[Alex-D33]

I would never put a bridge that FUGLY on my guitar(RG1527)

[darren]

I don't think it's any more ugly than a Floyd.

[Durero]

It's a fascinating design, and I'd love to try one, but I think Drew's concerns are right on.

Seems certain that the feel of bends & vibrato would be quite altered. On the other hand many people hardly notice the difference between bending on a fixed bridge guitar and bending on a floating bridge which gives a little as you bend. So I guess it's just a question of how distracting the different feel is and wether the advantages are worthwhile.

[ElRay]

Originally Posted by Drew

2.) it'd only hold perfect tune within a set range

Right, but each string has it's own spring. If it was infinite, then you couldn't bend at all. The idea is that you can bend any strings without affecting the others. Esentially you have six mini-FR's instead of one.

Originally Posted by Drew

Also, how the hell does one do vibrato on this setup?

My guess is that you'd have to bend until you hit a stop, and then do your vibrato, or rock one or more of the bridge pieces with your non-fretting hand.


* ElRay gets bitten by automerge again and hopes that canuck brian will see this reply to Drew's post.

Originally Posted by canuck brian

ETS hardware will hook you up with both the bridge and headpiece for 7 string headless with piezos installed for around 350.

How did you get a quote from them? I had to go through BassLabs and my quote for seven tuning fork bridges (no piezo) and a 7-string headless set-up was 325 Euros + shipping + import duties.

Ray

[Trespass]

Interesting, but how does it effect the tone?

[perfectune_eng]

My name is Paul and I did the engineering on the Perfect Tune Bridge. I read through these postings and think I can help shed some more light on the system. I think you guys have been perceptive enough to hit all of the interesting points. Here are my comments on them:

o Cost etc.
This product is the first ever bridge that keeps a stringed instrument in tune. It has more parts and higher precision than a typical bridge, and it is being produced in limited numbers. It isn't meant to be the perfect bridge for every player, but we think it will be appealing to live performers, studio musicians, and other players who really want to stay in tune. Interestingly, one of the things that separates a $300 guitar from a $1000 guitar is the quality of the hardware which affects how well it stays in tune. Putting the Perfect Tune on an inexpensive guitar makes it suddenly stay in tune far better than even the best conventional guitar.

o Vs. Other Bridges
There are a lot of technologies which try to either make it easier to tune a guitar, or make the system more stable so it won't go out of tune as quickly, but every system is susceptible to string stretch and temperature change. The special thing about this one is that it doesn't go out of tune regardless of the source of string movement.

o Vs. Other Trems
This bridge doesn't have a trem arm and isn't really comparable to other trem bridges. Some nice things about the Perfect Tune is that bending (or breaking) one string doesn't affect the others, and nothing is locked down so changing strings is just as easy as a stop tailpiece setup.

o Bending
The string can move about 1-1/2 turns of the tuning machine without changing pitch. To bend, you just tighten the tuning machine until you hear it go sharp, then back off about 1/8 turn and you can bend quite nicely. The last segment of this YouTube video demonstrates this.



o Feel
- Fretting: As far as fretting goes, pretty much everybody has reacted very positively to the feel. They like the springy forgiving feel. In fact, we found that for many people who tried it the feel was the thing they liked the best.
- Bends: For bends, unless the system is set up way away from the bend stop people don't seem to notice anything different with the bends. At NAMM we tried just handing the guitar to people to play without knowing anything about the bridge and nobody had a problem bending. I think that is because people bend by feel and pitch, not by finger position. However, if you back the string off the effect is very dramatic- you can push the string halfway across the fretboard and have no change in pitch. This is an interesting option if you want to avoid pitch changes on a particular string.
- Vibrato: I am not sure what people have to say about that. I didn't get any specific feedback (or complaints) from NAMM on that.

o Compatibility
- It only fits stop tailpiece T-O-M setups.

o Tremolo Function
- The point of this product was to stay in tune, and the trem function was just a bonus. I agree that it would be great to have a trem arm. It just wasn't very easy to implement in this design.

o Palm Muting
- The front ends of the trem arms are very close to the pivot axis of the arms, so it takes a bit of force to move them (like for a divebomb). Therefore you can lightly rest your hand there. However, the bridge is high in that area and you are correct that to palm mute you have to move up a bit. It is something that each individual will have to evaluate based on personal preferences.

o Intonation
- The guitar is very easy to intonate, and interestingly we have found that it seems to intonate in a straight line. We think this is because as you fret the string, that small deflection has no effect on pitch, while on a regular guitar it makes a string go a little sharp and the amount of sharpening depends on the string diameter.

o Tone
- I think you have to decide for yourself if you like the tone, or listen to the opinions of people you respect who have played it.

-Paul

[Apophis]

Thanks for info and

[Durero]

Fantastic post Paul, and great to have you here.

Your explanation makes perfect sense and makes me want to try your system even more.


Still curious about vibrato.

[ElRay]

Originally Posted by perfectune_eng

My name is Paul and I did the engineering on the Perfect Tune Bridge.

Thanks for dropping by and the response. Not a lot of manufacturers do that, even when told that info was going to be posted here.

Ray

[perfectune_eng]

Thanks for the friendly welcome. Just after I hit "submit" on that book of a post, I realized that I hadn't addressed one central question- how's that damn thing work?

o Physical Layout
Basically, the guitar string is connected to an arm that acts as both the saddle and the tailpiece. This arm pivots (about 5 deg of movement), and is connected to a spring. If you think about it, that could describe a regular trem setup. In our case, however, the parts are cleverly arranged so that no matter what angle the arm is at, the tension the string sees is constant.

So how do you tune it? Well we move the other end of the spring so that it gets tighter or looser, which changes the tension. This isn't a "fine tuner," it is the only tuner. Each string is attached to an identical modular unit that can develop a string tension good for any string in a set of 008's up to 010's.

o The Theory
The pitch of a vibrating string is determined by three things: its length, its mass properties, and its tension. The length and mass properties are not changing enough to affect pitch, so really tension is the only variable that needs to be managed in order to stabilize the pitch. Traditional stringed instruments adjust pitch indirectly, by stretching the string and relying on the amount of stretch of the string to set the tension. In other words, tension is controlled by changing a position- how much string you pull across the nut. I don't have to spell out the limitations of this approach- guitar players struggle with them every day.

In our system, we control the tension by... controlling the tension! Duh. It sounds pretty obvious, but for some reason nobody seems to have made a serious effort to do this before Cosmos came along, and later he challenged me with the problem. Of course it is much easier said than done, and frankly it was a bit of a miracle that we were able to pull off a bolt-on solution. I prototyped 8 versions of this thing over the last 18 months and each one was an improvement over the last.

-Paul