Tailed bridge guitar – Tailed bridge guitar is a term I use for guitars with an extended tailpiece for the strings. Examples are the Fender Jaguar, Fender Jazzmaster or my Springtime Guitar and Twister Guitar.

The typical thing on these guitars is the occuring string resonance at certain fret positions, causing a gentle bell like tone. The phenomenon is more clearly audiable when the amp is driven loudly. I first got struck by the sound coming from the behind the bridge area when I heard the The Cure song Siamese Twins on Pornography. The intro of that track is a clear example of the bell like overtones. Later on I discovered Sonic Youth who not only play tailed bridge guitars, but also modified their guitars and played with drumsticks and screwdrivers underneath the strings. This technique is somewhat similar and I call that third bridge. So a tailed bridge guitar is a third bridge guitar with an unmovable third bridge. ‘Playing third bridge’ means you make use of the two separate string field sections and struck one side while the other is amplified. If you play behind the bridge on a tailed bridge guitar, that’s playing third bridge. The technique with the screwdriver causes deeper and more beautiful overtoning sounds you can’t achieve with a regular Jazzmaster. On my a Twister Guitar however the tailed section is improved and more close to the typical Sonic Youth’s Confusion is Sex sound. So you don’t have to modify your guitar and can still play the fretboard with it and chop your regular chords.

Playing tip

A funny trick not many people know is to mute the amplified string part and struck the behind the bridge area. If you let go the muted string it comes up, causing a sound remniscent of an inverse recorded sound. So press a fret with your pointing finger, mute it with the middle finger, struck the opposed part and unmute the string. Than go to another fret repeat it and built your own odd melody in a neat atmosphere.

I make guitars with pickups put in this section with a separate output.

This create a very beautifull weird sound, very acoustic almost. John Schmersal of Enon and Mauro Pawlowski of dEUS own these copies. Mauro a Springtime Guitar, John a Twister Guitar. The Burner Harp Guitar of Finn Andrews of The Veils also has such a modification.

Other brands have also made tailed bridge guitars. Teisco is a famous example and pretty good working.

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