Some of you may remember back a few articles that I made a 9-string pinless bridge by hand. Well, it came out pretty good, but after getting this cool old vertical milling machine, my world changed, and I had to toss that old bridge to make a perfect one! The accuracy of a mill is incredible.
Perfect slotting, perfect spacing and tolerances in the string tunnels and holes. A different world.
You can see in the photos the bit going into the rosewood to create the angled string tunnels, the 9 string ball-end holes, and the saddle slot, all done on this mill. The bridge was then shaped on a bandsaw, and profiled by hand. I'm very excited about being able to make handmade guitars with perfectly accurate details like this. This is still hand building, the milling is done manually, no CNC programs or computers doing the work. A lot of fun, with very satisfying results! Enjoy the photos, and please visit my website at CustomGuitars.com!
Hi. As a guitar enthusiast and a milling machine hobbyist I naturally bumped into your website. Nice work! That's a beautiful guitar bridge. It would be a fun challenge to make a complete machine head/tuner on a milling machine and a lathe.
Posted by: John @ Machinist Tools | July 26, 2010 at 05:05 PM