Tuffset Fixie! Everything you need to know

Tuffset

Hello all! I’ve been meaning to make a post back here for a while, but with recent imgur issues and stuff, something has always gotten in the way. Maybe some of you have been following on Instagram, or perhaps I saw a few of you at the Woking Boutique Guitar Show!

The TLDR: Fixie pre-order is now open, and if you didn’t get an email then send me a PM for your Fretboard members’discount code you have until Thursday to redeem the coupon for £20 off.

Both Fixie variants with boxes & bits

The Tuffset Fixie is the fixed-post, low-friction saddle version of the Tuffset Bridge. I will assume if you are reading this, you know what that is - but in case you don’t, the original Tuffset post from OSG is here: 

https://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=126191

And the original post on FB forum is here:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/257704/tuffset-bridge/p1

Fixers and Rockers

I have always understood there are two camps of people when it comes to Offset bridges - the Fixed-Post/Low-Friction Saddle people, and the Rocking-Post/High-Friction Saddle people. Let’s call them Fixers and Rockers.

I’ve personally always been a Rocker. From the moment I played my first offset in the shop (a sunburst MIJ Jag) I knew there was something special about it. That’s why the Tuffset Original is the way it is.

But Fixers also exist, and they do have a point - fixing the posts does have its advantages. It was also not lost on me that in our patented saddle locking system, we theoretically had the tech to make an optimal fixed-post bridge with zero slop, 100% contact and full adjustment. So the fixers convinced me to investigate this!

Tuffset Fixie, Black Ice Saddles

Design Scope

I knew I’d have to redesign not just the posts and saddles, but the chassis also. This would allow me to make some improvements to the shape to suit the Fixer playing style. It would use a completely different system of height adjustment and locking to the rocking Tuffset Original.

I was also determined to improve upon existing “fixed”-post bridges, none of which actually fix into the body at all (and some of which rock a small distance before hitting the thimble wall every time you use the vibrato).

I didn’t want to subject the Fixers to removing their thimbles - I know what a pain it can be with lacquer cracking and all the rest of it. So I needed to mount into two smooth metal cylinders in the body; to grip in, to be adjusted from with the posts; and for that adjustment to be locked. That was the brief.

Tuffset

The Core Clamps

There is some variance in the precise internal diameter of thimbles (perhaps why other “fixed” bridges can wobble), but unlike outer diameters, they are generally in a similar ballpark - so a custom expanding bolt system seemed the logical path.

The sleeve of the bolt I made from brass, as it is a bit softer than steel.  I would rather they suffer wear than the thimbles of a vintage guitar. 

We later discovered that certain MIM models have a much smaller interior diameter, and we would need a smaller replaceable set of sleeves to fit it. They are included with every Fixie bridge and there’s a page in the manual that shows you how to swap them over.

Detail of the "Core Clamps", the expanding bolt that locks into your guitar and underpins the Fixie's posts

As the bolt tightens, it expands in two rings - one at the bottom, and one just under the rim. This makes it inherently stable - as it tightens up, it will straighten.

It works brilliantly. You’d think “solid is solid”, but you will be amazed at how immovable the Fixie is under the palm. You can hear the difference, too.

As an aside, if you’re scratch building you don’t even need thimbles - the ‘Core Clamps’ can each be tightened straight into an 8mm diameter hole drilled in the body, and you don’t even need to be accurate for reasons I shall explain later.

Chassis

The chassis was the next area for redevelopment, and I remembered Grant Nicholas from Feeder had made some great suggestions about the shape of the chassis / shoulders when I met him on tour in Amsterdam, so I had plenty of inspiration to draw upon.

Typical Grant Nicholas behaviour

The needs of high-energy performers like Grant have been at the front of my mind writing the Fixie brief. Playing harder places different demands on the bridge and the whole instrument, and I think a lot of fixers prefer this type of bridge because it offers certain assurances when playing live. If you’re knocking a rocking bridge off axis over the course of a set, your palm is getting mashed pretty hard repeatedly against the bridge. So I broadened out the edge chamfers quite considerably, and lowered the shoulder profile.

The profile of the whole bridge was an important consideration. Due to all the different operations that had to happen along the post’s axis, it wouldn’t adjust and lock the same way as a Tuffset Original post - so instead of locking from inside, it had to lock from the outside, and this would require a nut.

The slimmest M4 nut is 2.2mm thick. That sounds really small, but in this context, it’s massive. I always optimise my designs to keep as much adjustment as possible, and 2.2mm slapped onto the minimum height was not acceptable - I hate the idea of forcing a customer to shim their neck!  And you see too many Offsets in the wild already with high action and the bridge’s belly scraping along the pickguard.

