Resomax bridge for archtop guitar, anyone ?

[gitman]

Has anyone tried this on their guitar and what's the verdict re tonal effect and intonation ?

ResoMax Archtop Bridge Standard and Low Profile

[Oscar67]

No, but I’m intrigued.

[rolijen]

I put one on an Epi Broadway. They sell the bridge as a universal fit/no fitting required. However, I was dissatisfied with the fitment of the feet to the top. The way the feet are angled, the arch of lesser-arched tops will cause the center of the bridge to bow and the adjustment pins will bind in the saddle. As a result, the sound was not great.

After consulting with the manufacturer to verify that the material is sandable, I did the work to properly fit the bridge to the top and was pleasantly surprised with a really nice sounding bridge. Like many wooden bridge/saddles, properly fit, it sounds good.

[sgosnell]

I have one, which I've put on multiple guitars. It's fine, but nothing special. I don't find it better, nor worse, than the standard wooden bridges. The feet fit fine on my guitars, no issues for me. They're designed to bend to fit, that's how two-footed bridges work.

[Fusionshred]

The base is flexible and is supposed to contour to fit to the arch of the top. I have a low-profile one with gold hardware that I bought but wound up never needing, if you're interested.

[rolijen]

Here’s how it looked before any fitting:


Not terrible. But the top being flatter radius than the bridge was designed for caused the feet to tilt inward, collapsing the center a bit and making the posts bind in the saddle. Bad sound and difficult adjusting the saddle.

10 minutes using my archtop bridge fitting jig (have fit plenty bridges by hand too) and the feet were perfect. Here’s the after photo:


needless to say, the resonance was greatly improved after proper fitting. But, it’s not magical or anything. Sounds about like any other well fitted bridge.



Sorry for the sideways photo, but here’s what it looks like on the guitar.

[gitman]

Thanks for the info, Gents ! I have a very nice Yamaha SA-50 from 1968 which has it's original bridge intact but it is a very fiddly and complex design, robbing the guitar of a lot of resonance which is plentiful on tap - a simple old-style bridge will most likely open that guitar up even more. The pickups are astoundingly musical, balanced and very useable for most any sounds except heavy overdrive , it's a really fun guitar, very funky too !
Here is the full write-up on these beauties :

Yamaha SA-50 (full hollow body guitar) | TheSupposedStringMeister

[deacon Mark]

These look ok but nothing exactly like real ebony or rosewood. I could see depending on the situation it might cause your guitar to sound better. I actually doubt it in most cases but it could depend on the guitar. However I just manage a nice set of 6 black Gabon Ebony Saddle blanks, if anyone wants one carved for a Gibson ABR-1 tunomatic as a drop in replacement send me a PM. Wood expensive they are $100 a saddle. Note this is not the base as shown in thread only the saddle.