I purchased a Superior brand Weissenborn style guitar. Doing some reading on this forum and others, I read that other owners had tweaked their Superiors a bit to get a better instrument.
1. Changing the string spacing width. I have read that others felt that the string spacing width was to wide, however, most of those posts were a few years old. I am not sure if they have changed it. I was curious what the most common string spacing is on a Weissenborn style guitar? Also curious how much work it is to do this modification? What parts would need to be ordered and would it need to be given to a luthier to do the work?
2. I also read some owners had replaced the saddle with a piece of steel. Does anyone have any pictures of this mod and what parts would be needed to do this?
3. Bridge Doctor, (based upon a recommendation from Grizz) curious if anyone has installed it on a Superior?
I am open to any other suggestion and was curious to see what you guys would recommend?
13 Comments |
 | HighWall says:
4/23/2012 9:26:44 AM
I don't know about the Superior, but my Gold Tone Weiss clone didn't have enough clearance for the JLD bridge gizmo. You have to take a serious look at the bracing patterns as well as the depth of the body. Mine is so narrow that I'd have to totally redesign the system and might not have enough leverage when it was all said and done. I can live with some belly on this guitar, I suppose.
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 | Grizz says:
4/23/2012 1:34:10 PM
Hey Richard, I know former RH member Liz Williams put one in her GT but you are right I think she had to make mods. How it affected the leverage I couldn't say. But Casey you can always call those that know best at
JLD Guitar Research & Development
Roswell, NM
1-888-696-1998
1-505-622-3694 - Don Kendall
I also agree a lot of people live with a belly, especially on a lot of vintage guitars. The other thing you could do would be to send it to someone like Doug Henderson and just have him reinforce the top and do whatever else you want or need done. I sent one of my vintage guitars to him. He is an unbelievable luthier/builder and restorer, a real craftsman. He has done many outstanding restorations for the Opry, Museums and Collectors that had instruments wasted in the floods in Tennessee. And his prices are MORE than fair. I wouldn't trust any of my vintage acoustic instruments to anyone else. Just my personal opinion. YMMV
Mike
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| HighWall says:
4/23/2012 3:13:50 PM
Since this particular guitar I'm thinking of is a Gold Tone and was a second at that, I don't really want to spend that much money on it. I thought if I could make the Bridge Doctor work in my own shop, then I'd give it a go. No such luck for me. I might give them a call and discuss, however. Thanks for the info.
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 | Gitman44 says:
4/23/2012 4:54:12 PM
Hi Casey,
Welcome to the Weissenborn Players group. It's a fun group to be part of...
OK, let me see if I can help answer your questions. Keep in mind that I've never seen a Superior Weissenborn in person, so I'll do my best. I have a Gold Tone Style 4 blackwood Weissenborn, which I'll use for measurements and the basis for my inputs...
1.) According to what I could find, the string spacing on your Superior Weissenborn is 2" wide between the 1st and 6th string at the nut. That is pretty wide... I measured my Gold Tone and the spacing is 1 11/16" between the 1st and 6th string. Janet Davis Music (janetdavismusic.com) sells an unslotted (BN-18) or slotted (BNS-19) Dobro nut that may work. It's 2" wide and 3/16" thick. It may be a bit too tall, but if you're handy with tools you can cut it down yourself. I put one on mine without too much work.
2.) I couldn't tell what the saddle is made of on your Superior. My Gold Tone had an aluminium 3/32" rod, which is what original Weissenborns had. I went to a local hobby shop and bought a 1/8" thick stainless steel rod, which I cut to length and installed (it sits in the saddle slot). I didn't notice much difference in sound from the aluminum,, other than a bit more sustain. It's a cheap mod and easy to do, and I think, worth a try..
3.) You mention the JLD Bridge Doctor. Is the top of your Weissenborn bowing up? The standard Bridge Doctor is too tall to fit in your Superior without modification. They work great if you can get it to fit, however you'd need to cut the height quite a bit. If the bowing is not major, I'd suggest switching to Newtone "Aloha" Hawaiian Guitar styrings. The strings have a lighter round core, which have a lower string tension than regular strings. I use them and I love how they sound, and you can tell there's a lot less string tension. This will help prevent additional top bowing. They're available from juststrings.com.
Well, I hope I've helped answer you questions. Good luck and stay in touch..
