The Chetboard

I've been reading with interest the posts about Chet's bar bridge. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Les Paul.

Les was using bar bridges on his souped up electrics in the 1940's. Les' design is the same idea as Chet's: round metal bar (probably brass or steel, for sustain), drilled for set screws, mounted to a bridge base. If you have Russ Cochran's Les Paul book, you can see these very plainly. As you may remember, the first Gibson Les Pauls had a version of the bar bridge/trapeze tailpiece- with the strings under the bridge. Les said that was a mistake on the first run, which he had Gibson correct.

So, I believe Chet got the idea from Les, although I've never read it, or heard Chet or Paul say so. But, it makes sense to me.

Re the bridge on the D'Angelico- To me, it just looks like a standard aluminum bridge, maybe a Bigsby- but not a bar bridge. Up close, you can see where Chet filed on the first three slots, to improve the intonation. (Remember what sweet intonation the D'A had?) The base looks like it's aluminum too, painted brown to look like wood. Again, it makes sense: stock bridge, filed to improve intonation, base painted to look like wood so it doesn't look strange, with aluminum (or brass) nut on the other end= sustain. There are some good photos in the HOF book where you can see this. (You can even see where some of the brown paint has chipped off of the bridge base.)

I do think that Chet came up with the idea for fixing the bridges so they would rock- I've read/heard him and Paul say so.

Craig

Duh!

I Have the HOF book. I'll give it a look

As for Les Paul's bridge... that's a toughie. Still, it wouldn't be hard for anyone, even today to go to a machinist and say, "Hey, Bert... can you take a piece of stock and make me something like this?"

Most would jump at it. People like to be able to show off their skills.

It would be nice to know for sure how the gretsch version came about though. I don't think they asked Les.

Come to think of it, it could have been Jimmie Webster's idea. Chet may have said something about it and Jimmie just had some samples made. They aren't rocket science.

I don't think Gretsch asked Les either.

But, I do think that Chet may well have gotten the idea for the bar from Les. We do know that he got the idea for the zero fret from Django's guitar, and switched from the Vibrola to the Bigsby because Merle used one- they were his heroes.

As you said, Chet may have mentioned it to Jimmie Webster- that was his department.

I just posted at gretschpages that if there had been photos of The Log available Chet could have said 'make me that'.
Webster was always patenting gadgets so he could make an extra buck. This would have been right up his alley.

For those of you who don't have the HOF book, here's an interesting configuration of the original CGP.

Note the Bigsby handle tip and particularly what looks like early/prototype Filter-Tron in full metal case

Enlarge the photo and look closer, Norm. I think it's a prototype filtertron in a DeArmond case, just like the neck pickup, except that the plastic top plate is dark rather than the white or grey of the neck pickup.

Norm,
I vote with Bill on this one.

Me too, now.

a guy at Gretschpages said the same thing.

Busy guitar!