Tuffset Bridge

[mekhem]

Really looking forward to this. I have a JM with a mastery installed - because it was the only one i had on hand. This should be a good replacement.

[Deed_Poll]

I think it's time to introduce you all to our Tuffset demo guitar, Sergeant Brown! He stole the hearts of all who played him at The Guitar Show UK on the weekend.



He has Jazzmaster pickups, a 25-½” scale neck, and a similar body and pickguard outline.



But his controls are Jaguar-inspired. With an On/Off switch for each pickup and a Strangle Switch (high pass filter), he’s capable of imitating the glassy cleans and twangy jangle of your favourite black cat (despite being a brown bear at heart!)



We wired the pickup switches so that when they're both switched off, instead of silence you get both pickups in series.

To complement his pickups and fretboard inlays, we decided to mount our Marauder-style rocker switches. He uses these to dazzle and confuse his prey, because the rocker caps essentially invert the ‘On’ and ‘Off’ terminals of the switch when wiring it's safe to say, nobody at the show had a clue what was going on with all the switches, but loved him all the same.

On to the wiggle stick, and this one’s a bit special! It’s the new Panorama vibrato - I thought it was a great opportunity to put the bridge through its paces, and the increased divebomb range demonstrated perfectly what a vintage-style rocking action is capable of, with the right hardware. My only gripe is that we got through three top E strings throughout the weekend - they were breaking at the ball end when pulling the arm up - so I think I'll have to investigate when the dust settles.

The Tuffset Bridge ate it all up for breakfast, and spat it out right in tune (except for the string breakages!)

Sergeant Brown’s allure even attracted some highly technical Floyd Rose players, and it was a spectacle indeed to see (and hear) their incredible antics rendered, with depth and clarity, in the authentic voice of a rocking vibrato action!

All around, it was such a pleasure to meet so many talented and kind people, and a great privilege to hear them make their own beautiful music on this guitar.



It also felt right to build the show guitar around a body I set aside some time ago that features a clear finish - this was the first Thinline with both contours we cut at GuitarForm that uses the current contour and cavity map, and the last one we made with roasted maple. It felt right to bring some Rexter with us!! Cheers Jon

[RominRonin]

It's a beautiful guitar, for sure. What I really like about the Tuffset in these images is how, despite its modern engineering excellence, it still appears like a vintage design. It doesn't look out of place at all.

[JVG]

This story has evolved into a literary extravaganza!

Synopsis of the latest episode:
The new fellow in Offset County, Colonel Tuffset, is introduced to the crowds at the local fair. Ably supported by Sergeant Brown and Mrs Panorama, he entertains all present with his trademark act - a series of manoeuvres balancing high tension wires on his head.
Despite attempts by the dastardly Mr Eestring to sabotage the show, everyone is won over by Colonel Tuffset’s smooth operating style and versatility, not to mention his striking good looks.
After the show, rumours are rife that the Colonel may soon be embarking on a world tour.

[Deed_Poll]

It's a beautiful guitar, for sure. What I really like about the Tuffset in these images is how, despite its modern engineering excellence, it still appears like a vintage design. It doesn't look out of place at all.

Thank you so much dude! That's exactly the balance we were trying to strike - the last thing I wanted was for the thing to distract from the overall scheme of your guitar and compete for attention

This story has evolved into a literary extravaganza!

Synopsis of the latest episode:
The new fellow in Offset County, Colonel Tuffset, is introduced to the crowds at the local fair. Ably supported by Sergeant Brown and Mrs Panorama, he entertains all present with his trademark act - a series of manoeuvres balancing high tension wires on his head.
Despite attempts by the dastardly Mr Eestring to sabotage the show, everyone is won over by Colonel Tuffset’s smooth operating style and versatility, not to mention his striking good looks.
After the show, rumours are rife that the Colonel may soon be embarking on a world tour.

If we ever make a children's Saturday morning marketing cartoon to push sales, you can be screenwriter!

[GreenKnee]

Guitar looks ace! Can't wait to get my hands on one of these bridges.

D'Addario strings by any chance? I find they unwind at the ball end every time unless I solder them/use NYXL which are soldered.
Really annoying issue but I just have to keep using Chromes

[GilmourD]

Sweet jeebus!

On to the wiggle stick, and this one’s a bit special! It’s the new Panorama vibrato - I thought it was a great opportunity to put the bridge through its paces, and the increased divebomb range demonstrated perfectly what a vintage-style rocking action is capable of, with the right hardware. My only gripe is that we got through three top E strings throughout the weekend - they were breaking at the ball end when pulling the arm up - so I think I'll have to investigate when the dust settles.

