Gotoh "Buzz Bridge" -- Electric Sitar/Guitar

[Bezmotivnik]

Has anyone ever been able to get one of these things to work properly?

I got an electric sitar/guitar last week to do five notes on a recording and have been struggling for all I'm worth to get it set up right.

These things are notorious for difficult setup, but I am unconvinced that they can ever work correctly with all six strings. I have everything working right except that the buzz effect doesn't work properly on either of the E strings.

I've searched everywhere on the net and have gotten absolutely nothing useful on this.

Can anyone here help?

 

[ES350]

Re: Gotoh "Buzz Bridge" -- Electric Sitar/Guitar

If you are playing a 'sitar part' with five notes, what do you need all six strings for? Do the track, and chuck the bridge when you're done. No more problem...

 

[Bezmotivnik]

Re: Gotoh "Buzz Bridge" -- Electric Sitar/Guitar

If you are playing a 'sitar part' with five notes, what do you need all six strings for?

I need one of the strings that isn't working.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Gotoh "Buzz Bridge" -- Electric Sitar/Guitar

I have always been interested in one of those but I haven't used one. Too bad it isn't working out for you. I like the looks of this one http://www.eyb-guitars.de/Eyb-English/Sitarbridge.html

 

[Bezmotivnik]

Re: Gotoh "Buzz Bridge" -- Electric Sitar/Guitar

I like the looks of this one http://www.eyb-guitars.de/Eyb-English/Sitarbridge.html

It's a hugely more competent piece of engineering, certainly.

The Gotoh is nothing more than a single piece of plastic, suspended crudely on three screws. I've read (but have not confirmed) that Gotoh lists these for $85...for a dime's worth of plastic! It's apparently a straight copy of the Coral, as is the sitar/guitar I bought.

I think the problem is that there is no toe-in for the string path taper, so the farther out from centerline you get, the more crossed-up the witness point is and the worse it sounds. D and G are perfect, A and B pretty good, but the Es just don't have it.

BUT...I could be wrong. I'm just trying to find someone who's set one of these things up correctly. If not, back it goes.

 

[Alex Frias]

Re: Gotoh "Buzz Bridge" -- Electric Sitar/Guitar

I know this topic is an old one, but... if I can help with my two cents, thaa's OK!

I bought a Gotoh Buzz Bridge and installed in my 56 Dano reissue. It's important to make clear that it needs another hardware piece to lock the strings on. So I've used a trapezoidal tailpiece, a very cheap one that worked great.
As I couldn't find any info about installing and proper setting, it was a bit of suffering. IOsntalling is very easy because it's a direct replacement for Dano standard bridge guitars. The hard part is to setting it properly...
The key is to get the back of the bridge, wich has a small metal plate where the strings are spaced and supported by only one screw, leting it stands a bit higher than its front part. It's a bit tricky, but with some patience you can get it pretty good for intonation and sitar buzziness. In my case, the action was set low, but not too low. All strings intonated very well and buzzes evenly.

 

[Alex Frias]

Re: Gotoh "Buzz Bridge" -- Electric Sitar/Guitar

A very small video demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci8At2RP3BU