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Bridges: Scorpion 3/4"

Submitted by Tom Hanway on 4/30/2009

Where Purchased: Directly from Silvio Ferretti

Overall Comments

I have now tried this bridge on my two Stellings, and it's stellar. I had reviewed it on 11/13/08, first trying it on the Whitestar. Let's rewind the history:

I asked Silvio to make me a Scorpion (custom) bridge - something bright with a 14" radius for my Stelling SwallowTail, which has a 14" radiused fretboard. I had a country recording session to do, and knew that the head on the SwallowTail was too stretched out and past its use-by date. So I had to try out the new bridge on my old Stelling Whitestar. The gentle radius wouldn't matter, I hoped, and it didn't. Well, I put on the bridge, intonated the instrument and was laying down tracks within minutes. My Whitestar never sounded so even, so loud, so full, so bright, and so alpine crisp. Silvio uses more ebony across the top than most bridge manufacturers, yet the feet are razor thin and efficiently transfer the sound to the head - no dullness whatsoever, and the bass response is fantastic. This is the best bridge I have ever used, great for bluegrass and for snappy Irish playing. It's an elegant looking bridge as well. It's the "Leonardo" of bridge designs, for sure. Classy!

Yesterday (04/28/09) I put a new head on the original Tom Hanway SwallowTail Deluxe, and so I moved the custom Scorpion over to that banjo, set up the instrument, intonated and tuned it, and then let her rip. The result was a balanced sound and the loudest and brightest I've ever gotten my SwallowTail to sound. It's perfect, still warm, the way I like it, sweet, and the tone up the neck is great for those old honky tonk piano lines. It's working for me for bluegrass, honky-tonk piano sounds, and Irish applications. I couldn't be happier.

I'm ordering another just like it for the Whitestar!

Overall Rating: 10