken. I knew I wasn't likely to find any replacement parts, the only ways I would be able to save the old girl would be to either try to find another s/h Bantam guitar to source (hopefully) better parts, or find someone with fine engineering skills and equipment who could restore or re-create the saddles. I spent three years looking at various headless tuning/ bridge systems for something I might have been able to adapt or modify.
Finally I recently saw something I thought might possibly be something I could adapt, so i took a $70 chance and ordered the part. This is what unfolded ....
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