2-Q's: 14-string bridge and gold plating

[ns9]

Hi! Finally getting financial woes cleared up, and about to do some mods/custom build. More than likely, will be asking LGM and EKG if they can do the work I am after.
Before starting tho, one thing I REALLY want is a 14-string (ie 12-string for us 7-stringers). I heard one of the Korn guys did this, but I have found no other info on the web about anyone else doing this. To me, the ONLY real problem here is the bridge, since no one makes one. All the other parts and wood work could be done. So, does anyone know what I would need to do to get a 14-string bridge made? I am figuring I would have to design it (not too bad), decide on material (not too hard), and then pay for the casting (or whatever it is called). I am under the impression that it is actually the initial piece (mold, form, whatever) that costs the most. If this is so, I am wondering this:
How many people would be interested in buying a 14-string bridge?
Anyone know of a company that could make it?
Anyone ever having done a piece of custom guitar hardware- what were the costs involved?
I realize not many would want a 14-string. This is one guitar I REALLY want tho. I figure splitting cost among 5-10 people would make it "affordable."
NEXT! Gold plating. One of the mods I want involves having gold hardware on my 7-string, and I prefer Edge trems to FR's. No gold Edge-7's tho. I could have sworn EKG had pics of this, maybe you have someone who can do it? The custom guitar I want to do also will have gold hardware, so a new Edge-7 will need to be "improved" as well (hehehehe ).
TIA for this- would be a dream come true if both of these could be done without having to hit Ft Knox. Nikki

[littlegreenman]

Nikki,

How's it going !!!!!

In regards to the gold plated Lo Pro that Eddie has, that's just a standard Lo Pro that he had plated, You can probably get it done at a goldsmith shop or maybe an automotive plater.

As for the 14string bridge,
I don't think it would be to terribly hard to do a 14 string bridge if it was done like an acoustic, with a bone or graphite saddle and do string through body, for that matter, if it was all done as string through body, it wouldn't be hard to get a bridge machined, if you only want one, it will be cheaper to have a machine shop do a one off for you than create a casting and mold pieces. I know a few machine shops up here that could do it easy enough.

Hope that helps

did you ever get those two Jackson style guitars done?

[frankfalbo]

Ibanez had a nice 12-string bridge where the saddles had the main intonation adjustment, and then the "other string" had a mini allen adjustment. That was a perfect bridge. I'm pretty sure Allparts has them. I would get two, steal one of the saddles off one, and keep it as extra parts. Then all you have to do is get a baseplate made. That's a piece of cake for anyone with a sheet metal bender and a drill press. You could carve the baseplate from cocobolo or phenolic or something hard, too.

I've done 9-strings with acoustic type bridges, because I wanted a piezo. That's a great idea, too. But you won't get to use a piezo unless you split it. There aren't any that long I don't think. Unless you can get one from the Ibanez 7-string acoustic. Even then, it might not be long enough with the octaves. I would take two, and cut them to size, and maybe even split the saddles like Takamine does.

I still thing buying two for the extra saddle might be cheaper than dealing with a machinist to reinvent the whole bridge.

[ns9]

Hi! Wow- that is an idea I was thinking about (acoustic style bridge, enabling piezo use), but wasnt sure if it would even work right. Plus, how would I do intonation? One thing I have never done is acoustic guitar setup. Odd. But the piezo would be awesome!
I have been trying to decide on pickups too. My original thought was to get single coil size 7-string pickups, and put 2 next to each other and stagger top-bottom. 2 for bridge, 2 for neck,for flexable sound sculpting. Then, put mini-knob pots in for volume on each pick-up (4 total), and then 2 normal size pots/knobs for master tone/volume. A bit of overkill, but figure it will be the only 14-string I will get a chance to have built.
thx for the input so far! Nikki

[butch]

The bridge that is on the K14 guitar is made by Gotoh, and is based off of their 12 string bridge that Ibanez used on the 540 doublenecks of old (as well as the RT452).

The easiest way to get a bridge set-up for your project would be to do this:

-7 string Tune-o-matic (Les Paul type) brige and tailpiece, both available from www.wdmusicproducts.com.

-Drill 7 holes throuch the body for the octave strings and mount them with ferrules, which also can be purchased through WD. The effect is similar to a few of the new Ibanez models, as well as some Schecter models.

Of course the stock rout becomes irrelevant, but if it is a custom model, this is the easiest way to go. The TOM bridge also gives you the option of adding piezo elements later.

Another thing to consider is the string spacing on a 14-string is EXTREMELY tight. I would recommend trying a 13-string, without a "B" octave. The loss of the octave string is minimal, as the rest of the guitar being doubled EQ's out really nicely. Whichever way you go, good luck.

Cheers,
Butch