Do roller bridges kill tone?

Lebarque

I've seen this mentioned, but is it true? Why don't Fender have them on Jazzmasters and Jags rather than the floating/rocking affair? Surely a roller would be better?

fretmeister

Didn’t on the Kahler trem I had.

Schnozz

They're essential for a bigsby IMO

ArchtopDave

Fine on my custom made guitar....which has a Bigsby.

OilCityPickups

Schnozz said:

They're essential for a bigsby IMO

Pretty much ... my Gretsch 5220T has a TOM and it seems to be doing more to kill the tone than the beefy roller bridge I fitted to my old white Ibanez AFD75T semi. The stock roller bridges were pretty naff with sticky rollers but I modified the bridge and fitted one I got from Northwest Guitars ... basically a Schaller clone. To me a bridge that works is far more important than wringing the last bit of sustain out of an instrument. I may go the Truarc or Compton route on the Gretsch, but whatever, the TOM has to go.

ICBM

While it may not be the only reason, Leo Fender was a cheapskate and liked simple solutions. Pivoting the whole bridge on the height screws was cheaper than using a more expensive piece of engineering.

I don’t think they affect the tone if there’s enough down-pressure to keep everything tight and stop the rollers vibrating, but opinions differ...

merciful-evans

No. My favourite bridge is a Schaller roller. 

TheMarlin

Schnozz said:

They're essential for a bigsby IMO

Nope. I use sold bar bridges, such as Compton and Tru Arc. Won’t have a roller bridge on a Gretsch. 

Corvus

I've used several Wilkinson-pattern ones that sound fine. Only tone-sucker was a Schaller, not the one above, it was a rectangular lightweight thing with not much meat on it. That came off PDQ.

crunchman

My Gretsch sounds fine with a roller bridge.

OilCityPickups

crunchman said:

My Gretsch sounds fine with a roller bridge.

I have slightly uneasy rumblings about intonation at the thought of fitting a bridge like a Compton or Tru Arc ... as a fixed bridge compensation can't be right for every string gauge one might fit ... I might be wrong of course :-)

Cols

I have roller saddles on my (non-Bigsby) Les Paul, as part of my ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ quest for tuning stability.  It sounds absolutely fine.

Corvus

OilCityPickups said:

crunchman said:

My Gretsch sounds fine with a roller bridge.

I have slightly uneasy rumblings about intonation at the thought of fitting a bridge like a Compton or Tru Arc ... as a fixed bridge compensation can't be right for every string gauge one might fit ... I might be wrong of course :-)

I was exactly the same but Comptons are great. They intonate well and sound good. I fitted one to an Ibby AF75, improved the tone a good bit and helped with the Bigsby (Ibsby?) Drilled out to 6mm to fit the stock posts.

OilCityPickups

Corvus said:

OilCityPickups said:

crunchman said:

My Gretsch sounds fine with a roller bridge.

I have slightly uneasy rumblings about intonation at the thought of fitting a bridge like a Compton or Tru Arc ... as a fixed bridge compensation can't be right for every string gauge one might fit ... I might be wrong of course :-)

I was exactly the same but Comptons are great. They intonate well and sound good. I fitted one to an Ibby AF75, improved the tone a good bit and helped with the Bigsby (Ibsby?) Drilled out to 6mm to fit the stock posts.

The issue with the 5420t is that it's a newer one with a pinned bridge, so you can't easily move the bridge to intonate.

Lebarque

What prompted my question is that I stumbled across this absolute beauty the other day: 
 https://www.vintageandrare.com/product/Rufini-Guitars-Montefalco-Semi-hollow-2019-Magpie-Metallic-74746

I'm in the midst of building a partscaster (jazzmaster) and was going to go traditional, but this has inspired me to think differently. Rather than stumping up for Mastery/Staytrem, I could get a Duesenberg Les Trem II and a roller TOM bridge. It would differentiate it from the usual JM aesthetics too. It's going to Firebird pickups in. Not heard of ABM bridges but assume they're good. Tonepros do a roller too. Only problem is they all seem to be for 12" radius. I'd want one for 9.5.

Corvus

OilCityPickups said:

Corvus said:

OilCityPickups said:

  The issue with the 5420t is that it's a newer one with a pinned bridge, so you can't easily move the bridge to intonate.

Think with those you either replace the studs, chop them, or use a base off the earlier ones. Haven't dealt with one of that type of screw pinning though myself though. Although on one Gretsch with the old trad pinning it did happen to be bob on as-was.. pure luck.. but that type pinning is simpler to dodge.