The Tyger is an amazing multi-scale 7-string designed for multi-purpose use. It can do jazz, pop, rock, and djent metal with ease. It originally sported an ABM bridge with Graph-tech piezo saddles. These worked OK, but after extensive playing, there were some small drawbacks. The piezo volume was lacking and the graphite saddles affected the tone of the Alumitone magnetic pickups in a somewhat negative way. The guitar was designed to be somewhat dark, and with the softer graphite saddles, this made high frequencies even less apparent.
The solution was to upgrade the bridge area to use strat-style saddles and bridge pieces:
- RMC piezo pickups. Richard McClish is a genius regarding piezo elements and has been making pickups for decades in Berkeley, California (also one of my favorite places to visit!). It was a natural choice to use these.
- Individual bridge pieces machined from African Blackwood. These could have been metal, but an all-wood solution was chosen to match the African Blackwood used in the guitar (pickup rings, fretboard). It is also one of the densest woods found in nature.
- String-through-body construction to facilitate string anchoring
The results are a much more consistent and uniform sound from the piezos, with loud volume and low noise. At the same time, intonation can be set similar to a strat or tele without unlocking the saddles as they had to be on the ABM (also difficult due to the screw being obscured by the string). Finally, the harder piezo saddles make for a brighter, crisper tone from the Alumitone DB7 pickups.
Overall, the upgrade and mod on the Tyger made it even better — hence the name Tyger 2.0.
The moral to this story:
- Some of the best solutions involve creativity out of necessity — in the relentless pursuit of perfection
- Not all things from Germany are the best. I guess VW also proved that. 🙂