pcovers Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Why do so many replace the Schaller tail piece? What is the inherent design or functional flaw in them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitArtMan Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Cosmetics for me - the Schaller tail piece is big, clunk, and frankly fugly imho. The roller bridge kept moving on me with string changes and messing up the string spacing. Give me a standard Nashville stryle bridge and stop tail pieve any day of the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joesupposta Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Hello, What is a Nashville stye bridge? I have the Schaller bridge on my 535 and don't care for it. Looking to replace with something that is permanent. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark555 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Hello, What is a Nashville stye bridge? I have the Schaller bridge on my 535 and don't care for it. Looking to replace with something that is permanent. Any suggestions? basically, get a good guitar tech to replace the extremely ugly schaller bridge (why it was ever used I do not know) with Les paul - 335 style hardware, much nicer looking. On a personal level I really do not like the schaller hardware at all, I have all of the stuff that was on my 555 in a tin out of the way. YOu can see my 555 on the gallery, with nice nickel bridge and stop piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars_hall Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 My opinion is that the tailpiece is fine from a functional standpoint. The roller bridge has the same groove size for all strings and allows the smaller strings to move laterally in the worn slot resulting in a decrease of sustain. The tolerances for the undesired movement stack up at every non-fixed contact point from the string to the body; string to roller groove, roller to roller axle, roller axle to mounting points. This undesirably allows small amounts of energy to escape from the resonant vibration of the string. In other words there is slack at each contact point that dampens the original string vibration. My two cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuz Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 My opinion is schaller hardware is VERY well made. But a tone/sustain robber. Some people are kind of loony and even like them, (ie AKA Crazy Brent!!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brentrocks Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 i have been called worse... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitArtMan Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Hello, What is a Nashville stye bridge? I have the Schaller bridge on my 535 and don't care for it. Looking to replace with something that is permanent. Any suggestions? There are a number of quality manufactures of Nashville style bridges; TonePros, Schaller, Gotoh to name a few. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tulk1 Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 My opinion is that the tailpiece is fine from a functional standpoint. The roller bridge has the same groove size for all strings and allows the smaller strings to move laterally in the worn slot resulting in a decrease of sustain. The tolerances for the undesired movement stack up at every non-fixed contact point from the string to the body; string to roller groove, roller to roller axle, roller axle to mounting points. This undesirably allows small amounts of energy to escape from the resonant vibration of the string. In other words there is slack at each contact point that dampens the original string vibration. My two cents Engineer's response anyone!!??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitArtMan Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Engineer's response anyone!!??? Well I'm a software engineer and everything he said makes sense to me. It also goes along with Dan Erlewine's trend of the past 10 years or so towards "good coupling." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbonesullivan Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I actually kinda like the looks of the big bad tailpiece and roller bridge. Schaller has however been known to make some rather 'weird' stuff over the years, however there has to the SOME reason that heritage used the roller bridges for all of these years. Especially given the fact that schaller makes standard TOM hardware now, and I would assume did back in the day. Now, I'd like to hear why Brent seems to like the schaller roller bridge so much, mainly out of curiosity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitArtMan Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I actually kinda like the looks of the big bad tailpiece and roller bridge. Schaller has however been known to make some rather 'weird' stuff over the years, however there has to the SOME reason that heritage used the roller bridges for all of these years. Especially given the fact that schaller makes standard TOM hardware now, and I would assume did back in the day. Now, I'd like to hear why Brent seems to like the schaller roller bridge so much, mainly out of curiosity. There also has to be a reason you see more and more new Heritages with standard Nashvill style bridge and stop tail piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smurph1 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I'm perfectly happy with my Schaller hardware, but I live in West Virginia.