So I had to reclaim the height elsewhere, and the chassis was already in for redesign - we could mill almost 1mm from the whole underside, and even though this would reveal the “heads” of the locking retainers, those were not in direct conflict with the nut. It also wouldn’t substantially change the appearance of the bridge , because there was already a comparably sized chamfer all around the underside edge on the Tuffset Original.

Tuffset Fixie and Tuffset Original in profile. You can see how we skimmed off 1mm from the underside to economise the packaging, resulting in a lower minimum height

The area directly above the nut was pocketed out further so the nut fits in, with just enough poking out for it to be tightened with a custom-made spanner less than 1mm thick (provided) if it’s in the minimum position. 

The bridge is capable of more than 10mm of height adjustment from there. Thanks to the locking, even at its maximum height it is not wobbly or unstable in any way - better to have 2 threads locked than 20 threads left loose!

You turn the post clockwise to lower, or counter-clockwise to raise. That’s the opposite of the Tuffset Original, whose inner-posts thread into the outer-posts. The Fixie’s posts screw into the Core Clamp in the body, and the bridge chassis rests on top - and this gave us some flexibility with the mating point between the posts and the chassis on the Fixie.

I knew I would want to use the same chassis for any fixed-post bridges we might want to make in future (Fix-O-Matic, anyone?) and here was the perfect opportunity to future-proof the design. I discovered I could lozenge-out between the widest and narrowest potential post spacings and cover TOM/AOM as well as Offset spacing. As an added bonus, this would let you fine-adjust the bridge’s left-right alignment when fitting the Fixie - very handy when the strings are riding a bit close to the fretboard edge. 

It all adds up to an extremely versatile and compact system, with small minimum size but plenty of scope to expand and lock.

Tuffset

The Saddles

Of course, we couldn’t just change to a fixed-post design and retain the same saddles that are instrumental to the class-leading tuning stability of the Tuffset Original. 

The same high-friction saddles that keep a rocking bridge in tune would be disastrous on a fixed-post design, causing pops and creaks and a world of tuning problems.

The new fixed-post context demanded a low-friction solution for the saddles - and we met this challenge with a combination of materials technology and design.

Wide ranging adjustment of our patented saddle locking system - no springs, and not a single screw left loose

For all that these are advanced and high-performance materials, our greatest asset when it comes to the saddles is, as always, our patented system of adjustment and locking that will ensure these saddles are kept locked in position with no slop and no chance of becoming misaligned by vibrato use!

Coating

Basic or “Hard” Chrome plating wasn’t going to cut it. 

Microfractures in electroplated hard chrome

Electrolysed hard chrome is replete with micro-cracks that compromise the surface integrity. I’ve seen too many string slots worn through and gouged out, even on expensive aftermarket fixed-post bridges, to go there. Once that starts to happen, it’s game over.

The electroplating process also uses toxic acids and heavy metals like hexavalent chromium, which bring a significant cost to health and the environment. 

No, our ‘Chrome Frost’ finish is Chromium Nitride - applied via physical vapor deposition (PVD), a state-of-the-art process that involves vaporizing chromium and reacting it with nitrogen in a vacuum. It’s used for the slides, barrels and frames of modern firearms to improve their durability, hardness, and corrosion resistance - and in a whole range of demanding aerospace, automotive and medical applications.

Fixie with "Chrome Frost" saddle coating (PVD Chromium Nitride)

Compared to Electroplated Hard Chrome, PVD Chromium Nitride:

• Is more than twice as hard

• Has a lower coefficient of friction

• Can be applied 90% thinner

• Uses a more modern and controlled process that reduces waste and produces lower emissions

• Has a slightly darker gray colour

Is more expensive

If you want to retain a chromey, vintage-inspired theme for your instrument, our Chromium finish is the logical choice. It makes the perfect compromise - an appearance that does not stand out from the instrument, but with fundamentals that outgun its competition in every measurable way. We expect it to be very popular.

But even the perfect compromise is, still, a compromise. 

So we bring you: Black Ice. The new frontier in low-friction saddle design.

Our new Black Ice saddles come with a state-of-the-art carbon-based coating. It is applied using the same PVD process as the Chromium finish, so it comes with many of the same advantages versus Electroplated Hard Chrome. But this time, it takes those advantages to the next level.

This is not your grandma’s graphite pencil! Black Ice has one quarter the friction coefficient of chrome plating and five times the hardness - so you can forget about the strings wearing through and gouging out your string slots.