Andy Fekete (aka Gitman44)
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 | resorick says:
4/23/2012 6:15:36 PM
I bought one of the Deep Body Imperial guitars and it is probably a lot different than yours, it has a 5 1/2" deep body, a brass saddle, and the string spacing is the same as my Scheerhorn Reso so all I did was replace the tuners and the bridge pins and I have the guitar I wanted.I'm having no issues with bellying,the guitar is put together well.I have played the Superior and found it to be a very nice affordable weissie,good tone and playability, though the string height above the fretboard was an issue for me. I like 'em stratospheric,I'm so used to playing the 'Horn, and the lower action has me banging the fretboard with the bar.
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 | jmb3450 says:
4/25/2012 6:59:34 AM
I remember that Liz had to make some modifications to the bridge doctor to be able to install it in her Gold Tone. As I recall she had to cut a part a little shorter than it was supplied, sorry I can't be more specific than that, but I do remember that she said it wasn't any huge deal and that it improved the tone of the Gold Tone weiss and flattened out the belly, I've got an SM model, the top is bellying up some....I don't know what degree of bellying would be considered "normal", I don't think mine is excessive. I am keeping an eye on it, if it becomes a concern I'll order a bridge doctor for it and make the needed modifications to fit, they're a pretty inexpensive fix.
Jim
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 | jacknj says:
4/26/2012 11:50:38 AM
I'm presently working on making my own version of the JLD Bridge Doctor and am going to put it in my import Weissie. It's going to be a challenge because of the shallow body depth, but at least I can dimension it from scratch. I couldn't find plastic threaded inserts for the screws as the JLD seems to use, so I'm using metal inserts.
Looking forward to completion so I can try the heavier set of strings which will hopefully enhance the overall volume and tone.
Jack
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| jmb3450 says:
4/27/2012 4:37:14 AM
Jack, the only thing about my Gold Tone I'm not really happy with is the tone on the first string. Right now I've got a .013 on it. They supposedly come supplied with .014; I'm placing and order for some new strings and I'm going to try .015 for the first string, the others I'll keep at factory recommendations. Overall string tension might be slightly over the recommended limit so I'll keep a close watch on how that affects the top, any sign at all of more stress and I'll immediately go with a bridge doctor.
I do tend to play the instrument a little too hard, it takes a lighter touch than my reso for the best tone and I have to remember to play less aggressively with my right hand, especially when the bar's high up on the neck.
Jim
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| jacknj says:
4/28/2012 7:04:24 AM
Jim, I agree that the lighter gauge strings, especially the first string, leave the overall tone somewhat lacking. I had a .014 on my first, .016 on the second, and the rest was the Daddario EJ42's. There was definitely some pulling up at the bridge which prompted me to want to do the bridge reinforcement. I thought the guitar could handle the tension as it was, but why take a chance, and the reinforcement will handle a heavier set of strings. On the same subject, another member, Slidennis, has his Gold Tone crack behind the bridge and I don't think he was using a particularly heavy string set.
Nice job on your recent song - loved the tone.
Jack
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| jmb3450 says:
4/30/2012 4:56:49 AM
Jack - my Gold Tone has a small crack behind the bridge, I'm not sure if it's just a finish crack or not as it's on a different line from the grain pattern, but there's definitely some weakness there. The belley isn't bad but I realize I'd be foolish to take chances with it so I'm going to go ahead and get the bridge doctor and put it in before I beef up the string gauge. I'll take some pictures of the modifications and installation once I've done it. Hopefully doing that and using heavier strings will get me closer to the tone I'm looking for.
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| jacknj says:
4/30/2012 2:54:29 PM
Jim - we can compare notes (no pun intended) when we've finished the installs.
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| HighWall says:
4/30/2012 3:55:13 PM
I would love to see how you guys progress with this. I couldn't see any way to cram one of those truss systems into my GT WSM, especially since there appears to be a brace right beneath the bridge, taking up even more clearance. I did get far enough to pull off the strings and remove the pins in order to replace them with the brass gizmos supplied with the bridge doctor kit. The holes drilled to accept the strings seemed very very small and, although the string would enter the hole, the winding for the ball would hang up. I don't know how others handle this issue, but the more expensive version of the BD with the brass pin replacements got good reviews when I was doing my research.
I probably ought to just call the Bridge Doctor people and see what they suggest for this particular application. I ordered mine from StewMac and when I learned how difficult this application seemed to be, I bagged it back up and moved on to other projects. To be frank, I've been playing mandolin more and more lately and have somewhat moved away from resos. Just not enough time for a second instrument, although I do plan to return. In fact, I'm looking for a tenor reso guitar I can tune Irish style (GDAE) like an octave mandolin.
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| jacknj says:
4/30/2012 4:21:50 PM
Richard:
I think there's a tenor reso on Ebay now.
Jack
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