The Tuffset Bridge ate it all up for breakfast, and spat it out right in tune (except for the string breakages!)

So ya know, balls popping off strings on my offsets is why I switched to D'Addario NYXLs. The balls are reinforced!

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Sergeant Brown looks great!
Love Walnut with Black guards and white plastics. The Blocks are also a fine detail - they just match the rest perfectly.
Interesting choice on the tuners. I haven't seen many F-style builds with those G-style tuners.

Do the Marauder Switches fit in standard Jag switch plates? I just might add a few of these to my order.

I'm really looking forward to try one of those!
How long will the pre-order offer be valid? You wrote something with (up to?) 5 units per pre-order customer? Could they be ordered one at a time (or let's say in two separate orders (for the sake of trying before buying (them all))? or just all at once?

[Deed_Poll]

Thanks for the recommendation guys! You'd think I would have experienced this problem before, but I guess I just never pulled up so hard on a vibrato as I have testing the bridge with this Panorama. It felt to me like perhaps the string anchor plate / lip was snipping the string as it went down, and that perhaps it's a curiosity of the increased range of this vibrato unit that can be adjusted out somehow, but all this talk of soldering string ends more than rings a bell!

Sergeant Brown looks great!
Love Walnut with Black guards and white plastics. The Blocks are also a fine detail - they just match the rest perfectly.
Interesting choice on the tuners. I haven't seen many F-style builds with those G-style tuners.

Do the Marauder Switches fit in standard Jag switch plates? I just might add a few of these to my order.

I'm really looking forward to try one of those!
How long will the pre-order offer be valid? You wrote something with (up to?) 5 units per pre-order customer? Could they be ordered one at a time (or let's say in two separate orders (for the sake of trying before buying (them all))? or just all at once?

Tomorrow's email will have more information, but I can confirm it will be possible to apply the same coupon code to more than one bridge

As for Sergeant Brown, I find transparent dark brown a difficult colour to match a pickguard to sometimes - black is the safest choice really because the wood grain's warmth and contrast is easily overwhelmed by patterned or lighter-coloured materials. I think gold anodised would have looked nice, but I knew I wanted to do the custom switch routing so it had to be something I had to hand and could throw on the CNC.

Speaking of the switches, I'm afraid they're not a straight swap for sliders be ause the buttons are quite a bit bigger - and even though the switches themselves are the same size underneath, they're too wide with the Marauder mounts to even fit on a Jag hex (I've tried before because I also thought that would look cool).

The edge bevel of the pickguard is actually a German carve of sorts, I wanted to broaden the white pinstripe layer so it stands out more from a distance and to echo the neck binding.

And yes, the tuners! They are a bit of fun, a nod to the gibson-ness of the dark wood / black / blocks and binding theme elsewhere. I always liked the tulip heads, and when I saw a little batch of these 6-inline come up on eBay a few years ago I couldn't resist it. Unfortunately, they're the Kluson-branded Klusons rather than the Gotoh Klusons I prefer underneath, so most sets have a couple of rattles if they're not under tension, which I wouldn't want for customers' guitars but doesn't make much difference for a show guitar!

I might try spraying a black peg head one day to contrast the buttons more!

[rank]

I can think of another stained guitar that would look great with a Tuffset!

[rank]

That is beautiful! I can think of another stained guitar that would look great with a Tuffset!

[RominRonin]

The guitar looks very sexy, the pictures are also well taken, which helps.

The ONLY thing I think that could objectively improve it would be chromed pickup covers.

[Shadoweclipse13]

Damn! Sargeant Brown is a hell of a dapper gentleman!! Love it

[GilmourD]

Excitedly awaiting my email with the promo code so I can preorder one.

The hard part is figuring out which guitar this will go on... It may go on my Enterprise Jazzmaster since that's my "high-tech, futuristic" one that currently has a Staytrem arm and bridge, WRHB-style pickups, the Fender Ultra string tree, and a black aluminum guard with the USS Enterprise on it.

[Shadoweclipse13]

Excitedly awaiting my email with the promo code so I can preorder one.

The hard part is figuring out which guitar this will go on... It may go on my Enterprise Jazzmaster since that's my "high-tech, futuristic" one that currently has a Staytrem arm and bridge, WRHB-style pickups, the Fender Ultra string tree, and a black aluminum guard with the USS Enterprise on it.

Me too. Do I throw it on my JM (will likely test it there regardless), keep it for my VI or put in on my Baritone...?