Fixie with "Black Ice" saddle coating (PVD Diamond-Like Carbon)

Compared to Electroplated Hard Chrome, Black Ice:

• Is five times as hard

• Has a 75% reduction in friction

• Can be applied 98% thinner

• Uses a more modern and controlled process that reduces waste and produces lower emissions

• Has a deep black colour

• Is more expensive

It’s as close as you can get to a roller saddle with no loose moving parts. That’s the only way I can describe it.

This stuff is the real deal, used in aerospace bearings, scratch resistant luxury chronometers, machine tools and even medical implants like hip and knee joints. It combines the hardness of SP-3 diamond bonds with the flexibility of amorphous carbon for an ultra-thin, super-slick yet virtually invincible surface that your strings will barely notice.

Black Ice is the perfection of the low-friction saddle.

Of course, its appearance is not strictly vintage-correct. It draws a lot more attention to itself on an otherwise vintage-themed instrument, though you may find that switching out a few knobs or pickup covers can help bring it into an attractive scheme.

However, if you use the vibrato a lot but otherwise want your guitar to sound, respond and behave like a hardtail, there is no better bridge on this earth than a Black Ice Fixie to make that happen.

Tuffset

Saddle Geometry

Here’s where we get into the nitty gritty. 

It’s a myth that low-friction saddles require an oversized U-shaped string slot - in fact, any lateral looseness will only contribute to fizzing and rattling, and will limit the headroom (energy you can put into the string by picking). 

A V-groove is still optimal for locating the string laterally, and so long as the angle is sufficient to prevent cross-talk, it does not grab the string or result in any more friction than a U-shape. It will also naturally accommodate a wide range of string gauges, whereas a U-shape will only perform optimally with a very specific string gauge.

The Tuffset Original’s high-friction saddles have string slots milled at 60°, to grip the string and drive the precise rocking action. The Tuffset Fixie opens up this angle to 90°. 

The string passage has become lower and wider, and is now compatible even with the massive low E strings of heavy Bass VI sets straight out of the box - and we’re even using custom small-headed locking screws to make way for the wider string slot. 

In fact, of over a dozen unique components that make up the Tuffset Original bridge, just three are retained in the Tuffset Fixie’s design.

Fixie demo guitar, RedRum

How does it sound?

Fixed-post bridges are already known for letting you hear more of the body wood, increasing sustain and transforming the character of your instrument to something a bit fuller, fatter and thicker than the traditional floating bridge design allows - something a bit more hardtail-coded.

But until you’ve tried the Fixie, you don’t know the half of it.

The Tuffset Fixie’s CoreClamp system takes this character and supercharges it - providing a chunky low end, muscular midrange and lively harmonics that jump off the fretboard.

Playing the prototypes, I've discovered how it was the Fixie was able to dial in more of the Offset character than other fixed-post bridges - its completely locked, rigid structure does not depend on downward pressure so it can be set lower and with a break angle so shallow it would give any other bridge serious problems with rattling and instability. But the Fixie is just entering its sweet spot.

For a Rocker like me, this is where the offset character lacking in other fixed-post bridges starts to shine through  - and it’s also where you get the best out of the new low-friction saddle coatings. A shallower angle means lower friction, and Black Ice already has around ¼ the friction coefficient of Hard Chrome.

This all adds up to something totally new and very different from any fixed-post I've played before.

If you’re in the hardtail camp, shim the neck and raise up the bridge and you’re in a different universe. The punch, sustain and ability to drive an amplifier would convince you you’re playing a vintage LP Junior - albeit one with a whammy bar that works and returns to tune!

I don't think I covered everything, so if you have any specific questions about the Fixie then please do ask below and I'll do my best to answer them. Cheers and all the best!!

Dan

stickyfiddle

I love this sort of attention to detail

This looks an awesome bit of kit and I can’t wait to get mine

WezV

That is a brilliant description.

damm73

I had already pre-ordered but even more excited to recieve it now after reading this. Look out for a Tuffset original listing in the classifieds. 

normula1

I don't have / even like (the look of) offsets but love the engineering here.

Philly_Q

I've never owned a Jag or JM and probably never will, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading that.  Such attention to detail is commendable.

Tuffset

Thank you all so much for your kind comments! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I couldn't be doing this at all without the support of people like you on forums like this, and it is very much appreciated. For those of you on the pre-order, I hope you'll post about them when they arrive and tag me, because I can't wait to know what everyone thinks of them!

Cheers,

Dan