Need Stock Wooden Bridge For Epi Emperor Regent

[tordiway]

I've got two 1996 Peerless-made Epiphone Emperor Regents. Both have KA Jazzy Joe pickups. Both wear the same Stringjoy medium gauge all nickel strings. Neither guitar sounds like the other.

The only thing that makes them different is that one came to me with a metal Tune-o-Matic bridge, the other has the stock wooden bridge.

The one with the wooden bridge sounds bright and bell like. The one with the Tune-o-Matic sounds dark and growly. I don't like it.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of impact from a metal Tune-o-Matic bridge?

I'm inclined to seek out a replacement stock wooden bridge unless this is a known issue with Tune-o-Matic bridges that can be fixed.

Thanks in advance.

[rolijen]

Is the bridge base well fitted to the curved top of the dark and growly guitar? There are threads on this forum to show you how to fix that. Otherwise, rosewood archtop bridges are plentiful. I like the ones from Stewmac and Allparts.

Archtop Guitar Bridge - StewMac

Archtop Bridges — Allparts Music

[pingu]

it would be interesting to swap the
two bridges over and see if the
tone qualities you describe
follow the change

i always thought that the wood bridge
would be less bright ….

[tordiway]

Yes, it turns out replacement wooden bridges are more plentiful than I initially thought. I found one today on Guitar Parts Factory that appears to be an exact replica of the one Epiphone used. Now I'm just waiting for the mailman!

[tordiway]

Huh. Now there's an idea I hadn't thought of. Anyway, I've got a replacement wooden bridge coming so when it gets here I'll put it on and report on the results.

[tordiway]

Problem was indeed the fault of the Tune-o-Matic bridge. I replaced it with a wooden after market bridge for archtop guitars and now both Regents sound essentially the same.