Rare as White Falcon teeth

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 2:20 pm

I bought a White Falcon a while back from Cooter and have been trying to decide whether to reset the neck. I hesitated until I made sure the setup was correct. Yet I couldn't know for sure because one of the parts was missing. THIS PART. I saw it on ebay with a $165 BIN and it sucked out all the air in the room. It is called a tuning fork bridge. Now I see why.

Based on my searches I thought about using a buzz stop because they appeared to have a similar shape. I had no idea there was an actual tuning fork inside the body. It looks like it could be machined somehow, but one of the cross bars is slightly rounded, and it would need to be gold.

Ebay is funny. I probably always feel slightly lucky when I do a quick, cursory search--not really expecting to find anything, and usually nothing happens. I felt lucky but I simply increased my odds by looking often, albeit in rare and random bursts. Most guitars could be improved with one or two little parts. This part could save a guitar from taking the neck off. I already have another white Falcon corpse I am fixing. (I started working on that one this week as well.) PICS TO FOLLOW.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:07 pm

Looking forward to seeing the new one. I'd love a white falcon.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:50 am

For some reason, I am extremely intrigued.

Mo Law-ka · Post by **Mo Law-ka** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:24 am

Looks cool. I take it that it has the same function as a buzzstop.

What's the tuning fork bit do?

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 5:01 am

It was meant to increase sustain by vibrating sympathetically, but many people found them useless in this regard and even detrimental in others. I guess it would always be the same pitch/frequency no matter what you were doing on the guitar, like an after-hours test pattern or something?

Floating Sound Unit

The Gretsch Floating Sound Unit (AKA Tuning Fork Bridge) was a late '60s bid to accentuate harmonics and increase sustain. A regular bridge was fitted behind the FSU to control string spacing.

Floating Sound Units were wildly unpopular and have often been removed, but no less an authority than Chet Atkins believed that a properly set-up Floating Sound Unit really worked.

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:31 am

That's some funky vintage Gretsch technology. I'm glad you found the rarest piece of the puzzle. If I was you
I think I would buy a lotto ticket today. The odds of winning have to be less than the odds of scoring a bridge
like that.

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:33 pm

Last month I saw a guy was selling his Dad's WF and he had two bridges.

Today I found a cheap wiring harness for my Coronado. I think once I get that and the pickups in, it will be all OG parts.

bigsby'd · Post by **bigsby'd** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:43 pm

Those bridges kind of suck. They were paired with a standard archtop bridge, which most people just slid forward over the tuning fork hole, after they threw their tuning fork bridges out. You don't need one for your guitar....a standard gretsch bridge will work.

avj · Post by **avj** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:39 pm

Where does that actually go on the guitar? I'm having a hard time picturing it, and attempts to locate a proper photo have only resulted in SURPRISE SLAONZ!

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:46 pm

Between the traditional looking bridge and the mute, tuning fork inside the guitar.

avj · Post by **avj** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:56 pm

paul_ wrote:Between the traditional looking bridge and the mute, tuning fork inside the guitar.
► Show Spoiler

Crap, thanks. I can see now that it's on many of the results in my Google image search much earlier than page four, but that's not at all how I pictured it. I see many people have done what bigsby'd has described a few posts up.

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:17 pm

In this case, I think the strings need to drop down lower than they do. We'll see. Regardless of what some hippie in 1974 thought, I am willing to give it a shot.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:45 pm

DGNR8 wrote:Regardless of what some hippie in 1974 thought, I am willing to give it a shot.

And rightly so. No matter how good something is, there's a large group of people somewhere who converge to discuss how much it sucks. Like what you actually like.

It's hard to research things like this on the internet because one forum to the next, general consensus appears wildly different due to genre-based preferences. I went on some drum forums to read about Ludwig Speed Kings where guys were like
"look, I just don't get it, ok? in today's kick pedal market when you're pretty much spoiled for choice, why would you use some flimsy-ass junk?"

What they meant is, "why don't you use one of the 1,000 types of cheap Camco-derrived designs out there or drop a couple hundred bucks on an Axis direct drive or something? Why use a design that's been around unchanged since the '40s that doesn't feel like any of them, especially considering it's really hard to name a metal drummer who uses one?"