What kind of bridge base is this?

Hi all,

I have the following setup on my CE100D:





I know it's a tune-o-matic bridge, but what I'm interested in finding out is what kind of base it's sitting on. It's not the wood base I commonly see, and the guitar came to me like this.

The base is on there pretty tight - I don't know if something has been drilled through the top into the braces, or if it was simply glued on, or some really strong double sided tape - I haven't tried TOO hard to pry it off, since if it's glue, I don't want to end up ripping it off.

I'd assume the base being metal would make a difference in sound, compared to a wood base?

Thanks for any pointers!
Jason

It looks like "no base", but to metal cups instead, as you would see on a hollowbody M-75, or like several Valco-made guitars (National, Supro, Airline,...) used to have. A wood base might sound different, but if you like the way it sounds now, I'd leave it alone, in sort of a "if it aint' broke..." sort of way.

My M-65 has similar "cups" for a base, as Mr. Broes describes them.

Also interested to know what kind of pickups. They look like Fender WHR's but without the "Fender" stamped on the cover. Lollars?

Could be the bridge studs are screwed into the body and those cups are there to give some support. Have you tried getting a look inside - maybe with a mirror?

Jeff Haddad said:

Also interested to know what kind of pickups. They look like Fender WHR's but without the "Fender" stamped on the cover.

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Lindy Fralin' makes something like that, but in this day and age there may be a bunch of other people doing the same thing!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Walter Broes said:

It looks like "no base", but to metal cups instead, as you would see on a hollowbody M-75, or like several Valco-made guitars (National, Supro, Airline,...) used to have. A wood base might sound different, but if you like the way it sounds now, I'd leave it alone, in sort of a "if it aint' broke..." sort of way.

Click to expand...

Oh, I like the way this one sounds... but I'm trying to figure out if I want to mod another hollowbody the same way. It's got a wood base with wood bridge right now, and I want tune-o-matic. Decisions, decisions!

Jeff Haddad said:

Also interested to know what kind of pickups. They look like Fender WHR's but without the "Fender" stamped on the cover. Lollars?

Click to expand...

hansmoust said:

Lindy Fralin' makes something like that, but in this day and age there may be a bunch of other people doing the same thing!

Click to expand...

Fralin P92's! Again, modded by one of the previous owners. Gibson speedknobs, too.

Could be the bridge studs are screwed into the body and those cups are there to give some support. Have you tried getting a look inside - maybe with a mirror?

Click to expand...

I've looked inside before, but not that carefully. I should take another look. But if it goes through the top and into the brace, but not through the brace, I wouldn't see, right?

P92's - bet they sound really good in that guitar.

So I stuck a mirror inside and took a peek - from what I can tell, if the hardware is screwed through the top, it would miss the braces, and be clearly visible, but I didn't see anything. So sounds like it's cups, and they've just been stuck pretty good to the top, whether from tape that's held real well, or glue. I'm not going to find out either way.

Walter Broes said:

It looks like "no base", but to metal cups instead,

Click to expand...

OK... any clues on what those metal cups are called? I've been searching to see if I can pick some up but no dice so far.

Walter Broes said:

It looks like "no base", but to metal cups instead

Click to expand...

jcwu said:

OK... any clues on what those metal cups are called? I've been searching to see if I can pick some up but no dice so far.

Click to expand...

Walter Broes said:

or like several Valco-made guitars (National, Supro, Airline,...) used to have.

Click to expand...

So I re-read Walter's post, and searched high and low with Valco/National/Supro/Airline, and found a set! Thanks, Walter!!