New Bass Uke Bridge Day

[KohanMike]

Awhile ago I bought a RondoMusic.com Hadean Hofner/Beatles violin style bass uke. It had a floating partly adjustable wood bridge that didn't really match the Hofner pickup look, so I had my luthier, Eric's Guitar in Sound City, in Van Nuys, CA install a fully adjustable all metal bridge that I've been using on all my solid body bass ukes.

He had to modify the bass to fit the bridge by cutting an access panel in the back so he could put a brace under that top, and also added a riser under the bridge to be equal to the height of the fretboard. He also added an on/off sitch for the battery so I can leave my wireless pod plugged in. It came out great, he and his co-worker Billy do excellent work, so much so that I'm having another Hadean/Hofner done, being painted by Pat Wilkins first.

 

[bbkobabe]

Next time you have a sale I'm driving to LA...

 

[KohanMike]

Next time you have a sale I'm driving to LA...

Bring Guy Fieri and we'll have a feast. Sorry, it will be long time before I let go of anymore.

 

[bbkobabe]

Sorry, it will be long time before I let go of anymore.

Well, you just set up 2 more so it won't be that long... I'm patient...

 

[KohanMike]

Well, you just set up 2 more so it won't be that long... I'm patient...

Actually, earlier today I decided to hold off working on those two, all I'm going to do is modify my grey one into a Jaguar style Olympic white/tortoise.

 

[AZChris]

That looks really sharp. It looks like a high mass bridge like you'd see on a full size precision or jazz bass. I'm curious what he did with the piezo -- put it in the riser under the bridge or what?

I like some of the things Hadean did like not have the plate with the switches and knobs. Even though Hofner did it, it looked cheap to me.

The pickguard bugs me where you can see a cutout for a pickup. I wonder if a single bar pickup like on a jazz bass would fit in that slot and would a magnetic pickup make it sound better or worse?

My next uke bass will be something like this. Having a bass in the shape of a ukulele has the advantage of looking like a uke and matching the uke players in your group and you can hear it enough acoustically enough to practice alone but I'd rather have something that resembles a bass and sounds good.

Thanks for sharing that Mike!

 

[KohanMike]

That looks really sharp. It looks like a high mass bridge like you'd see on a full size precision or jazz bass. I'm curious what he did with the piezo -- put it in the riser under the bridge or what? I like some of the things Hadean did like not have the plate with the switches and knobs. Even though Hofner did it, it looked cheap to me. The pickguard bugs me where you can see a cutout for a pickup. I wonder if a single bar pickup like on a jazz bass would fit in that slot and would a magnetic pickup make it sound better or worse?

My next uke bass will be something like this. Having a bass in the shape of a ukulele has the advantage of looking like a uke and matching the uke players in your group and you can hear it enough acoustically enough to practice alone but I'd rather have something that resembles a bass and sounds good.

Thanks for sharing that Mike!

The piezo mother board is built into the bottom of the new bridge with a tail that he spliced into the plug of the previous pickup assembly, very simple procedure. The time he spent was adding support under the top for the bridge and a riser under the bridge to bring it up to the proper height of the fretboard. I also never liked the plate around the Hofner controls, and when I saw this Hadean, that was one of the reasons I went for it. On the one I'm having done now, I'm not using the pickguard and had Eric replace the rear pearl plate with black.

To fit the pickguard properly, I would have another pickguard made. I do have a custom made uke that is more acoustic uke looking, though I designed it to look like a gypsy/jazz Selmer/Maccaferri Django Reinhardt style. These are my stable at the moment, with the Jaguar style Olympic white and Hofner style teal in progress. I follow, "variety is the spice of life."

 

[AZChris]

The piezo mother board is built into the bottom of the new bridge with a tail that he spliced into the plug of the previous pickup assembly, very simple procedure. The time he spent was adding support under the top for the bridge and a riser under the bridge to bring it up to the proper height of the fretboard. I also never liked the plate around the Hofner controls, and when I saw this Hadean, that was one of the reasons I went for it. On the one I'm having done now, I'm not using the pickguard and had Eric replace the rear pearl plate with black.

To fit the pickguard properly, I would have another pickguard made. I do have a custom made uke that is more acoustic uke looking, though I designed it to look like a gypsy/jazz Selmer/Maccaferri Django Reinhardt style. These are my stable at the moment, with the Jaguar style Olympic white and Hofner style teal in progress. I follow, "variety is the spice of life."

Ohh...I was picturing a piezo rod rather than a disk kind of thing. That's convenient it was as simple as re-connecting wires.

That is a sweet collection. I agree on the variety part. Gotta have lots of sound and look options. That mini Rickenbacker looks amazing and I notice it is the only one with magnetic pickups in the bunch. Is it significantly louder or better?

That Jaguar looks great too. It's a classic look and cool to see they even bothered to make an offset uke bass. You got most of the major bass varieties covered in mini versions plus they are pretty. I think you whittled down your collection to some pretty good stuff there.

 

[KohanMike]

Ohh...I was picturing a piezo rod rather than a disk kind of thing. That's convenient it was as simple as re-connecting wires.

That is a sweet collection. I agree on the variety part. Gotta have lots of sound and look options. That mini Rickenbacker looks amazing and I notice it is the only one with magnetic pickups in the bunch. Is it significantly louder or better?

That Jaguar looks great too. It's a classic look and cool to see they even bothered to make an offset uke bass. You got most of the major bass varieties covered in mini versions plus they are pretty. I think you whittled down your collection to some pretty good stuff there.

Thanks. The new bridge has a pickup at each saddle, wired to the motherboard underneath, it's all one piece. You can see them here with the tail, a hex adjustment tool and the mounting screws. That Ric has fake pickup covers, at that time I wanted it look more realistic, it uses the same all metal fully adjustable piezo bridge as shown.

 

[Renaissance-Man]

... That Ric has fake pickup covers, at that time I wanted it look more realistic...

Another novel idea!
I'm in the process of modifying a 3-string guitar to look more like a homebuilt cigarbox guitar. I think I'll add some dummy pickups!