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chico Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 basically, get a good guitar tech to replace the extremely ugly schaller bridge (why it was ever used I do not know) with Les paul - 335 style hardware, much nicer looking. On a personal level I really do not like the schaller hardware at all, I have all of the stuff that was on my 555 in a tin out of the way. YOu can see my 555 on the gallery, with nice nickel bridge and stop piece. I replaced the Schaller bridge and tailpiece on a couple of Heritage's, both times Ren made the switchout for me at the factory. In fact, the second time, he just replaced it with Nashville style hdware, as if he "knew" that's what most people want. Why Heritage put the Schallers on is an interesting question in and of itself, cause they don't seem to do it anymore unless custom ordered, right? Its cool that the switchout comes without having to make any other mods to the guitar cause the posts match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tulk1 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I'm wondering if it wasn't a conscious decision to make them look distinctly different from the obvious comparison to G's. Especially when they were first starting. Just speculation, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chico Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I'm wondering if it wasn't a conscious decision to make them look distinctly different from the obvious comparison to G's. Especially when they were first starting. Just speculation, of course. I *think* it was due to the availability of parts at the time. That is pure speculation on my part. Seems like post 2003 Heritage has used Nashville style hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredZepp Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I've got Schaller tailpieces on 3 of 5 Heritage and the roller bridge on 2 of 5. I wouldn't be motivated to change the tailpieces except for maybe to have more Gibby-like appearance and I'm not really worried about that. They are big though. They seem to be a high-quality , dense, functional tailpiece. I used to sometimes break strings with the Nash bridge and it's sharp fulcrum point, but haven't had that problem in a while... the roller bridge also seems high quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbonesullivan Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 well, all schaller stuff is high quality, but as my guitar tech said, "they make some strange stuff sometimes". But again, German engineering and high quality parts. My heritage is getting put "back to stock" with regards to the bridge and tailpiece the next time it's due for a string change. First though I need to actaully play it and stop just taking pictures of it. The problems of owning 9 guitars: so easy to forget you have 8 OTHER guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smurph1 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I guess I would consider changing to the "Nashville" bridge and tailpiece if I had the chance to play a 140 set up that way, and then compare it to mine..Maybe the roller bridge is robbing me of tone..But, I don't have a point of reference..Maybe at PSP3? Meantime, I'll probably just leave it alone.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joesupposta Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Thanks. I am going to have that done. Also, does anyone know of a locking tuning machine that would fit without drilling any holes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t0aj15 Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 I have to vote in favor of the Schaller bridge/tailpiece combo (although I don't like their p/up's). I have no intention what-so-ever of changing mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbonesullivan Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Thanks. I am going to have that done. Also, does anyone know of a locking tuning machine that would fit without drilling any holes? I believe they come stock with Grover large rotomatic tuners. Grover makes a locking version of these tuners that are direct replacements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfi Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Why do so many replace the Schaller tail piece? What is the inherent design or functional flaw in them? I own three Heritage guitars and I replaced the Schaller Hardware on all of them. The roller bridge is a sustain killer and imho it looks ugly. It gave me more tone and sustain to use a stop tailpiece (aluminium) and a titanium bridge. Greez wolfi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tulk1 Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 I own three Heritage guitars and I replaced the Schaller Hardware on all of them. The roller bridge is a sustain killer and imho it looks ugly. It gave me more tone and sustain to use a stop tailpiece (aluminium) and a titanium bridge. Greez wolfi I rather like the looks of them on my Prospect. Just makes it a bit different. Haven't noticed any loss of sustain or note clarity. Guess maybe I wouldn't until I swapped it, eh? I will say, tho', I was surprised to find TonePros on my '07 535. And I ordered both my Millie NFH and the new Prospect with TonePros Locking. Wanted to do the TonePros AVT-II wrap bridge, but they weren't too keen on the idea. ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyguy Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 My opinion is that the tailpiece is fine from a functional standpoint. The roller bridge has the same groove size for all strings and allows the smaller strings to move laterally in the worn slot resulting in a decrease of sustain. The tolerances for the undesired movement stack up at every non-fixed contact point from the string to the body; string to roller groove, roller to roller axle, roller axle to mounting points. This undesirably allows small amounts of energy to escape from the resonant vibration of the string. In other words there is slack at each contact point that dampens the original string vibration. My two cents my schaller roller bridge has 2 groove sizes.small groove for ebg and larger groove for dae.it's on a '99 h550.the pain in the neck thing though is the string spacing changing because the rollers roll too easily.as far as contact points and all that.unless you use a callaham solid steel(titanium) bridge,voids in the pot metal affect the sound a lot(They're all pot metal unless you spend some big money).these voids in the pot metal will effect tone and sustain as much as breakover angle and stability in the bridge.Tone Hose uses the cheapest "crap" pot metal there is!It's extremely easy to do your own tone hose.drill and tap and screw in your set screws.i've done this dozens os times.Schaller is made in Germany so I'd say the quality of pot metal is pretty good(less rerfraction and other goings on). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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